Most liked posts in thread: New CEO?

The decision to appoint Sparks as CEO is an absolute disgrace and will prove to be the final nail in the coffin of this football club. Its nothing personal against Sparks, but there’s nothing in his past that shows him to be in any way a viable candidate for the level of turnaround and rebuild this football club needs from its leader. His appointment is symptomatic of everything that’s broken with this club. We take the easy and the cheap option wherever we possibly can, because we lack the understanding, intent and capability to do anything else. We lack any sense of planning and ambition in how we recruit, from the very top to the bottom of the club.

The first step in fixing any problem is realising you have one. And we haven’t. We haven’t grasped the crux of our problem at all.

This decision is pivotal to the future of the club. It really is. We’ve lapsed far behind even clubs who’ve been professional entities for no more than a couple of years. Our downward trajectory is so stark and so blended across different managers and players that our failings are so obviously, much more deep rooted. We’re a sinking ship in every possible sense that a club could be. Apathy reigns amongst much of our fan base and retaining - let alone attracting - supporters on a paying basis is becoming harder and harder. The turnaround needed is monumental and we’ve entrusted it to a rookie with no experience whatsoever, simply because he was already on the books, chosen by a man who’s been integral to why we’re in such a mess in the first place.

This is the final straw for me. And that’s not hyperbole. I’ve been going to games since I was 8 years old - over 30 years. Over that time, we’ve endured much, permeated by the odd moment of joy. But its become a soulless, sapping experience being a supporter of this club. Having to bear witness to incompetent individuals being let loose, with mistake after mistake being made, without a drop of guilt or recognition and not a shred of ambition in trying to push for better. Indeed, throwing mud at supporters who dare to demand better. And when our future looks the bleakest it perhaps ever has, with the worst squad in living memory and everything about the club broken, we take the one opportunity to take stock and rebuild properly - and we make this decision...the youngest CEO in all top 4 leagues...!! No thanks. I’m done. My lingering interest was on life support anyway. This was make or break for me. I’m done. I’m spent. And before the likely repost from the one or two that will signal something along the lines of ‘fine, see ya then’, consider - I’m not a fickle fan. I don’t think we’re entitled to success, I don’t expect victory every week, and even with the right decisions made at this time I fully expect the road forward to be difficult. I’m not a ‘floater’, I’m a supporter who, for over 30 years has followed this club home and away, in all leagues. I’m the sort of fan who’s been part of the ‘core’ for a long while, encouraging my son to go to games with me, buying him the shirt etc. So if fans like myself have had enough, there’ll be others in the same boat - see the WOAP article from yesterday- thinking the same way. And that’s the lifeblood of this club.

If our club has no interest in giving itself the best chance of at least trying to be successful, why should anyone continue to invest their time, money and emotion in this shambles of club.

 

But the article you've attached references colour and gender too. I'm not taking a position of defending Clarke, I'm saying that its a slippery slope when you start to define success on the basis of colour and gender.

I agree, diversity of thinking is important in any organization. Colour is just one variable in diversity - in fact, I don't even see it as a factor. Do all people of colour think in the same way? Of course not, why would they? So why should all white people or all men think the same way? Very pertinent case in point; Biden v Trump. Similar skin colour and age, but you couldn't really find 2 more opposing ways of thinking.

I simply don't care what gender or colour you are. You can either do the job or you can't. And making assumptions on the basis of skin colour, or gender, is prejudice - plain and simple. But it seems like its not prejudice when assumptions are made toward white men.

Specifically on our new CEO - what matters to me is that whoever comes in, has a clear and achievable, ambitious vision for the club. Contacts and access to funding opportunities to land that vision, good communication and networking skills, and preferably some experience of having done something similar to what's needed here, elsewhere in the game. I don't care about anything else. But we have no real vision in anything we do, so I doubt our CEO search will extend beyond getting on the phone to someone who's worked here before.

 

Would be a brilliant appointment. There you have a man with the knowledge, expertise and experience of rebuilding a football club and taking it to the premier league, europa league and winning silverware. Not sure we'd find someone else with that CV who'd be interested in a 4th division side like this.

 

Interesting that Greg Clarke's comments are considered 'unacceptable' but this article can openly use terms like 'pale, male and stale'. Nothing worse than the white man. Its possible to discuss the merits of diversity without summarily criticizing a demographic on the basic of sex and colour. It seems equality doesn't cut all ways.

Is there a place for more women in positions of leadership and power within football? Absolutely there is. I think we're crying out for a completely fresh look at how to run our football club. I don't care what sex or colour that person is, as long as they have the credentials, skills, and relevant experience to deserve the position. But it has to be on the basis of equal opportunity, not an engineered equality of outcome.

