Mediocrity

For me yes it is, we’d not have been much better off Hughes has won 2 out of 5 and lost all 3 at home. I’m not putting it at his door but he’s not a miracle worker either, with this team he’ll struggle to get more out of this lot than he already has. Adams and the club have recruited terribly, but his results were about on par or better as we were 12th when he went it’s just how he got said results and how he acted with fans what the big problems were. He wasn’t sacked because he failed to get promoted with this set of players, he was sacked because he hired them and played awful football.

 

Players will be falling over themselves to play for Mark Hughes next season. Give him time, cut the unnecessary negativity and let him rebuild.

This season is dead so who cares now. Next season is ours.

 

Who is paying the rent for next season?

The playing budget or the owner,

Will go a long way to seeing what the squad can afford.

Adams,Grayson,Bowyer,Hopkin all have achieved promotions, McCall a playoff final.
All failed here.
Our latest new gaffer has yet to achieve a promotion?
First time for everything i guess but keep sparks well away from football matters, he is a jinx.

 

Totally disagree. 3 defeats in 3 home games suggests Hughes is not getting much more of a tune out of this squad than Adams was.

Granted, its a bit more pleasing on the eye, and the players seem to have taken to Hughes more. However, that doesn't alter the fact the squad is nowhere near top 7 level.

 

He would have had a SETTLED team from the start he would have had them playing a certain way to me now it looks like he’s experimenting and looking whose worth keeping going into next season .............. I ain’t gonna take one bit of notice what’s going on now ...... we are safe so in all honesty results don’t mean much .......... a fair few of these won’t be around next season they probably know that so why are they gonna go out and put 100% in when they are down to there last 8 games ........... he plays his strongest players if fit then we wouldn’t be far off at all had he started the season .......... honestly this league is garbage hardly anyone have impressed me at all which shows how bad it is and how badly Adams got it wrong and how he doing now ????? He’s really working wonders at Morecambe now there just getting battered for fun now aren’t they ???

 

Honestly, I cannot see it , unless of course as I said at the time, MH is a Trojan horse?

 

He probably didn’t have huge amount of chances to gain promotion because the majority of clubs he managed sat in the PL
Blackburn PL
Man City PL
Fulham PL
QPR PL
Stoke PL
Southampton PL

so in all his jobs he’s never had the chance to gain promotion as he ????

 

Presumably if Hughes had been in from the season opener he would have had a say in summer recruitment and wouldn't have just rocked up for the first game. Taking that into account, I think the squad would have looked very different so it's a bit of a moot point to say we'd have been in the mix with this group of players if Hughes had been in charge from the off.

 

Where are all these better players going to come from, and how are city going to pay for them is a big question.

 

Answers on a postcard please...!!

 

You get rid of the wages spent on
Lavery
Robinson
Delfonso
Elliot
Angol

and them fives wages should be enough to cover at least a couple of decent forwards ........ not forgetting he likes of Evans who will also be on a decent whack

 

I admire Hughes intent to play football 'the right way'. But there a limits to how you can do that at this level. The thing that stood out yesterday was how streetwise Vale were. Proper shit houses, and you need a bit of that in L2. As soon as they sussed that the ref would let anything go, they were roughing us up at every turn. Taking yellow cards to break attacks up early. We're very naive in comparison.


Hughes coaching knowledge is clearly excellent and his personality and man management skills look top drawer. The extent to which he understands tge dark arts at this level (which i think he will) and even more so, his ability to identify and recruit the right players will be crucial. He needs to be backed. He'll be a massive attraction for players so we need to be bold and ambitious

We need demonstrable progress next season. A top 7 finish minimum and we should be going all out for top 3

 

Another good example of the need to move away from mediocrity, even as fans, is how we assess pur own players. Take someone like Matty Foulds. Hes honest, he's young and he's local. He's probably got a role to play as a backup. But compare him to someone like Mal Benning and its night and day. Thats exactly the sort of level we need to aim for.

Our lingering in this league and not able to even must a top half finish is a humiliation. No more pissing about. Do whats necessary and build a quality squad for Hughes to work with.

 

Hughes the player could handle himself I am sure he will install that into his players ........

 

The club have to now make sure that we have the best of everything for Hughes we cannot have yet another season of penny pinching and a squad bolstered by poor signing that nobody wants ...........they in my opinion have got out of jail with the Hughes appointment I could see a couple of thousand not renewing at least had he not been appointed........ the fan base will only put up with so much and I have a feeling next season will be pivotal because frankly another wasted season like this or even the last 3 will have a huge effect on revenue streams ............ Sparkes for all his criticism has worked wonders on the commercial side now it’s time to get someone in on the football side who knows what’s needed to get out of this league

 

Stop being so angry Gaz.

You have completely missed my point, which is, this squad, with or without Hughes, are not good enough to trouble the top 7.

Adams recruitment was shocking and unbalanced.

I'm pretty sure if Hughes had have been in charge last summer, most of these players wouldn't have been brought in.

I'm looking forward to a summer clearout and see who Hughes can attract to the club. I expect Hughes to make much better use of the loan market for example.

I agree this season is dead as far as fans are concerned, and I'm sure Hughes has more or less decided who he should look to keep, not many I hope, by now too.

 

I ain’t being angry far from it but I just feel with a better manager we would have been at least within a shot of it ........... this lot have shown that we can match any of this lot on our day .........sadly we have had a manager who ain’t got the best out of this lot ......... I mean if FFR are the best in the league then it shows how bad this league really is and how badly these lot have underachieved

 

I hope a year from now, Bradford City and its fans will not be talking mediocrity.

With Rupp in charge, I fear we may well be.

Hughes has a job to do, just like all those before him have. All have 'failed' in the key objective.

There is a lot of expectation on Hughes, just like Adams, Bowyer, McCall and Grayson.

Can Hughes get a tune out of 'the running' of this club?

 

The balance of the squad is a huge issue. By my reckoning we have Angoll, Cooke, Daly, Defouneso, Eisa, Evans, Gilliead, Lavery, Pereira, Scales, Sutton, Vernam and Walker who are adept at playing in one (or more) of the attacking midfield positions. With that many attacking midfielders available it's not surprising that we want to get as many of them on the pitch as possible, especially as most of our better players are included in that category, so that means that we're looking at a lone striker and out of all of our available strikers, only Cook looks remotely capable when asked to fulfil that role.

The lack of defensive midfield options is a joke. We've got Watt and that's it. Songo'o is obviously otherwise employed at the moment and there's Evans snd Sutton who can play there but both are much better in more forward roles and neither would be an ideal choice if asked to play as a lone holding midfielder.

As for the defence, we're juuuust about OK for bodies but I don't think anyone would argue that we have much quality in that area.

We desperately need to upgrade our recruitment and the long term sporting strategy of the club. MH seems to have lots of skills but he's not going to fix the recruitment by himself because he does not know this level so he is clearly going to need help. As for the strategy, that's down to Sparks to stop chopping and changing his mind based on what his latest manager thinks is the best option. Settle on a strategy/philosophy and then, if you need to change managers, make sure that the next manager is someone who will buy in to that long term vision, that way we might actually end up with a bunch of players who are round pegs in round holes.