Most liked posts in thread: McCall

Any chance you can go to Ashton Gate and shout at Nahki Wells?

 

When Richmond took over he had regular supporters meetings and the question was always brought up could we afford to bring McCall back, but at the time he was still commanding his place in the Rangers team.
I think McCalls contract was coming up for renewal and there were several Scotish clubs interested in his signature at the time, I believe Richmond made contact with Rangers and discussed the possibility of Stuart's return and Walter Smith approached the Rangers board and said although there was interest from other Scotish clubs once Stuart knew Bradford City had made a serious inquiry he wanted to return to Valley Parade.
For the great service he'd given Rangers I believe the board allowed him to return to Bradford City on a free and Big Geoff pulled off the best signing ever for a Bradford City player IMO.

 

These truly are special times we live in. A goal keeper who has a house in Bingley, his wife is seemingly never off Twitter reminding us he exists, who is mates with the manager, a striker who in the last three years has scored about as often as Terry Waite in his Lebanon years and Tony McMahon.

Never mind scouting networks, value, building a tram for the future, let’s see who is on the manager’s Christmas card list eh? No wonder this club is perennially in the arse end of the league.

Then again, in my opinion we signed McCall As manager because he was the first person Rhodes thought of who would sell season tickets.

 

Or this rarity

 

Wish we were watching players like him nowadays, in one way I feel lucky to have seen him play in another way he just highlights how much crap we’ve had for the majority of my time supporting the club.

Mr Bradford City and always will be.

 

Didn’t realise how good he was in that game until watching it back. He still did that quick round the corner pass into strikers when he came back to city. He was the heartbeat of the team. Him and Whalley. Superb midfield pairing

 

Added to which, he's a properly decent bloke. Grounded, humble, funny, likeable, modest and honest. He's the sort of manager you'd want to play for. I couldn't think of anyone better to lead us to success. I was gutted at the playoff final. Winning at Wembley under McCall would've been magical. And I knew it was a tipping point for us, either way.

 

I don't really have heroes in life but i'll make an exception for McCall. He is my football hero, the reason why in a selfish sort of way i was made up when he came back for a third spell as manager. Not because he's necessarliy the best for the job, but because him getting us promoted for me would effectively close the book on who has been the biggest legend this club has ever seen. It really is his club, wanting to come back to Valley Parade when i daresay there were far bigger clubs interested just proves beyond doubt.

 

At Villa Park for Scotland v Switzerland in Euro 96 during the warm up I shouted at him ‘come back to Bradford Stuart’ and got a thumbs up. Forget Richmond, unfinished business, a good salary, it was a young(er) Mike Hunt.

 

At a time where we had genuine ambition. Thanks to big Geoff, we were able to experience the sort of highs we'd never have otherwise had.

 

I had the pleasure of watching his debut, which I'm sure was in some friendly match against Sheff U. around the time we last got automatic promotion from this division, i.e. 1982. (@Bronco or whoever kindly confirm if I'm right)

Anyway, you could tell in that moment he had something

I've rarely seen that. I can think of 18 year old David Batty's dominant man or the match performance against us, in our failed promotion bid of the later 80's. To out it in context, we were firm favorites for the match and lost thanks to him!!

The other one was seeing a more experienced Michael Carrick - who ran the show in the second half for West Ham in our Championship relegation season and then went to Spurs about a week later

Forget about rivalries, of course McCall's progress gives me the most pleasure - but I've always had time for the other two and of course all three of them simply replicated these great performances every single week.

Priveledge to have seem them, particularly in these times

 

I thought the same about Simon Francis and Nathan Doyle when they came to us. Both looked very steady and comfortable on the ball, unhurried in possession. Similar to McCall whenever he had the ball. Dean Richards too was like that. It's a nice feeling when you know you are watching someone at the start of their career, and you know they are going to go on and achieve something.

 

He really was an excellent player. I don’t really remember him being here first time round as a player. But I do remember his return, when we were in the championship. He came in and instantly you saw his quality at that level. He’d dominate games, his positioning was excellent, and his use of the ball superb. He had a real authority about him. I feel genuinely lucky to have been able to watch that promotion winning side. The best City side in my lifetime and I very much doubt i’ll see a better one.

 

At the time the board made the decision the coming season was a weakish league and would be our best chance of getting promotion so they bite the bullet and splashed out and made some very good signings not just McCall although he was the player who pulled it all together.
The story goes that there were several bonus offers made by Richmond, league positions each week ETC, but Stuart got the team together and ask them if they believed in their own ability to get promoted, they backed Stuart who went back and told Geoff it's all or nothing the rest is history they all recieved a very large end of season bonus for getting the club an auto place as well as a Caribbean holiday.
Times are different I cant see any club doing the same without massive investment (as we are seeing at the likes of Leeds) at the time Kamara co-commentated on Radio Leeds ?, and as the season started to pan out the usual big clubs were mentioned as promotion candidates and to be fair to Kammy right from the start he said if this City team found their feet they would also be contenders.
It has been discussed many times with regards how successful Bradford City could possibly be and I've posted top half Championship would be great because as I say I cant see another Richmond situation raising anytime in the future, but we can dream.

 

We’ve way overspent in the last 3 years and been absolutely garbage year on year. It’s ok saying they overspent but there was a lot more to it than that.

For all the faults of Richmond and lawn they delivered so much success to our club they will always be good chairman in my eyes for that. We still talk about the promotion season now over 20 years later. We still talk about the cup runs.

 

Agree, makes you weep when you think of the Jack Paynes and many many others where we have just thrown money down the toilet time after time lately......

 

We can debate till the cows come home the reasons with regards McCall coming back, no doubt the fact that he is Mr Bradfotrd City and what that meant to many City fans and Stuart himself was a big factor, the board hoping his enthusiasm for the club would run off and inspire the players and we would still be in with a shout of the play offs.
I would think the present situation has effected many clubs going forward wondering if their club can servive, I do believe we will have a club with McCalls players ready for the challenge when a new season kicks off.
After watching the 4 Captains video link the other night I wouldnt be in the least surprised to see Doyle & Billy Clarke back in Claret & Amber possibly on a game by game contract.

I do believe it will be a buyer's market and if we can sell the club with regards our intentions ongoing we might bag a few good players for League 2.

 

They are the reasons we Bradford City fans stay loyal to the club, most are realist and although they always hope for the owner with charisma and brass they realise it is very unlikely to happen, so we do have our memories to look back on and I for one arent ashamed of digging out an old black & white video clip of the Spurs 2 - 2 draw or the Southampton 1 - 0 debacle as well as some of the more resent successes, it's what we do as Bradford City fans.

 

If it’s a buyers market I’m not sure Clarke and Doyle would be on my list.

 

Good post.

Love the idea of SM building a tram for the future. Can imagine it will be very successful to start with, then funding will be cut and eventually it will go off track.