Most liked posts in thread: In defence of Stefan Rupp

There is no defence of Rupp. He is ultimately responsible for everything that has happened since he took over. I only hope he's here to sack Sparks or sell up. He's probably on his way home, pleased, that at least he saw some goals.

 

The problem is football has moved on from the 70's & 80' where there was no ceo, and the owner was a small local business man on a vanity project or using the club to promote his business and get kudos at his lodge.

Back then, the owner gave the manager money and sat back chugging on a cohiba. The manager had a longer shelf life and got on with it.

Clubs rarely changed hands. Managers set the tone of the club, and if the stars aligned you had a successful season.

These days, football is a business, the ultimate aim is for the owner to come in, improve the club then sell at a profit. Some it works for, some crash and burn.

Football is big business and the managers last less in a job. They can't be relied on to set the direction because if they did, the direction would change everytime the manager did.

Modern football needs it's direction set by the people running the business in the same way any medium sized private business does.

If the CEO or owner (often the same person) doesn't set a clear direction and directive for the business (club) then it will fail and that is exactly where we are.

Graham Alexander is simply an employee tasked with managing the first team, he's not involved in the business, the commercial side, the admin or the junior levels. His job is to correctly spend the budget and hopefully achieve success for the girst team. Nothing else.

The direction, club aims, ambitions long term budgets, planning, and day to day running of the club are the responsibility of the CEO.

So far, ours has managed that in terms of income only, but he's going to crash and burn on that next year when season ticket sales plummet and sponsors don't renew.

Ultimately the future and the success/ failure of Bradford City Football Club lies with him alone, not Grsham Alexander.

 

Mark Bower summed up the problem with our club after the match yesterday, we have no plan for the club on a long term scale. We appoint managers who want to play in a certain way then when it goes belly up he gets sacked, the next manager then rips it up and starts again.
Without such a plan we will continue to repeat this mistake each season, while the ultimate aim is promotion there is no plan as to how we will achieve this.

 

According to the fan who spoke to Rupp yesterday Gibb wants 5 million for the ground and he is looking into this as the rent is crippling us. The budget was initially 2.3 million for this season but he didn’t think it was enough so he added another 500 thousand to the budget. It might be a good thing that he saw how atrocious we were yesterday because had we won 1-0 he’d have left thinking that things aren’t too bad. I believe Sparks is throwing Rupp under a bus and bulling himself up by saying he doesn’t need to invest anything as the club are self sustainable. Also the comment at the forum that he was to keep us in the EFL and stop us going bust was just when Sparks took over when we were 23rd in the league and I don’t think it’s an ongoing mission statement. I think Rupp can still save this by sacking Sparks, replace him with someone like Baldwin, negotiate buying back the ground and investing in the playing budget. Otherwise he needs to sell if indeed there is a serious buyer out there.

 

Rupp was duped into buying the club,he then had to remove Rahic i know football.
Guided by captain admin Rhodes , he offered the job of CEO to Sparks, who must have thought all his Christmases had come at once,Who would not have taken the job, he is completely out of his depth in all matters football, he appointed Gent , who is the worst head of recruitment guy possible. It appears Rupp is here until ? He needs to remove these two immediately and let two new guys get their feet under the table for next season.
That should be the bare minimum to start with.

 

Rupps major mistake is keeping a woeful Sparks in charge of the club. The longer he stays the longer the decline in the clubs fortune will last. He needs to sack him ASAP and start the rebuilding in close season

 

"Think I might start a thread on Bantam Talk"

 

No.
He's seen for himself now first hand just how bad things are so if he doesn't act after that then there really is no hope going forward and he will continue to deserve all the criticism that is directed towards him. However, if his visit yesterday turns out to be the catalyst for change then that will be a good thing. It won't excuse his dereliction of duty over the past few years but at some point surely he has to realise he needs to take drastic action. Let's just hope that yesterday was the day the penny finally dropped.

 

Sparks was asked the question about a director of football by Raynor and he didn't think we needed one. It just shows the arrogance of the boy.

 

Did he let the cat out of the bag, or was he just using the remit he was given when first appointed in November 2020 as an excuse to cover for his short fallings since then?

 

Good mate other hip doing Wednesday then looking forward to pre-season, get a good pre-season under my belt and I'm ready to go .

 

I agree. It is too easy to concentrate on the manager and players short comings rather than the route of the problem. I said at the time when we had the protracted manager interviews, we cannot hold the appointed manager responsible as we allowed MH with Sparks and Rupp’s permission to sign all these players. I would go further and say we have not got to the bottom of our dilemma yet. Rupp is responsible for losing the fans goodwill. Trying to get City going again on a shoestring without a plan is now looking like a very bad idea. Now the fans are going to leave in their droves, who quite frankly have had enough. Football at its best is exciting and good fun. Competitive clubs mark out their own identity, we lost ours when Parky left and has not been replaced.

Our club is going to need meticulous construction, it is not a big club anymore. We are struggling with the basics ie back room staff arguing with a customer about renewing his ticket. It sounds trivial doesn’t it, but for me it signify’s very poor training in customer relations. The answer to “I want to renew my ST please” is yes sir, let me do that for you. Not a protracted argument about the customer coming back next week. He might never come back.

Rupp if he is to continue needs a full independent assessment of the whole of the running of the club to identify weakness in staffing, training etc., and a broad analysis of how much it will cost to put right. Yes the rental of VP is draining our resources and that needs to be looked at. Sparks needs to be let go and an appointment of CEO/Director of Football.

 

Please do one.

 

Not a queue but there are definitely parties interested in purchasing the club. Some will say these parties should either put up or shut up but then no one in their right mind would put up for completely unrealistic valuation.

 

Not sure there is one, cut your losses and fcuk off

 

Indeed. More faces than the Elizabeth Tower.

 

Rupp was duped into nothing, he's a business man who will give everything diligence. Some you win some you lose.
Sell up and feck off, you're not wanted here

 

Rupp impressed me today by not hiding and sticking up for himself when a fan was having a go at him and even had a discussion with the fan during the second half! Sparks did not look a happy man!

 

Rupp is a sleeping owner, there’s lots of these in the work place
sparks is doing ok keeping it financially sound
The football side is a different matter and no place for him..

Draw a line here

sack gent, put a knowledgeable Director of Football in his place
Let GA hire and fire the players and run the team on and off the pitch