Most liked posts in thread: Do you trust the decision making of the leadership/ownership?

Going by the logic of comparing everything to the worst case, we'd be stuck in a never-ending loop of mediocrity. The standard we'd be content with would always hover just a notch above rock bottom. It's like telling Scunthorpe, 'Hey, at least you haven't pulled a Bury... yet.' You could essentially have us mirror Scunthorpe's downfall and as long as the relative divisional gap between the clubs was maintained then you could always say, "Well, at least we aren't Scunthorpe".

We're far from 'paradise'. If we were to tumble down to the National League, would some still say we're living large because we haven't hit NLN? And if we're teetering on the edge of the relegation zone, would the consolation be"Well, at least we're still in League 2 unlike _____"? Even if relegation did hit us, would the next comfort be "At least the club's still standing"? How far down do we have to slide before we say enough is enough? Must we hit absolute rock bottom before we voice our concerns about how the club's being managed?

If we consistently measure the severity or importance of an issue by comparing it to the worst-case scenario, we inadvertently set a very low bar for improvement and satisfaction.

Imagine if every time someone pointed out a flaw or an area of improvement, the response was, "Well, at least it's not as bad as [worst possible scenario]". There'd be no innovation, no proactive problem-solving, and it'd perpetuate mediocrity (where we are at ironically). Over time, the standard for what is considered "acceptable" or "good enough" would gravitate towards being just slightly better than the absolute worst.

Apologies if it sounds like a lecture but it's a really poor mindset.

 

Gaz I respect your views, I’m not happy with this crap but your blaming the wrong person. Rupp didn’t say let’s go 5 at the back and bore everyone to death. Just pointing out that there are some right villains out there owning football clubs. I certainly am not one of those people who say because we have been a lower league club in our past we should accept that. Indeed I was arguing with someone on Facebook at the weekend who had that view. I pointed out we spent 13 years from 1985 till 2004 in the top two divisions and financial meltdown in 2002 changed all that. You’ve got totally the wrong impression of me,I am certainly not a happy clapper but nor will I slag of Ryan Sparks who has made management choices most agreed with at the time but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

 

Looking back at the posts from 5 years ago (on the GA thread) and we’ve learnt nothing. No identifiable pattern of play throughout the club with each new manager introducing a different style to the last. I cringe at some of the posts I liked, some mocking the OP’s ideas, but 20/20 vision is a wonderful thing. Having said that, we now have 5 years hard evidence that changing the band members but keeping the conductor still produces the same tune only sounding worse over time. It’s the top of the tree that needs shaking because until we have someone or a consortium of investors, who wants to see Bradford City challenging clubs in the championship and above, we’ll prolong the stagnation of this great club for the next 5 years. At what point do we say enough is enough?

If Rupp is covering the costs to get rid of managers, shouldn’t he be questioning why Sparks has got it wrong time and time again? Or maybe he doesn’t cover the cost and it all comes out of the money raised by Sparks so it’s not hitting Rupp but hitting the playing budget, which would explain the level of quality we’ve seen during the summer campaign. Can’t have been cheap to get rid of both Adams and Hughes, but if Rupp isn’t affected then why should he worry?

 

I trust Sparks to do a good job in raising money for the club, I trust Rupp in covering the extra costs that Hughes' ever expanding squad must be costing, but do I trust either of them in appointing a new manager ? No, never. Rahic may have been the poison but since we sacked Stuart (the second time) we seem to have lost the second brain cell required to rub two together, and Social Media Boy is a big part behind that.

That said, the Chuckle Brother's got it wrong far too many times before Parky walked in the door, in many ways - Archie Christie, Peter Jackson, Peter Taylor, David Weatherall, (sacking) Colin Todd when they did, perhaps not giving Colin Cooper a chance. Rhodes continued to get it wrong after Rahic buggered off.

My perfect scenario, given we are stuck with an absentee owner, would be to entice Dave Baldwin back as MD, side swipe Sparks back to commercial activity and get some real football brains back in the building. Some would say James Mason instead of Baldwin, but I believe he got it very lucky being CEO with Parkinson in charge and is more suited to what he is doing now.

