McCall IN/OUT (with new Poll)

But we did offer him a contract? Even if it wasn't at Christmas. Is that right?

So if we offered him a contract - regardless of when - then McCall was allowed to keep him. No?

 

just because a player says he wants to sign in the press, that doesn't mean he's saying that behind closed doors.. Meredith, like many others, used City as a stepping stone to something better and more lucrative. he knew exactly what he was doing; tell the fans he wants to stay, tell the club he had no intention of signing a new deal whilst in league one. waited until after the play-off final and signed for Millwall, literally, whilst he was still wearing his play-off final kit.

 

I struggle to accept that McCall was content with the quality of the squad at the start of the season. We're not talking Michael Collins, he's been a manager long enough to comprehend that even without injuries this team would struggle.

So either he's being economical with the facts in order to appease those above him. And they've been forced to operate on a significantly reduced budget (which would explain why a probable high earner like Vaughan wasn't replaced with someone of a similar pedigree). Or he's a very poor judge of the quality of players needed to be at least competitive in this league.

The vast majority of managers universally want as many quality players as they can sign. Because they know that it'll be their head on the block if results are poor. They aren't usually in any job for long enough to think any longer term than one season. Or to concern themselves with the financial future of the club. To hear him say that the signing on loan of a raw, inexperienced 20 year old kid was 'the final piece of the jigsaw' left me bemused and frustrated. If there is significant amounts of the budget left unspent, then he's made a rod for his own back.

 

I believe if a player has less than 12 months on his contract he could make a deal with another club and there is nothing Bradford City could have done so why wait until May ?.

 

I think you'll find Millwall are in the UK Dave (unfortunately) and the pre contract talks are only in the last six months and to foreign clubs

 

I stand corrected, I was under the impression player with less than 12 months (and in Mezza's case 6 months) could make a pre-negotiated deal with another club.

 

not true. pretty sure it's that a player can only sign a pre-contract agreement from the January of his final season and that can not be with a team within the same country.

 

Too late @Interested Bystander has already corrected me .

 

Hey @Interested Bystander , saw your lot play the Blades, Helmut's lad scored a cracker but 10 minutes later he was back to doing Guthrie impressions. Can't figure him out.

 

Yeah we have a terrible injury list already with maybe 5 first teamers out in Staunton, Hoshanah, Cooke, Clarke, Novak, and with Evans and Ismael not match fit. That's probably 7 players you would expect to be starting that are not fit. Most teams would struggle with 7 first teamers out given how slim the squad is (both in numbers and quality). Injuries aren't Stuarts fault so i sympathize with him there, but we need to ask why we have so many injuries.... Is it due to a lack of support staff in terms of fitness and conditioning? If so that's down to Rupp / Rhodes from the top. I dont think Stuart is a bad manager and tries to play the right way, but there are limiting factors this season through injuries, finance, and even possibly directive from the management. changing the manager wont solve any of those issues.

 

He's no doubt got some talent and he's a lot better this season as Moyse has got them playing a system to suit the players he has. Never going to be worth the 40m we paid though.
190 games in the Erendivisie, Bundesliga & Premier, and that was the first time he's scored from outside the penalty box

 

We need to be realistic in these Covid times. We're knackered with injuries not through poor conditioning or training, but because we have to play two games a week at the moment, week in, week out - and this with players who didn't have a normal pre-season to get themselves holistically fully fit. It's not just us - look at loads of other L1 and L2 clubs who have long long injury lists - and players out through covid or isolation.

 

And I can't disagree. My point was that I wouldn't point a finger at Ben's conditioning skills. Like you, fraid it's the poor squad and coaching we have in terms of bottle, nouse and ability, allied to the wear and tear all teams are having to put up with.

 

I don't understand why Stuart, Kenny or Julian didn't realise that once the fixture list was out with games being twice a week even if we got lucky with injures 26 players is not enough especially when 5/6 of them are kids.
O'Donnell
Hornby
A O'Connor
P O'Connor
Ben Richards-Everton
Reece Staunton
Fin Cousin-Dawson
Jorge Sikora
Jackson Longbridge
Connor Wood
Levi Sutton
Bryce Hosannah
Tyler French
Callum Cooke
Elliot Watt
Kian Scales
Zeli Ismail
Dylan Mottlry-Henry
Harry Prichard
Gareth Evans
Connor Shanks
Billy Clarke
Lee Novak
Clayton Donaldson
Kurtos Guthrie
Austin Samuels

 

McCall said after the Bolton defeat that at least he had found an formation that worked and he just needed to stop over complicating things and persist with it... or words to that affect.

Just what has given him this blind faith in the 3-5-2 formation? Surely 4 points from 15 (or looking that way) indicates that something is not quite right.

 

For the love of God Stuart, admit you haven't got a clue how to save us from relegation and do the decent thing and walk now. Dont be seen as the club legend who took us out of the football league after 117 continuous years of membership.

 

Are we allowed to think he's not a good manager yet?