Most liked posts in thread: How does this club move forward?

reputation from a playing career should not afford you time in your managerial career - they are not mutually exclusive.

the club needs a complete change of mentality from top to bottom; from boardroom to in the stands.

how many seasons have we written off half way through due to a change in manager and afforded them the excuse of 'oh, it's not their team or their squad - give them the summer to build their own team.' it happened with Grayson, with Hopkin after Collins, with Bowyer after Hopkin and now McCall after Bowyer.

unfortunately from top to bottom this club lacks the mentality to be successful - the same as the city on a whole.

 

I admit it will take a lot of investment to be able to compete in the Championship, but we need to get there first, and I maintain it doesnt take deep pockets to get there, especially out of the 4th tier.

The biggest issue I have is Rupp. He is clearly not interested in football and our city, and I wish there was someone out there who could tempt him to sell.

 

Here's a few questions to add to the mix.

Do we have a poor budget in comparison to other teams in this league?
Was the pitch so much better when we were one game away from the championship?
Did we have a director of football? How many teams that are near the top of this league, league 1 and the championship have a DoF?
As a city was Bradford so much richer and affluent when we were being so successful with Parkinson?

Seems to me that a lot of things are being blamed when in reality all it should take is decent player recruitment, a decent manager and that manager to be given time.

 

Why would anyone invest in Bradford as a city? Its a dead end transport wise and has a workforce that offers little. It angers me when we have idiots like Hinchcliffe and Ross Shaw in charge. They should be nowhere near being able to dictate the future of West Yorkshire. It should be the Leeds City Region.

 

A big problem I think is season ticket prices
As in all things, if It. Seems to be a cheap price, it very likely is.
What do you get Cheap —- rubbish and you cannot complain.
Pay a fair price, your likely to get value or have the right to complain

All businesses run on profit fans are customers.
Works great if the owner put his hand in his pocket to fund cheap prices
But it won’t last long.
Pay up then expect value.

 

I agree with what something Brisbane bantam was alluding to that pretty much all clubs based around working class cities have poor areas, Bradford isn't unique in being a relatively poor area yet some seem to hang out the point like a fact. This 'affordable football' irks me somewhat.

 

We need to accept that most clubs charge too much.

It is embarrassing to see half empty stadiums up and down the country. This is a huge sport here, every stadium should be as near to full as possible.

 

I am.pretty sure deep pockets havent put the likes of Exeter and Crewe on course for promotion this season.

Recruitment and the right manager and coaching is all it takes to get us out of this league. I say all it takes, but that is easier said than done of course. Parky under Lawn and Rhodes managed it, lets hope McCall can do it, because the jury is still out for me on whether he can do this from scratch. The last time he was here, he inherited a good squad from Parky

 

We're something like the 7th largest city in England. The potential is enormous. Leicester, Wolverhampton, Burnley, Sheffield are places similar to Bradford in some ways. Unfashionable cities/towns if you like. They've all got a premiership team. They've all been given a boost by rich people but look at them now, flying high. We've got a rich owner that someone needs to give a shake to. Show him what we could be in 5-10 years if he invests. Otherwise we'll be dossing around having the same conversations forever.

 

I say this often, that the decline of the football club mirrors the City as a whole and I end up with people telling me Bradford is booming, Cheap house prices, easy links to Leeds and Manchester. The same people who are pleased to be 9th in the bottom tier of professional football. There’s none so blind as them what won’t listen.

 

As I said he's an owner with a clear vision. I'd been singing Pilleys praises for a long time, the training facilities showing what can be done with investment, something our fans seems scared to death of.

 

Those cities ot towns you mention have had varying levels of success in football. We've had it once, under the vision of Geoffrey Richmond. But the mere mention of BfG has folk wetting themselves in fear yet that is what we need to take this club forward, someone who has a vision about the potential of this club. It looks highly likely there will be the biggest gap possible between us and our neighbours 10 miles down the road. Yet 10 miles down the road is where the real potential is, let's not kid ourselves, our potential is just like any other league 1/2 club.

 

"...you’d look at Bradford City and say, dying City with a council and population who are both largely disinterested, no assets..." Absolutely spot on.

We should also stop using the word 'investment' when we talk about Rupp. An investment suggests there will be an ROI. But being frank any money Rupp puts in he knows there is no ROI. At best it stops the club falling further at best he MAY get his original investment back.

If I was in his position I wouldn't be putting much money in. I would think I had already wasted enough and as long as someone offered to pay me out what I put in I would be out in a flash. In fact I may even accept a small loss as all I see is a money pit.

Even if I was to try to look at it as a long term project I would have to consider the following.

Bradford has never shown itself to be a hotbed of football, it's history is Div 3, Div 4, relatively small crowds (the 14/15k numbers are relatively recent) and as Mike Hunt points out the city is on a downward trend, the population is generally disinterested, the ground, which is not owned by the club and is not worth buying, is in a part of the city that would be described as 'undesirable' etc etc etc

To be frank....would you put your money in?

 

Julian Rhodes.

Been chairman at City for 17 years. In that time we have lost ownership of Valley Parade, been in admin, relegated from Championship to League 2, he tried to sell to a dodgy ex-QPR owner with no money, Sold part of the club to Etherington who had no money and ran off with a cheerleader, finally sold us to Rahic & Rupp..but hey we have had 2 great seasons and season tickets are cheap.

 

WARNING. THIS MAY HURT SOME PEOPLES FEELINGS

I have contributed and been part of a number of groups discussing the relationship between the likes of Manchester and Leeds and their smaller neighbours.

It is generally agreed that both Manchester and Leeds have reached the critical mass whereby they now suck in the investment and jobs from large surrounding areas. Think of it in terms of a black hole (yes we might think of Leeds in that way) and how it essentially sucks everything in. This is the situation that Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield (Hudds gets it from both sides, Leeds and Manchester!) and to some extent Wakefield find themselves in because they are close to Leeds and as mentioned above Bury, Oldham, Bolton, Stockport with Manchester.

So Bradford is already for all intents and purposes a satellite of Leeds.

In my opinion Bradford is beyond the point of competing with Leeds. I believe the quicker this is accepted and a strategy arrived at to take advantage of the proximity and reduced costs of using Bradford for ‘non essential functions’, with its great connections back into the main center (Leeds) the better.

Swallow our pride. Push for a Greater Leeds Council and look to make the best of it because there is simply no way that Bradford is ever competing with Leeds on equal terms again.

 

Never gone along with this we've been a 3rd 4th division club for most of our history so that's where we belong. Wigan spent most of the last century in non league but it's not where they belong now. In the last century up until early 70s we had a fierce City Avenue rivalry with both clubs pulling in 8/10 thousand but supporters detesting each other. This just led to split support along with Bradford Northern and both football clubs pulling each other down. Even now in Bradford I know so many people in Bradford who's dads were Avenue fanatics and they are now Leeds fans and Bradford Bulls fans with no love for City.
We need the sort of ambition and belief that Richmond had in the 90s and yes I know his greed and hubris wrecked the club, but he gave Bradford City and their fans something to believe in, that we could be better. If only some entrepreneur could see what can still be achieved at City, the club could be pulled up by its bootlaces and still achieve what we did so successfully in the 90s.
Wouldn't it be great to meet Rupp and Rhodes and put to them a plan which Rupp could afford and persuade him that long term he will get so much more for his investment by going for it rather than just treading water and hope for a cup run.