Fleetwood at home 9th February

Maybe he thinks Clarke can do the centre forward role better than Sammon, even though that’s what the latter has done all his career

 

Well my guess is that given the pool of talent available, he was the best pick. He might be like for like Jack Payne but he 100% wants to play for the club. Maybe that’s in DH thinking.

 

Oh maybe the club thought getting Clarke back would result to fans being happy with the signing but fans are not because it's one of the most pointless signings in Bradford City history.

Signing Clarke makes no sense at all.

We can't complain about the wages Wright is on then waste wages on pointless signings like Clarke.

So we go from wanting a target man to getting a like for like for the player we've spent most of our Jan transfer budget on? Does that make sense to you? Really?

 

Maybe not no. But essentially we did want a target man, there wasn’t one around, we looked at alternatives, found Clarke and DH has thought he could do a job for us. That’s pretty much the long and short of it as I understand that is his prerogative as manager.

 

One of the many reasons why DH needs to go at the end of the season.

If he really couldn't of found of target man then he should of switched to CB or a winger.

Getting Clarke was pointless and if that's all he could find then his network is pretty poor.

 

Hopkin questions the fans booing but once again the highlights show our captain O'Connor quick to blame Caddis when O'Connor (and NKP) have allowed for a simple cross flash across our own area without any attackers in the vicinity. Maybe Caddis shouldn't have lost his man but how the hell hasn't that cross been dealt with before it gets anywhere near their striker at the far post? Maybe the "sticking together" mantra needs to be repeated to our captain who is always so quick to point the finger when his own performances lack.

It felt like a dent has been made in the fans' belief in Hopkin and the players to get us out of it. And with the games that we have coming up, it might be a dent we won't recover from. Thankfully results went our way and we're still within reach barring everyone around us winning their games in hand.

The positives for me is that Butterfield could be a quality addition once the rest of the team know how to make the most of him and in Calum Woods we have a solution for our feeble defence if he can stay fit. Huge improvement needed over the next five games which could easily finish us off.

 

Butterfield wont win us matches and Woods is unlikely to ever be fully fit.

 

That's the spirit!

 

My thinking of the Clarke signing is he a replacement for Paine next season ?

 

Have a look at what Sheff Wed and Derby think of Butterfield. Very much a league 1 player without much quality. Cant understand why anyone thinks hes a quality addition to be honest. Maybe someone can tell me what they thought of him on Saturday as imo he was borderline crap.

 

Couldn't really build an opinion on him when the ball was going over his head most of the time. What I did see from him though was that he was the only one offering to collect the ball from the back four or goalkeeper when Akpan, Payne, O'Brien & Ball were nowhere to be seen. It came across that he was the only one that actually realised that punting the ball up field for their centre back to practice headers was a bad idea and that we needed to try something different.

I also think that he used the ball better than anyone else we had on the field in the rare occasions we weren't sending the ball skyward. It was probably Payne & O'Brien's worst games for us in that respect. More to come from Butterfield I think (and hope!).

 

So we waste wages on him now.

Makes it even more pointless when we have about 4 players how can play as a number 10
already and one out on loan.

 

I hope not.

 

I 100% want to play for the club, but that doesn’t make me a centre forward (or even a footballer). As I’ve said, Hopkin said he wanted a targetman and hasn’t been able to sign one. So what is the point in signing someone that cannot fill that role? Would we still have signed Clarke had we signed Surridge? I think not. It’s almost like he had a few quid to spend and he just HAD to spend it...!

 

Then sign him as a free agent in the summer? He’s not what was needed now

 

Nope you’re wrong here. Nobody could look quality with the tactics employed by Hopkin. However, on the rare occasions that Butterfield did get on the ball, he looked decent.

Shame that O’Donnell only has one out-ball...... hoof

 

That's the kind of problem you get when you don't have a transfer committee and rely on just the manager

 

I feared for us Saturday the moment I saw the line up and the formation. Miller up top on his own puzzled me. We need 2 up top, do better playing that way.

 

If we had played Doyle upfront on his own, like we have lately, against Souttar and Eastham then we might have been falling out of our seats laughing.
I can see now why Hopkin didnt start his most prolific/dangerous striker but it just shows how limited our options are.

Sent back Kai, sent out Jones on loan, brought in erm billy Clarke.
Nope, just doesn't work for me.