Ryan Sparks

If it does, it could make for a very interesting season with no fear, no risk and an awful lot of experimentation. ON balance, that sounds like a night out at the Hacienda !

 

I get where you're coming from we would have had a better insight into our improvements or otherwise if we'd played these postponed games but even as we are at the present moment we have to be better than we were when Stuart lost his job,.
Under Stuart we were wondering where the next points were coming from at least with T&S were giving teams a game and are picking up points, long may it continue.

 

I was thinking more or less the same myself

 

Nude every Friday with Parks and Pickering

 

Thats right. His job.

 

Well

 

I think its more down to the previous incumbent lowering the bar to rock bottom more than anything Sparks has done. I would expect any CEO worthy of the role to make the decisions that have been made. We're now being run like i'd expect a club to be run, i'm not sure thats worthy of fawning praise when nothing has actually come of it performance wise yet.

 

I don’t think anybody is “fawning” over him. They are just saying it’s a good start

 

Seems at least some fans see what has been done by Sparks as actions worthy of a competent CEO. Contrast that with the reaction when the rumour was first delicately placed on here all those months ago.

Anyway what ever people think I know I have a really good feel factor about the club now. Again contrast that with how we all felt at the time SM was sacked.

All in all what has happened in the last 2 short months or so has been very heartening to see and hear.

Yes I know this should have been the case all along, but it wasn't. We know why some of that was and they have now left the club.

We are not out of the woods yet by any means but if just half of the recent signings are any good then we will have a much better squad to pick from. I bet they are already planning next seasons signings.

Bantam Progressivism is BACK!

 

Sparks has so far done a good job, Of course he has been helped by having the biggest drag on the club allowing the club to develop was the leaving of the old CEO who held the club back by penny-pinching where possible

 

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

 

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 agree so far things are looking up, bringing Lee Turnbull into the club as Recruitment Director was a good appointment, when he promoted T&S from their previous position I along with many more thought mybe it was another Rahic stunt but with the same players they have made us look a more balanced team and recent results bearing that out with regards points gained, the January window looks good so far, yes the majority are kids but they are kids we have followed rather than a panic signing like most believe Samuels was.
Let's see the reaction if we get beat on Saturday the game against Cambridge will be a big test let's hope if we do lose we are not found wanting and although it's not the result we want it will give T&S an idea of players react to a defeat.

 

I don’t think people (except maybe Fordy, but that’s his thing) have specifically criticised Sparks personally, more the club for making the appointment he’d have been daft to turn it down so it’d be stupid to aim it directly at him for the appointment. At the end of the day it was a big risk appointing someone my age to try turn around a failing football club, but hopefully it is one that will pay off.

Let’s be honest it was stupid to give McCall a new contract and I and others probably feared the worst when he did, thankfully he quickly rectified his mistake and since then has put important building blocks in place such as a recruitment team and hopefully other cogs are going behind the scenes.

It’s on him to silence any critics of him, as I’d expect to have to do the same if I got made CEO at my place at my age. In fact we’ve just got a new CEO ourselves someone with 25 years experience and I’ve already had talks with a few people questioning the appointment due to back ground. So it happens in every industry.

 

Were people 'kicking off' about the wording of the announcement about T&S? From what I recall, some people were merely pointing out that it was a non announcement and nothing had changed.

 

We were in a perilous position, maybe still are to a degree and there is a lot of ground to be made up. Small steps and time for change to fully materialise in my view. Defeat would be a blow but would not necessarily be a backward step.
Most important is that we see continued progress on the field and performances to match. As others have said the added pressure is the lack of game time and the introduction of new players but we are surely heading in the right direction having been definitely sliding downwards prior to the new setup.

 

yeah, fair point RE handing McCall a new contract. That was a baffling one!

 

I cba going through the forum tbh, but there were plenty whinging. I just remember posting at the time calling our fans a set of whinging b*****ds.

 

Yes there was a lot of criticism aimed at Sparks regarding the wording of their job title.