 

F*CK football and f*CK people like Beckham for whom this is just one massive vanity project. Without the fans football is nothing, absolutely nothing.

 

If this club is serious then they would get him in as CEO now.

 

My biggest qualm is how can you trust the decision making when you don't fully know who is making them decisions or who is leading to those decisions being made.

We have no board, other than sparks and rupp who seemingly holds no interest has he didn't even bother to speak to the new manager during the interview process.

Who is helping sparks make these decisions, in the past there would be various members of the board voting on these matters but now there is no one aside from commercial/Marketing directors who should have no say whatsoever and the associated directors who I believe are simply ambassadors and representatives at away games.

Sparks says he lent on people he can trust in football when choosing Alexander, saying many times "we" did all thorough due diligence and interviewed over many hours.

Surely we have a right to know who these people are.

Paul Jewell has been mentioned, but he works at another club, as as macanthony he owns another club for goodness sake. Please tell me these people aren't picking our manager. Would a member of Morrisons board go to Asda seeking recommendations on a major appointment?

This is where fans want transparency, who is responsible for the big decisions. Is it all falling on sparks? If so what toll is it having on him?

He has been given stick for his appearance on Tuesday, as others have mentioned, he actually looked unwell with it all, either that or he was very dismissive and uninterested.

He needs help, but let's employ that help, and get them on board (literally even), instead of nameless and faceless, people deciding our near future.

 

I can hardly believe this list. Just so depressing. I am literally done. These can’t all be crap, but they were for us. Then you need look no further than the sale of the club back in 2016. We need football ppl in fact we are desperate for a change from top to bottom.

 

As much as I can be critical of Sparks I hope he doesn’t leave yet, I’m confident we would end up with Rhodes if he did. Ideally what it needs is a new owner and director of football, both who would bring some drive and passion to the club.

Sparks deserves some criticism, but he doesn’t deserve hounding out of the club. There’s only one person who deserves that.

 

In a commercial role? 100%. In the hiring and firing of footballing staff? not a chance. In my opinion, he hasn't made one single correct decision on that front.

 

I was not condoning booing and jeers it is counterproductive. I doubt the Board will make the decision based on the booing. It will be looking at the performance, recruitment and team cohesiveness, ST absenteeism and the sheer lack of entertainment. If MH gets the order of the boot then he can only look at himself.

 

Yep if you give it you should be capable of taking it, again with regards social media things can get blown up out of nothing where as back in the day if it was a player you have a bit of banter on the day, as the Doncaster game many years ago when I was giving Snodin some stick he then went and smashed a free kick into our net he must have lost his bearings on the pitch as he found himself right in front of me giving the hand sign 1 - 0 what can you say .

 

It's so unbelievable that people think for some reason Derek Adams was being a jerk for pointing it out.

The reality is...

... well, the reality is worse than anyone could possibly imagine.

This is the managerial merry-go-round we should all be so desperate to avoid, but without those football people like you say, we're just living in pure denial of the issues facing this football club. Mark Hughes hasn't been a resounding success despite achieving something last season, but who at the club was there to question him on any meaningful level at all? Anybody? And if the answer is nobody, well, what do we expect?

 

The reality is Rupp will not sell for anything less than he thinks the club is worth. However, it is worth much less now than he paid for it; this part of the nightmare is in his court. If he doesn’t know how to take a football club like ours forward then he should find somebody and fast. His alternative is to sell us at a reasonable price, yes he may well lose money, but nothing like what he will lose both this season and the next. If we become relegation fodder considerably more. So Rupp it is head out of arse time and start to look further than the next balance sheet.

 

Get in there quickly Rupp

 

If Hughes has anything at all about him he will go with a flat back four next Saturday. Anything else is management suicide.

 

Hounded out? That is rich, the fans would like to be entertained and have ambition to be promoted. We
Come in our thousands both home and away, we gave him the budget and this is what is served up.