Most liked posts in thread: Raise budget or reduce expectation!

I was ambivalent about Grayson but I think these comments have made me realise we've probably dodged one.

Read somewhere this week someone talking about Neil Warnock saying if you had a pound he'd make you think you had £50. Compare that to Grayson comments that dourly proclaim only the top six spenders can be successful. Makes you wonder why we turn up.

Never been to Rawdon Meadows but I've no doubt the facilities there are more than adequate. Sunderlands are state of the art but haven't stopped them falling down the leagues. One of the clubs he's linked with (Barnsley) are owned by the council after they went into admin. so it would be ironic if he went there and found he still couldn't have the wallpaper he liked in his office.

He sounds like some sort of diva making excuses why they can't go on stage. We don't need this sort of manager.

Pardew dourly presided over WBA that couldn't get a result for love nor money. Moore comes in, preaches a bit of togetherness and nearly achieves the greatest escape ever. Barnet were dead and buried in League 2. Allen comes in and suddenly the team is transformed. Both these achieved this with the same squad and the same training facilities.

We need someone that can give us good reasons why we can achieve something and not someone that gives us reasons why we can't. I predict this time next year he'll be one of those managers linked to every job going but never getting one.

 

Question? Are things any different under R&R than they were under Lawn and Rhodes (broadly speaking in terms of budget and promotion potential)? It's looking increasingly likely that we're no better off, but I don't think we're any worse off either.

Now the previous board had their successes and no one should take that away from them, but let's be honest, that was based on an incredible amount of luck. As Grayson points out, it was all short-term. There is no legacy.

The one thing that is causing all this upset is what people thought getting new owners would mean. Maybe it started with all the nonsense with Paladini, people started dreaming about big-money takeovers, it's happened to others, maybe it could happen to us. Maybe it was Lawn promising be would only sell to people who could take us forward. It certainly will have been Edin getting carried away at some point too.

But I don't know where all this not renewing STs and organising protests is coming from. The club is financially stable which is something that would have been considered a luxury at times over the last 20 years. Small but important changes are being made, the pitch being the obvious. No big budget, no manager, no decent squad, but that's pretty much been the norm in recent memory, rather than the exception. Yes, we feel lied to, yes, it doesn't sit comfortably with us to have people at the helm with no ties to the club or the city, yes, we'd all like to think that our dreams of the Championship are based on reality rather than fantasy, but I still don't see the evidence to think we're in dire straits. Is is really as bad as it was 10/15 years ago? Not by a long way. Don't forget why you go to VP, it's not for the chairmen, it's not for the manager or the players, it's something much more important than all that.

 

The more i hear the more i dread next season.

 

I can think of several other more 'muppet' like regimes where perfectly decent managers have thrived, i.e. Warnock at Cardiff, Bowyer at Blackpool

It's laughable to suggest that our regime is so bad, no decent manager will come. But of course, you know that the phrase 'decent manager is subjective, so you lot can moan no matter what

And why have we become so concerned with the budget that it's now do or die? Prior to a couple of years ago, fans realised it wouldn't be the best, shrugged their shoulders and got on with supporting the club

Grayson's recent years have been at the very top end of L1 or Championship. It's only deluded fans that think a club that has spent less of the last eight seasons in this division than Rochdale, should have a Top 4 budget. Burton didn't. Shrewsbury didn't. So it's clearly possible to do well without having a fortune

Thankfully, there are good managers who'll see that a Top 10 budget and the remaining players, gives them a chance of really making a difference and enhancing their career

Not everyone thinks this club is going to the dogs and will get relegated, simply because of a bad six months, largely caused by crucial injuries

Some of you moaning most have been a barrell of laughs in the good old L2 days

 

sorry, someone remind me where the bottomless pot of money is to pay for a new pitch, new training ground, wages, transfer fees, bonuses, stadium maintenance, stadium rent and other overheads.

we have to live within our means. it might be hard for some people to understand that but it’s a fact - we’ve been down the financial risk road before and look how that ended; bucket collections to keep the club afloat. i for one wouldn’t want to be anywhere near that again.

 

I remember Warnock being interviewed on talksport the other day. They asked him what the key to success was and one of the things he said was how important it was to get the owners onside. Make them feel special, massage their egos, make them feel involved, do whatever it takes.
I think SMc's downfall is that he that didn't like Rahic, didn't really try to hide it and just made a rod for his own back.
In any walk of life if you upset your bosses their is usually only one winner.

 

Nothing wrong with the article, to be fair. We already know a higher budget could mean a better chance of success. Yet there are no guarantees. If all 24 clubs had the same budget, it would be unfair to suggest each club had an equal chance of promotion. It's how you use that budget.
The same with the Training ground. Grayson didn't say it was poor. He merely pointed out that as it's rented, you can't tailor it to your own needs.

 

I would consider that the training facilities were only mentioned because they were one of the 'items' SG discussed with the Chairmen. I would be surprised and shocked if they were a genuine reason for him not taking the Job. As @Bronco rightly points out in his post ....... The facilities we have now are a vast improvement on those Sunday League type arrangements City endured, not so long ago.

