Most liked posts in thread: Pressure on Adams now

I think it’s time we gave a manager a decent amount of time to actually get us moving in the right direction. I think we’ve got a decent manager here and I’d be willing to give him a couple of seasons to implement his ideas.

We should have all learnt by now that there is no quick fix for the club and we have tried a range managers with little success. The best period in recent memory was under Parkinson who had time and autonomy to get things sorted. I would say we try the same with Adams, even if that means another season in L2.

 

For me, if there's one thing that's been wrong this season it is the setting of high expectations. Very rarely is it a good thing to set high expectations but the club has done it now so they either need to step up to the plate and deliver or make themselves look like numpties.

 

I said a few weeks ago it felt like there could be trouble brewing. Something went wrong in the last couple of weeks of the window, whether that was down to Adams being misled about the budget available or Turnbull ballsing up a signing we will probably never know. What I do know however is you don't go from being confident of getting all your business done well before deadline day and talking about bringing in one very good signing, possibly two, to saying it's going to go down to the wire and you can't bring in who you want because of finances, unless something quite significant has changed behind the scenes.

 

I think the budget is a lot less than £2.7m, I think it was that last year and it’s been cut.
It’s not just a matter of over paying, you’re not getting quality if you don’t pay, that’s obvious. What is a problem is that for years City have been incapable of spending good budgets well. It’s unrealistic to expect every signing to be a hit, but in at least the last half dozen transfer windows there has been far too much money wasted on absolute rubbish. Lack of money isn’t the issues, spending it badly is.

 

Sorry state of modern football, when a new boss has had 8 league games, gave a good account of ourselves in the league cup defeat and should now be feeling pressure, but that is modern snap decision football. Especially when a win on Saturday could put us level with the automatic spots. Wouldn't really say he is feeling any pressure, yet.

Nobody gives a toss about the pizza cup, lets face it, the second half last night we didn't even have a formation, it was all about time in legs for your Songo'o and Sutton types, as one might well be coming in on Saturday to break up the woeful Evans & Watt pedestrian partnership. That midfield partnership is a real worry, but Andy Cook is becoming a potential worry too.

He's not scored in a month, only scored in two games this season from 11 appearances after last night. Start of the season, we didn't seem to hesitate getting the ball into attacking areas. Last 4 or 5 games, we seem to want to play that extra pass, or the winger will be in position to cross, dither on it a bit and wait for the full back to come cross instead, leaving the forward stood there with the defence a better chance to mark.

 

I don't think Adams is under pressure from Sparks, more the other way around. Adams clearly isn't happy with the players or staff at his disposal and is making his thoughts known in the media. Adams will have said to Sparks 'give me x, y and z' in order to achieve promotion because at the moment it isn't going to happen with what we have on and off the pitch. Its up to sparks to find the cash to deliver now.

 

Well for Adams wanting to do everything is stupid.

We were just getting into 2021 then rip everything up because our walking CV doesn’t know what he is doing yet.

Adams shouldn’t be able to rule like this so early. Adams needs to get results first.

 

Agreed. And we do need consistency and patience (though we need to believe in the capability that's being established) - its why I find the removal of Turnbull concerning, because we seemed to have embraced the idea of continuity of a support structure thats well set and and somewhat independent of the manager, so that managerial changes are minimally disruptive when they occur. We seem to have gone back to the older fashioned model of giving the manager more control - which can work, but when the manager changes then you end up having to reinvent much more of the clubs operation. The fact that we keep flip-flopping is a worry.

Adams clearly a very capable manager and I have no problem with the idea of him running the show. But we need to back him and demonstrate our ambition through giving him a budget that can blow the opposition in this league away. Not silly money, just that bit extra to find 2-3 more quality players, which I don't think we've done. And a club of our size, should be able to do it.

 

My thoughts exactly, DA didn’t do himself any favours tactically (lack of and late changes) on Saturday, but in part I’m thinking he’s proving a point. Those on the sidelines are just not good enough.
He’s coming across thoroughly pissed off at the moment.
Something shifted late August. Sparks himself said (on the podcast with DMc) that we’d be striking while the irons hot and would be busy approaching the transfer window.
We know what happened there, last minute dash for Theo Robinson and a clearly unhappy manager.
Long way until January to try and put it right - and let’s be fair, January very rarely delivers anyway!

 

Yes Sparks promised so much and indicated a platform for progress and player targets achieved. With budget tight and with our previous record of recruitment why are we still stuck with half a squad of indifference.

 

It’s not the defeat in the pizza cup. It’s the way Gilliead looked like he couldn’t be arsed, Evans strolling around, the injuries to two more strikers. It’s the fact that both of them will probably start in an unchanged XI from the dismal one on Saturday. I want a team that excites me, one that looks like they give a shit. I want a club that doesn’t decide a recruitment director is a bad idea not long after it was a great idea, I want a club that’s promising promotion and backs its manager.

The last few weeks have been symptomatic of the Bradford City of a year ago that’s a shit show on and off the field and last night was the result of that.

That’s what’s pissed me off more than the result.

 

We certainly need more football knowledge in the building away from the operation of the first team.

My concern is who has the appropriate knowledge and experience to make the right appointments - lets be honest Turnbull only came in as he had worked with McCall at Scunthorpe, that was the link. Sparks has no background in football, nor does anyone else in a senior position.

As much as I dislike the use of consultants in most walks of life, given that lack of football experience, City really could do with someone with sufficient knowledge of the game to come in and identify what is needed in terms of structure, roles and knowledge, skills and experience to enable the club to operate properly and professionally, not just at the whim of whoever happens to be in the dugout.

 

It isn't anything to do with lack of desire or hunger, it's simply we don't have the players in key positions due to a mismanaged transfer window and a number of injuries. I'm pretty sure our budget is a lot closer to £2 million, it's one of the reasons we are limited in who we can bring in. This whole scenario now in the local press and on social media has been brought about by our inability to replace an injury prone Lee Angol and doesn't show well on the people running the club.

 

Every player wants to succeed, but as you say we live in a world of clichés. The players don't go out on the field to deliberately not win or not score, sometimes its out of their hands. Other clichés that get wheeled out, they're not fit enough, hungry enough, showing enough desire, players injured because of something the club is doing wrong, there's loads more. Football is a game of fine margins, like on Saturday Barrow score with a fine finish but Vernam had a similar chance before that scraped the post. What I as a fan am cheesed off about is you could see where we were weak before the season kicked off, we did nothing about it then and even after Angol picked up his injury we end up with a player no one else wanted. You don't score you don't win, I dont really want to see my manager claiming he doesn't have the players at his disposal when we're only 8 games into the season. I thought the whole idea of bringing in a manager like Adams was to avoid this sort of thing.

 

I am

 

It wasn't the 60s when Parkinson took control of the football side of the club and he didn't need a director of recruitment, he told Julian & Mark the players he wanted and they signed them given we worked within the budget/manageable defiect.

 

Aye it’s funny what managers can do at a well run club, even one with a small budget. We truly are a car crash I’m afraid to say. All hype pre season from Sparks, which imo was just to sell season tickets.

 

Stupid title - waste of a thread.

 

I agree with the sentiment but games against Barrow, Harrogate and Sutton and the like(no disrespect) really don't get my balls twitching that current sides in league 1 like Wednesday, Ipswich, Sunderland etc. Just can't get excited about any of the games in league 2, there isn't one fixture where i look and think i can't wait for that.