 

One thing that Bradford City need to do is to stop employing people from the past. ALL i hear is McCall,Jones, Lawrence,Jewell,Morais,Hanson etc etc. For goodness sake move on !

 

Hes not a bad owner as in being deliberately destructive or malevolent. But he's been negligent, is horribly out of his depth and ill equipped to own and run a football club.

It's a resounding yes from me too. In fact, I'm desperate for it to come off because in the absence of that kind of move, this club is going nowhere. And the longer we go nowhere, the less likely we are to ever prosper again.

 

If they give it to Sparks who is nowhere near qualified then that’s me fully done with this club. It needs an experienced businessman (or woman) to come in and make wholesale structural changes from top to bottom, it won’t happen over night but a clear strategy needs implementing and fast.
Sorry if it offends but Sparks is not that man, he’s got a journalism degree and has worked in comms since - he might be a nice guy but that doesn’t make him a competent, innovative businessman. A comms manager doesn’t get a CEO job in any walk of life. Another huge red flag if he does get it.

 

It's a brave move appointing a CEO younger than most of our forwards.

 

I hope he is praying for a miracle.

 

Thanks for the useful input.

 

Hold onto your hats.

Major changes on the way. We now have somebody else involved.

Two announcements tomorrow I’m told. One is a surprise, the other not so. I must admit it actually gives me a little bit of confidence.

 

Hear hear Park. I've been in exactly the same/similar position, promoted to the Main Board of a FTSE Company after an apprenticeship. No one knows how it will go. People had faith in me and I hope that was justified, suggest we do the same with Ryan.

 

Not convinced.

Starts with the standard Michael Collins stuff "This is what I wanted to achieve, I have all the skills," then goes on to a case of "I knew I was the appointment, it's a progression plan," (that's an extremely bad thing, how narrow is our net when it comes to appointments of all kinds?!), "I've been involved in the day to day running, and I'm ready to make the decisions".

"I'm willing to lead, we need an identity, I'm a communicator", no actual mention of what that identity might be.

"We're in a scrap, and I believe we can get out of that," but again, zero indication of how that might be achieved. Extending the contracts of Stuart and Kenny shows he's backed the current incumbents and they MUST succeed straight away - I honestly think that's put a huge pressure on Ryan as he's effectively shouldering the pressure on Stu Mc and Kenny.

I am not remotely interested in praising Ryan for taking on a tough task. Strong characters will take on tough tasks, so will stupid people. I'm not saying he's stupid, or that he'll fail for sure, but that isn't an inherent positive for me.

He admits recruitment has been poor and we've struggled with key injuries, and even says "we need to get back to (performing) quite quickly", which implies pressure on Stuart and Kenny to make that happen - but he's already given them a contract extension, which is in direct contradiction to what now looks like a piece of virtue signalling.

"I want stability" is the big statement. Fine. Almost agree with him. But stability isn't sticking with a failing manager, it's sticking with an identity and a style of play and not doing a 180 every verse end. Huw Jenkins showed that sacking managers regularly doesn't mean instability, not that I'm a fan of that, but it means stability is the CLUB, and the manager is secondary.

Not at all getting that vibe from Ryan, unfortunately, and I have a lot of questions based on his responses in this interview. His answers sound like answers any one of us would give during an interview, with no meat on the bones. I don't want to hear vague claims about "I came to do a job", I want to hear what's going to happen HERE, and NOW, to change the situation we are in - and despite the interviewer Jamie asking and re-asking and trying to coax it out of him, it's clear there's no actual plan yet.

 

That could be a factor. There IS potential at this club. We're a single club city, and a sizable city at that. For a capable man with vision, leadership, finance and access to more commercial and funding opportunities, this place could take off. Look at Huddersfield - we could and should be every bit as good/successful, if not more so. We just haven't had the right person leading us at the right time and we've become accustomed to failure and a lack of ambition. This place has huge potential.

 

Depending on the buyers motives and capability, and subject to a fair purchase price of course, I still think we're a hugely attractive club. We've no debt to take on and our running costs arent huge. We have no real assets but our lease costs are low when you consider that we play in a largely championship ready stadium.

The narrative that we just want it cheap because we're an impoverished northern city is massively overblown. Give this city a modern, ambitious plan to buy into and watch it take off. Look at how other clubs have been transformed. What is Bradford, the 7th, 8th, 9th biggest city in the country? This place could be so much different. For someone who wants a challenge, and has the money, and access to others with money, this place is primed for take off. It really is. As a fanbase we're so lacking and limited in our thinking of what we could be. 20m, properly invested could get us to the championship, with 25k fans there every week. From there, anything can happen. And Jenkins is a football man.

 

Huw Jenkins bid £1M for Charlton A few months ago, so he is obviously keen to get back into football.

I would imagine he would be a very good CEO, if not outright owner.