Most liked posts in thread: Rupp & Sparks Out?

There’s no one single model that equates to success. What’s needed is vision and a plan, and the means to execute that plan. And it can’t come from your manager, he has to be an agent for delivering that plan. We don’t have a vision or plan.

 

Have to say, I am a bit stunned by that comment.

I would love us to have spent the last fifteen years or so in League One with excursions into the Championship.

 

feck sparks feck Rupp and feck any on here who defend them. You’ve earned this.

 

I wouldn’t know John Dewhirst if I fell over him but he comes across really well and I feel the article is reasonable. After reading it this morning I was waiting for the vitriol to pop up on here. Not disappointed. Some of the interpretations are just bizarre. The idea that he is nothing but a club spokesperson is simply laughable. Just because he presents an alternative viewpoint he deserves to be thought of as some lesser person. Still, if you want to consider his post garbage, that’s fine but trying to suggest he’s saying it is always the fans fault is a bit of a stretch. Similarly, the assertion that the article insults fans intelligence because it plays into the negative, down beat, trodden on persona which some fans genuinely seek comfort in and don’t want to strive for better is risible. I’m sure you’re concerned and rightly so (I am too) but dismissing an article with an opposing viewpoint in such terms is a bit daft.
Put it this way, present your arguments in a more even way, you might even convert a few happy clappers.

 

The buck stops at the top but when did we last have any first team saleable assets ?? I am struggling to think of many first team players that have left us and stepped up a division in the last 5 years, they are extremely few and far between.

We are signing L2 bog standard players or unproven players or injury prone players (Walker/ Pattison/Oliver) and you reap what you sow. Even this years loans have been a flop. Last time we had a decent loan he ended up getting poached by Plymouth.

We signed a championship midfielder in Smallwood and he looked a bang average player for us from day 1, no doubt on some huge money for a L2 player. Cook has been a good player but on a 3 year deal at what cost to other areas of the squad.

Our recruitment year on year is frankly, abysmal.

 

You're as big as you act. We have a big fan base, and a big ground (or rather, we rent a big ground). That's it. What else do we do, that demonstrates we're a big club?

I feel like a broken record, but you'll never go anywhere without strong and capable leadership. There's a litany of clubs who've dropped down the leagues, reset and recovered, overcoming as big if not bigger challenges than we've faced and done it much more effectively.

I don't want this to be a personal attack - the reality is, our owner had his pants down when buying the club and isn't really interested. He wants to avoid losing money, which to a point I understand - though I think the failure to get him to invest is a symptom of inexperienced and weak leadership at the club itself. Moving beyond the owner, we have a young, inexperienced CEO who's never operated at anywhere near the level he's now at. He was the easy (and almost certainly cheap) option, installed to oversee a very simple and unambitious mandate of 'don't run us at a loss'. And there-in lies the rub; there's a complete lack of growth mindset, we seem to have no proactivity to seek investment, build capital, manage risk on the basis of where we can grow rather than what we can prevent etc. We lack experience and skill at the top, simple as that. Its the root of why we flounder.

 

The one lingering justification for circling the toilet end of the football league, was in 'not being loss making'. If, with 18k paying fans and a turnover of 7m a year with no obvious investment in growing the club, still generates a loss in achieving a mid table league 2 position, then not only does is show how inept we are but we may as well pack up and go home.

 

On the radio/ifollow commentary, Raynor kept referencing that they were trying to line up an interview with Sparks and GA for after the window closes, touched on some of the concerns and scepticism of fans in the response to the T&A interview, and the complete lack of engagement from Rupp. They know its not landed well, and that more and more fans are growing restless and concerned about the leadership and direction of the club.

 

I think finally we might be at an impasse. We've seen it with other clubs, fans get to the stage where they can't take no more. Well i was sick of hearing the bullshit about him being our saviour and be careful what you wish for or this ridiculous retort of 'well name me someone who will buy'.
There is nobody willing to buy because the bloody owner values it way too high, this a valuation he puts on business he doesn't really give a shiny shite about, he values it that much he never even spoke to the new manager coming in the building 'I'm hoping to get to speak to him soon' was what the new manager said. If that wasn't damning enough then i simply can't help you.
How we get him to relinquish ownership i know not. There will definitely be a downtake in ticket sales come this summer and Sparks, for all his David Brent mannerisms, is gonna have to look at the possibilty of cutting budgets because of it.
Please Stefan, consider your position and what you doing, or in respect what you aren't doing to my wonderful club. You are probably a decent fella and got caught up in summat you naively thought you could make a quick buck on.
We have a saying here in Yorkshire,

Shit or get off the pot.

 

Likewise. I really, genuinely don't expect us to be winning every week and realistically at our limit as a club we're top end L1, bottom end Championship in this day and age.

However, it's the complete and utter apathy from those running the ship. There's no vision, no investment, no indication of a brighter future no matter the timeframe. We really do just whack a squad together every summer and cross our fingers. We have stagnated, regressed in reality and nothing will change until significant changes happen behind the scenes. L2 isn't a difficult league to get out of. There's four spots up for grabs every season, you need to be organised, physical, well drilled. Six seasons now and we've come close once. It just isn't good enough.

 

What happened to that good news you told us might boost season ticket sales?

 

I said the exact same to @Kevin1954 the other day when i said if the job is affecting sparks mental health then he should get out now, to which Kev asked me to name a successor. As I said in my post, I absolutely detest lazy responses like that, as if I’m going to know anyone with the exception of the obvious (Dave Baldwin or that sharp bloke, formerly of Wigan and now at Mansfield). But just because I don’t know who could be a replacement, shouldn’t stop me expressing my opinion and frustration about a massively inept CEO on the footballing side of things

 

Not wanting to turn this into a MacAnthony thread but some facts.
Comparison since he took ownership at Peterborough and the corresponding league seasons of the club and is at Bradford.

Peterborough.

League 2 - 1 season
League 1 - 11 seasons
Championship - 4 seasons

Bradford

League 2 - 11 seasons
League 1 - 6 seasons
Championship 0 seasons.

Fans of clubs will moan no matter what division they are.in, it's the nature of the beast.
But looking at those facts above, I know which club has the better owner.
And it ain't us.