Direction of the Club a debate

The words “plan” and “strategy” are words our fans have become fixated with. Some want us to invest in youth, some want a complete change in ownership and others including myself have suggested a scouting network and yet the truth is none of it matters if you have a manager who knows what he’s doing.

What was our plan/strategy under Parkinson out of interest? Nothing apart from a manager who knew how to assemble a back room team and could spot a decent player.

 

It's worth listening to the Hard Truth podcast.

Darragh MacAnthony shares his philosophy. He bought club for a £1 and sold half his stake, valuing the club at over £10m. They're moving to a £50m stadium, bought their ground back that they were renting, and have £25m of players on their books.

The podcast is co-hosted by Philip Ideson who is a City fan so you get quite a lot of City stories cropping up. I'd love to have the club run based upon his principles. Here's the podcast link; https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/hard-truth-inside-football-industry-darragh-macanthony/id1503576021

 

And there in lays the problem....

The only real communication, we the fans get is the £150 season ticket campaign and the 3 kits. No messages of building for the future, be that investment in youth, buying a ground or the ground any behind the scenes investment, etc. etc.

Maybe they've learnt the hard way about over promising (5 years to the premiership with the cheapest season tickets to boot) only to see their words thrown back at them.

I certainly feel a disconnect with the club that wasn't there under the Rhodes, Lawn, Mason and Parky era.

Individually they all received a fair amount of criticism, but as a team you couldn't really fault them. They all had their individual strengths and weaknesses but came together and delivered unprecedented success both on and off the field.

We need to get the backroom sorted if we've any hope of success on the pitch.

 

I already subscribe to it, listened to them all. One of the better podcasts out there, always a good listen.

 

That was the plan, employing a manager who wanted full control of first team matters and transfers, part of which was all monies available to go to first team strengthening. To be fair it worked with a year on year improvement and a club operating in the black. Only problem ahead with this was the fixation with operating in the black.
Parkinson would have needed extra funds to push for promotion and because our best players were now loans we had no high end saleable assets, essential if your plan is to wipe the books clean every season. Plus we'd have, by the law of averages, more than our fair share of cup runs. Your lucky if a manager has one half decent one to fill the coffers, Parky had two belters. So chances are that avenue had dried up which hindsight shows was the truth.

 

Supporters talk about the Rhodes, Lawn era with misty eyes as if it was all wonderful. Lawn joined Rhodes in 2007 and we had years of mediocrity leading to that dreadful summer of 2011 when we talked of moving to Odsal, had Jacko as manager, had a charlatan Archie Christie as some sort of director of football and lost our first two home games to the giants of Aldershot and Dagenham. Fortunately we cut our losses, brought in Parkinson and after another battle against relegation he turned it round with a great summer of recruiting in 2012. We were then fortunate to have amazing cup runs which mades Rhodes and Lawn almost visionary’s in the eyes of supporters which they were far from that.

 

Yes and many were ecstatic when they sold to Rack & Ruin we now find ourselves back in the basement league, many convinced certain members on here were doing their best to stir sh1t when trying to out Rahic.
Give me those heady days of promotions, season on season improvement and of course those great memories if beating the likes of Arsenal, Villa, Wigan, Chelsea,Leeds and being the first league 2 club to make a major Final at Wembley.
I get your point but if nothing else they made it quite clear what the situation was with regards backing the manager, and gave the Bradford and outlying areas cheap football at the same time, I'd take those days to our present situation where you hear nothing from the club bar Rupp will try his best to back us and get us back to wherewe were before these guys came to town.

 

It’s all about getting the right manager Dave and fortunately they did that with bringing in Phil Parkinson. Will McCall turn us round? I think he just might by bringing in younger more enthusiastic players than the bunch we’ve had in the last 2 years.

 

The appointment of a new manager is always a gamble mate as we know even Phil's CV had a few blemishes on it but he was the right fit for the club at the time.
You can count on two hands managers who have brought the club sucsess during our time.
No guarentees in football even when clubs have Directors of Football at the clubs, Manchester United being the best example, Sir Alex possibly being the best manager in the world during his time at United.

 

'Project Big Picture' would probably give Rupp even less reason to sell. The salary cap keeps player costs low, and there's a chance of more money flowing down the leagues from the PL. Through sheer chance, we could actually end up being a profitable business for him.

 

Do you realise without a viable alternative that would leave us very much in the sh_t

 

That plan no longer exists

 

You can guarantee that if we’d had Toney and sold him, the forum would be full of people criticising the club saying “we lack ambition by selling our best assets”.

 

My opinion. My entitlement.

Im not advocating for SR just to leave us, without new owners in place. Nothing against Rupp the man.

Rupp out.

 

They dropped that one quietly haha

 

As good as parky was and you can’t knock him he relied heavily on the market being open all the time mainly for us. Our squad was always good quality but very small. If we got an injury we got short term players in to fill the gap.
Not knocking it but wonder if he would have as much success here under this newish transfer window model

 

The PL redistribution for the current premier league clubs means that the rest of the prem only get another million quid a season more based on this seasons media income. But with that they lose all voting rights forever. If it’s passed and they accept it that are clueless

 

Fair point. Although, if Rupp's current valuation is seen as inflated, I'd have to assume he'll only increase his own valuation of the club. Either way, given he has little apparent interest in us, if he can get a decent return then you might be right - hopefully he'll cash in his chips.

 

You don’t have to put “my opinion, my entitlement”, we know this - it’s an open forum.

I’ve nothing against Rupp the man either but I personally don’t see why there is a rush to get him out at the moment - as I understand it he’s been very good with us since Rahic left, and as a result of the pandemic, by filling in some large financial holes.