Do you trust the decision making of the leadership/ownership?

Need for a strategy was talked on here long before them soshul media lot got on to it haha

Can't be long now before we hire a DoF or similar.

Club might be stubborn and stuck in the mud, but the cries for change will grow ever more deafening.

 

I'm still convinced that if Rupp would just put in place the things he needs to put in place, he could redeem himself as owner.

But he won't, so: Rupp Out.

 

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?

 

Speaking of looking back...

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/nov/09/hatters-irresistible-rise-of-stockport-county

Who'd have thought it eh? A club with a plan? An ambitious owner? Players arriving due to the vision laid out?

The vital ingredient here? An owner that genuinely wants success.

 

Good post. The human being responds to positive endeavour. It is as simple as that. Plus previous failure can drive a competitive team onwards to their goal. If you want to be an owner of a football club and succeed here is your blueprint. Non engagement will see you go nowhere.

 

https://www.bradfordcityafc.com/news/2023/november/women-appoint-senior-as-manager/

Yes! At last! The club has finally listened and we now have a head of football operations and in comes the new manager talking positively about the infrastructure and building blocks in place.

If only........


.

 

There are no guarantees as with anything in life but it shows there is an end game, so to speak, of their long term aims. Ground expansion based on the area becoming a fashionable outlying area of Manchester etc, it points to a club trying to achieve rather than merely treading water. That's why I mentioned I felt sorry for Sparks, he doesn't have this enthusiastic owner scenario to fall back on. That said, I think he rather enjoys the adulation of being 'top dog', an enthusiastic owner may take some of the 'limelight'.

 

Stockport has a very good feel about the fanbase it seems at the minute. Shows what can happen if you have the "plan". I think in the summer it seemed the finances available weren't what they have been in previous windows, but the recruitment looks to have been a success over the last 18 months. Wouldn't bet against them not reaching their plan of being in the Championship in time.

The video on recruitment is eye opening at how well it can work if you have a plan of who to get, where the fit and how long for.

 

I agree Sparks does look shattered. He had that look about him. He needs a break, not sure he will get one.

 

I agree now...but Stockport have been shambles and luckily or not came back up.... get higher your bum becomes more exposed.... Sparks is in the results game he has not been getting them .... man up and sort it

 

I think there have been times where Sparks has verged on the edge of calling Rupp out, like when he mentioned in interview that Rupp puts nothing in to the budget and that he only has the club revenue to work with. Let's face it there are better paid and jobs that come with less hassle out there for ambitious young folk. If Sparks ever did decide to move on to pastures new Rupp would be screwed big time.

 

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.

 

I've never called for Sparks to leave. I just think he'd be a better CEO if we had a DoF/head of footballing operations in place to support him.

 

that might the black hole where all this extra revenue is going rather than to the playing squad-I’d not considered that