Most liked posts in thread: Ryan Sparks

Although derided as middle aged white van men, in dead end jobs, onion picklers, bullies and all the rest about supposedly enjoying the club’s decline and wanting us to lose, The Cow’s Arse and others were on to a lot of it a long time ago when some websites, journalists and influential people in my opinion wanted to toe the official line. Only once it became impossible to maintain credibility did they change their tune or go silent, with the notable exception of Parker who remains neutral at best. WOAP turned on Rahic in the end and got credit for removing him and seem to have turned again this last few weeks.

One of the more disappointing aspects of a disappointing season is the willingness of some to jump on the backs of those who said the recruitment was poor, the off field management was completely lacking in vision, that Rupp was disinterested. Everyone wants City to be successful and sometimes that means criticism of the owners and management.

 

I quite agree that we should not see it as the 'second coming'. However, by the same token maybe you should also give it 12/18 months before regurgitating the same criticisms, we get your point.

 

The salary cap has been a leveller and a wake up call for the club.

Finances can’t be used as an excuse for failure at this level - look at the league table now.

A 1-2-3 of Cambridge, Newport and Carlisle. All small clubs but have good managers who are doing their best with cast offs.

Their past recruitment has been better than ours and/or their coaches are much better than ours have been.

 

Speaking of Newport, their goalkeeper jumped ahead of Kurtis Guthrie in the goalscorer charts yesterday.

 

Some of the criticism levelled at him at the start was silly. People were kicking off on here because of the wording of the statement when T&S were appointed interim managers, and inferring that the club wasn't professionally run and all sorts.

Truth of the matter is, we're all on here to kill boredom. We have too much time to overthink stuff and a lot of s***e gets spouted. Storm in a tea cup stuff.

Now the dust has settled, Sparks deserves credit. He's given two interim managers longer, which they deserved, they've paid up three (or is it four?) of the underperformers to get them out of the club, and have brought in x number of signings already - two for fees.

There was seemingly lots of planning and prep work going on in the back ground. Nevison has also returned to the youth set up from Leeds, too. A lot has gone in in the last few months.

Here's hoping we can pull clear of the drop zone and climb as far as we can into the top half now with the new signings on board.

 

I say this with best of intentions but all Ryan has done is put in place the basics which the onion picklers, white van men, those in dead end jobs, social media experts and know it alls have been calling for for a year. The so called super fans who DM people and call out anyone being marginally critical of the club derided and in some cases bullied individuals who wanted exactly what Ryan has done, calling them c*nts, emailing their employers, I see you and I’ll remember the messages you sent.

We’re 8 games in to this run, the wheels might come off, they might stay firmly on. but let’s see where we are in May this year and next before we start slapping on the back everyone with an office at Valley Parade.

 

I feel we have turned a very important corner since Sparks has come in and T&S were appointed

We have so much to be happy about for a change:

• an emerging management duo who appear to be very talented at getting players to play for them
• a much stronger squad after one of the busiest transfer windows I can recall
• an unbeaten run of 8 games-god knows when that last happened and every chance to make that 9 on Saturday
• a pretty weak division where continuing good form will keep us moving upwards
• a squad that can be built on for next season

I have a great feeling of relief after this transfer window because no changes would certainly seen us battling to stay up.

BUT the changes were made and yes it was a shit show under JR but Sparks has at least done something about it.

That's all that can be done right now. Signs of positivity around the club again. So now we focus on imposing ourselves on the league and let's see where we end up. We don't look like being battered in any game, more the other way.

I know this post will be derided by some but there is nothing wrong with being a glass half full type.

 

We don't really know whether he sanctioned it directly. It may be that the club were simply operating within a previously agreed, self sustaining budget. My point being, it seems unlikely that he's had to dip into his own pockets to fund what we've done in January. Judging by Sparks comments, its been funded by supporters.

 

Nobody is analysing anything? They're saying we should wait and see instead of jumping in with two feet after a very short period of game time.

