Most liked posts in thread: Ryan Sparks

It was interesting listening to the podcast Darragh McAnthony does (with a City fan)....he was young, like Sparks, when he took over at Posh. However, the key difference is that Darragh had already run his own successful business, brokering big deals.

With all respect to Sparks, and I am not doubting his suitability for marketing and comms roles, he doesn’t have any experience running a business.

What support is he getting? Rupp doesn’t seem interested and can’t be offering much guidance. Rhodes is off now his successor has been found?

It seems an awfully big job for someone so raw. Fan morale is at an absolute low - message boards, forums, phone ins, Twitter, Facebook....everyone shouting up wants McCall out. Brave (or stupid) to go against the mood and hand him a new contract.

 

That's what scared me so much about mccalls interview, virtually nothing proactive about what he could do to rectify things and all just about hoping players that come back will save us. honestly sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than us

 

On the one hand you can say Rahic started all this off and Rupp and Rhodes failed to stop the slide. On the other hand, City were in the same position as now a decade ago. Had it not been for Parky who knows of we’d have slipped out of the league already, but one thing is certain, this club has been in decline for 15 of the last 20 years. Bringing Rhodes back might have stabilised the finances club but there’s not a lot of good having a club with a good P&L that’s relegated out of the the football league.
The management in my opinion failed this summer, hiding behind the salary cap as a reason not to recruit, whether that was naivety or a gamble on a Covid wrecked season and clubs going busy who knows. I don’t think this club can rebuild properly until the last vestiges of those with connections to Rupp, Rahic and Rhodes are gone and fresh ideas are brought in. McCall sadly has to be one of the first of them, closely followed by Rupp.

 

Sparks has put the basics in place, but as had been highlighted, he was starting from zero. Anybody could see what was needed. Albeit with games in hand, the club is still only three points off the relegation zone, some of the rubbish has gone but only two of the signings so far in this window has any sort of pedigree. There’s still time but we’re short of pace, a winger, a DM and if the rumours of a Novak injury are true, another striker. Let’s not forget a year extension for McCall.
I’ll judge Ryan Sparks at the end of next season, he’s made a bright start but you’ve got to give it longer before you start thinking he’s the second coming of Christ

 

im coming round more to the feeling that we definitely needed fresh ideas and impetus at that level. Look at everything thats been done in a matter of a month or two that fans were literally crying out for previously, and rhodes' response was to attack fans in the press as wanting multimillion pound set ups. So far Sparks is doing a bang up job for me.

 

You don't hit second from bottom of the entire football pyramid just on the back of a poor manager and to suggest so is laughable. This club has been a rudderless ship for 3 years culminating in us playing the worst football I've seen in 40 years. No strategies on or off the field or a plan of attack to speak of. And as I hasten to add that was only 8 games ago. Now a lot has changed in that short period of time and we seem to be at last looking like a club with a resonance of professionalism, something we'd been asking for as a futile gesture for donkeys years. Hitting rock bottom then doing a jaunty jig on the tables at our wonderfully successful club because we've had an 8 game unbeaten run rings very hollow to me.

 

Careful mentioning affordable tickets, you'll have the loonies demanding everybody pays double so we can have half the attendance and gain absolutely nothing whatsoever. Been there, done that.

 

Why does Sparks need an older head? He’s doing a superb job as CEO, different class to Julian Rhodes.

 

Yeah, for all the January posturing we still have a pretty average league 2 squad. At the moment, bar Cooke and Canavan, not one of them justifies a place in a promotion winning side, let alone a league 1 set up. And if we want to be taken seriously thats what we need, players who stand out at this level. When a team like Harrogate has numerous players that would get a starting berth in your team then you are nowhere near ready for promotion. Summer needs a marker laying down with who we bring in.

 

Staff, interesting that RS seems to have indicated that a number of players will be moving on (did you suggest as many as 12?) but MT is still insisting in the paper this morning that nothing will be sorted re contracts until the season is over - a bit of a contradiction here dont you think?
Dont know who they are but a scout I know has told me he knows of a couple of players we have already talked to who in his words 'should meet with universal thumbs up' - I said he doesnt know some of the people on this forum!

 

You mean an unchanged side, same formation playing for a draw, and bringing subs on after 70mins?

 

Look at the cosmetic changes in the last six months, the ‘tunnel’, replacing faded seats, painting the clubhouse, photos in the players’ entrance, talk of not accepting mediocrity. All really simple things that start to give a professional image of the club which will help attract sponsors and the like. It’s a leap forward from 20 years of deficits, treading water and make do and mend. Some of what’s going on reminds me of Mason’s time. If Sparks were to leave, and he will sooner or later, the last person I would put in charge again is Rhodes.

 

McCall wasn't his appointment and T&S didn't fail at all, they did what was asked of them... Obtaining a playoff spot from where they started would have been a minor miracle. Sparks could easily have given them a full season to run at it next year but he was strong in his conviction that Adams is better placed to push for promotion next season. Admittedly, the shocking drop of form at the end made the decision much easier for Sparks.

 

It's the loss of hope that does it for me. We can all see what needs to change in the club and on the pitch but there seems to be no chance of anything happening. Stuart will soldier on, Rupp will do nothing, Sparks will spout platitudes. And if by some miracle we survive this season it will all carry on next year. All leading nowhere. No hope for anything better than abject mediocrity. It's soul destroying and ultimately people, however long they have supported the club, will just give up.

 

@Fordy117, I can't see that you've had the courtesy to reply to @wetherbywhaler yet. For someone who's got a lot to say on this forum, what's stopping you on this occasion?

Also, please tell me, if you'd had a promotion at work and then, a few days later saw a comment "Fordy Out" splashed on the internet, how would you feel? I don't know Ryan, and neither do you. The guy has been in the job two minutes and you're already making an unjustified statement, behind the safety of a keyboard. You've made a similar statement that @wetherbywhaler has pulled you up on. We're all waiting, Fordy.

 

Has Fordy answered yet I cant wait forever.

 

@Fordy117 - keep your chin up lad. I often don't agree with you but it'd be a duller place without you.
Anyway, I thought you had a Merc, but Keefly thinks you've got an MG, said something about you polishing your midget.