 

Grayson joins the growing number of voices raising concerns.

 

My sentiments exactly.

If you gave me enough money I reckon I could get City promoted, but the reality is that a GREAT manager can work wonders on an average budget or even less than average. An example close to home is what McCall achieved at Motherwell.

I thought Grayson sounded conceited and arrogant on so many occasions. And what kind of man manager rips into his team on the radio. Even if they were to blame it is the MANAGER who should take FULL responsibility as he is responsible for motivating them and getting the best out of them. IMHO Grayson was not a brilliant man manager as he seemed to spend all his time blaming everyone else and then - to rub salt in the wounds - telling us how lucky we were to have him.

Out current situation isn't ideal, but I'd rather still be in existence in a few years time than giving Greyson a blank check so that he could maybe (or maybe not) get promotion to the championship again and boost his ego and his CV. If he was as good as he keeps telling us then surely he could get us promoted on a mid-table budget.

So yes, I think we have dodged one Hippo.

 

His comment about our training facilities have not gone down well with Woodhouse Grove and who can blame them, total disregard for our joint partners in those facilities, there is nothing to stop Bradford City from upgrading those facilities if they wanted to even though they rent them, pretty derogatory comments from Simon Grayson.
It would be nice to hear from one of the owners with regards to his comments about the player budget, IE either raise it to give the next manager a chance to go forward or tell us fans it's mid-table at best and any finish above that is a bonus.
As well as a statement with regards plan "B" and the clubs hopes with regards the next manager.

 

Its the training ground that is irritating to me. He says the training ground we rent is nice, but you can have things your own way when you own it! Hello we are trying to get promoted and need every penny in that quest.

 

Totally agree with you Bronco. My kids go to the school and the facilities I would say are as good as any in League 1, noticed yesterday that the main pitch as you come in is getting totally redone too. I don't understand why he's so bothered about owning the training ground, ok if something needed changing that could be an issue but I'm if it was a piece of equipment or something to improve the training then they'd look at getting it in, can't imagine many things would need changing.

The budget was always going to be an issue but again he has decent players within that squad to develop and work with plus he hasn't seen Reeves, McGowen and Jones properly who would all play a good part of a decent squad.

I think he saw the rebuilding of the team was too big for him with players he couldn't manage/turn into his players and with a budget that would not have guaranteed promotion next season.

Maybe he's got to a stage in his career where he doesn't have the drive to develop/improve a team given how highly he rates himself or his record looks and would rather have one of the biggest budgets in the league and almost guarantee himself another accolade on his record.

 

No, you don't, but if you provide a budget that';s say 12th in the table, you can't EXPECT a top 6 finish. we can hope for it, and aim for it, but you can't say the manager has failed and ultimately sack him if he fails to achieve it.

either be more willing to accept finishing outside top 6 (and lower fans expectations aswell) or provide more money.

 

We are fooked unfortunately. No decent manager is gonna want to come and manage us and work under the constraints of those 2 muppets and I don't blame them one bit. I wouldn't want to neither. No wonder Parkinson left.

 

Sensible comment from Simon Grayson about managing money and expectations. If our owners had said: "Our aim is the championship and then the Premiership but on the way there we are determined to stay within budget even if this slows our progress down." it would have been better for all, I think. Just my twopence worth.

 

I disagree with his training ground comment, firstly it's a joint ventue between the two parties which has been fit for purpose for several years, the article I posted about how before the players meet up trained had no showering facilities no where to eat ETC.
Now they meet up at Rawdon Meadows change into their training gear do a session eat together, have a swim maybe do gym work they have an area where physios can work with their injuries, we're a league one club struggling to field a team that can challenge this coming season, with regards renting I have friends who never wanted the responsibility of owning their own home and got council houses many years ago and they were better decorated than ours originally as I had a mortgage to fund and they saved because they paided low rent and had a beautiful home, and any external problems with their house they rang the council and the
job got sorted.
I believe he was more worried about the fact he was not getting a budget that meet with the fans expectations and he was in a position where if he didn't do well it would refelct on him, now that I can't blame him for he can't as manager say my budget is crap, nor can he expect the owners to tell the fans his budget is not the best so anything above midtable is a bonus.
IMO he's not signed because the budget is not good enough which no one can blame him he has to have the tools to do the job, but IMO the training ground is a red herring.

 

What have we been saying all along? The muppets want promotion but aren’t willing to finance it, they really are deluded. They got so lucky with Stuart and the fact that he managed to do so well with so little. It seems to me that they’re thinking is that every manager will be able to deliver that kind of success. It just doesn’t happen that often. But hey ho Edin knows football and we have to take him seriously.

 

But they'd gain a bit of respect if they did. Open up to the fans. Explain they are still learning the English game. Admit they have made mistakes. Tell the fans to be patient. Tell the fans we're not going to go for top two next season because the budget won't allow it. Explain how the money is going to be split up - transfers/wages/renovation etc.
Just be open and honest. I think a lot of the people who are on their backs (that's me included) will back off a bit and give them some space.