It makes perfect sense to me and I'm not really sure why you're taking your stock line of reading it as a negative.

 

Big pants?

 

Bradford isn’t a wealthy City but if the product is right people will pay. We had plenty of season tickets sold at round about £300 in the late 90s and Bradford was no richer then, and look at the queue for Chelsea tickets in the FA cup at £30 a go plus travel to London and we sold 6000 in no time and thousands more were disappointed. In this league they need to be cheap,but I’m sure people will pay for a better product if and when we move up the leagues.

 

Canavan, Cooke. Those are probably the only players who should be starting every week, maybe Sutton, and then Hosannah and Cook if we can get them back. Loans need to be first team quality, Pickford, Burke, Cullen, Davies and not Samuels, Burrell, Stevens. The team needs real quality otherwise it’s relying on the likes of the quality of Clarke and Evans and will have yet another season in league 2.

 

Agree with a lot of that but I think we also need to give him a proper chance to deliver on the areas he is indicating will be changed this summer. It is not his fault the bar has been set so low for the past few years and his willingness to communicate with us (the fans) is a big plus in my eyes. Yes talking the talk is one thing and walking the walk another - but this guy warrants our support as I believe he is going to give progressing the club a real shot

 

If things weren't right behind the scenes you don't pick Rowe to sit out the game on the bench and then push one of your CD up top, then to hear his post match interview suggests to many they were cluching at straws, as a fan for me he could have had Cook, Donaldson and Rowe on for the last 20 or so minutes we had nothing whatsoever to lose and all to gain.
I believe it was during Jewells time we were losing to Barnsley with time running out, that afternoon Jewell threw Flash on as a last ditch effort having 4 strikers playing and turning a defeat into victory I'm not suggesting it would work every time but at least give the team and fans a chance to see the football management are being positive, instead of a CD up front then introducing Donaldson in the 91st
minute.

 

Personally I'd be surprised if they trusted us with their better youngsters. We rushed Hosannah back from his first injury which meant he has needed surgery and Stevens has only made one start since he got here. I know its only two players but it hardly paints us as the go to loan club for their most promising academy products.

 

Years ago when I moved to a different country, my employer paid for someone to help find a house, arrange language classes, to do the necessary legals like ID cards, driving licence, set up bank accounts and those who had children they helped find a school, advised on the best places to live and so on.
It’s different when you relocate in your home country, but in football they do that, coordinate appearances for sponsors, signing stuff, probably a lot of stuff HR does in a normal business like arrange a company/sponsor car and so on. If I resign to relocate to a different part of the country I have six months to sort the practicalities of every day life. If City sign an 19 year old player from say Southampton, he might be in the first team in two days, he needs someone to help him relocate so he can focus on playing football.

 

Drive and motivation are fine but without a defined plan, structure and backing, in itself its not going to succeed.

So far, I've seen two management set ups rewarded then dismissed, a transfer window lauded which was far from it, the playing/management personnel fail to kick on and apathy, division & derision within the paying public, unfortunately return.

I was neutral with Sparks at the offset. I still am and wish him every success. But despite his words, their are more questions than answers at this stage.

 

Scouting shut down TWO years ago...bloody heck!
Rowe cost us nothing in terms of outlay/ sale
Homework on summers targets done using analytical surveys
GPS tracking
New manager dictated retained list. (This has me pondering it is not Adams?)
The suites can send one to sleep!! lol!
He knows what happens on the grass is key to the club
Sin bin....I agree

I quite like the fella, his honesty is somwhat refreshing!

 

Lets be honest Fordy, right now we are pinning a massive amount on Ryan getting things right - we a distant owner, have no manager, a limited coaching team in place, back room and fitness staff yet to be appointed and less than half a team of players!!
But I also think he is as good a shot as we can have in turning round our fortunes and whilst I cant divulge one or two bits I have been given I will put my head on the block and say some real positives are happening behind the scenes. By this time next week hopefully some of these will start to be announced