Squad Size. Hughes being backed.

On the football side of things, We got Rid of the likes of Cooke, O’Donnell & Evans who were probably amongst the highest earners in the team. Paudie, Watt & Vernam all left as well. so there was clearly money to spend

Sponsorship is doing good, One of the things Sparks excels at. The lad who went to Brighton, that’l be a decent amount of money. And of course the 14k season tickets to date

Irrespective of whether Rupp has put money in or not, Im glad that money has been used wisely

If it is the case that Rupp has not put any money in, I shudder at the thought of what Sparks, Adams an the half a dozen managers before him were doing with that amount of money. The squad we have now is lightyears ahead compared to anything Adams or Bowyer built

An example of money management :
We probably spent the same on wages for the likes of : Evans, Robinson, Lavery, Delfonseo & Elliot

as we have for : Crichlow, Lewis, Harratt, Young, East, Sutton, Angol & Hendrie

 

In regards to Rahic. We all know what the useless Twit did at the club. But for curiosity sakes, is anyone able to piece together a timeline of his feck ups from start to finish?

 

That's just a total guess. You've no idea what those players are earning.

 

Disagree regarding the squad Bowyer built, it was arguably one of the best we’ve ever had at this level, his god awful tactics were what ruined us not the actual team. Forward’s Vaughan, Doyle and Donaldson alone should have got a team promoted, one of which he loaned out actually did! Cooke in midfield, Pritchard and Connelly on the wings and Paudie and Wood in defence. More than enough there to challenge at the top.

Adams yes did bring in trash, all you have to do is look at the difference in attack between Bowyer and Adams to see that.

 

I don’t understand these comments about Rupp not paying for it. He owns the club, all the profits are his. If we’ve had a cash windfall from new sponsorship or ST sales he could pay himself a nice dividend. Instead he’s used the money to finance a squad rebuild and bring in Hughes (who I imagine isn’t a cheap manager to pay).

No doubt the mismanagement under Rupp has had some dire consequences over the last few years and he righty deserves criticism for it. However, he is funding this rebuild one way or another and maybe he has learnt from past mistakes and we’re on a path out of the mess he got us in.

The point about learning from mistakes is indeed up for debate.

The fact he is funding what appears to be an expensive overhaul of the squad is undeniable.

 

True, But harratt an Crichlow are loans an Hudds will be paying some of their wages which wont be too high anyways. East was in an around the swindon team but wasn’t a regular starter, Young is still a youngster an wont be on much. Im guessing the likes of sutton, hendrie an Angol signed on as they struggled to find deals elsewhere. I don’t see any of them having been given a massive wage increase from their previous contracts

The example may of taken things out of proportion but the bottom line is we probably spent upwards of 10k a week on the likes of Evans, O’Donnell , Robinson, Lavery, Delfonseo, Elliot. Its good to see our Funds being utilised in a more positive manner

 

Is he funding it? Or is the club funding it with its "self sustainable" model?

 

Isn't that better than loading the club with debt and pulling the plug?

It's taken too long to get to this point under his watch, but he's got a team in place under him that has more than the potential to get us to the next level and beyond. If Sparks and his team can generate this amount of income whilst being in league 2, just imagine the potential income in league 1 and above. Should we get promoted this season I'd imagine there'll be a few buyers interested in taking the club off his hands.
The question then is, do we risk losing the steady pair of hands we have now for another potential Rahic?

As before, we need to be careful what we wish for..

 

Since I've been supporting the club I can't remember one single chairman/owner who was popular and remembered fondly.
From Stafford through to Rupp all of them were pilloried at some point.
The same accusations of not spending money or nearly (and literally) bankrupting the club trotted out for all of them.

 

You have the likes of Doyle and Vaughan in your team then we should have done a lot better but like you say his piss poor negative tactics properly fooked us over ....... soon as Doyle and Vaughan went elsewhere they magically started scoring again ........ and tbh think both got a harsh ride due to that negative sod

 

Completely agree. We as a club failed Doyle and Vaughan. Didnt play to their strengths. Neither had a 'bad record' for us either. Went elsewhere and scored for fun.

That clown Bowyer played Doyle as a number 10 and had our CBs hoofing 60 yard balls up to Vaughan....criminal.

 

If we fail (and that depends on what failure is) then this is the only season since he has been here that you can't blame Rupp. He's given the budget, brought in another recruitment guy, brought in a quality manager and let him have an assistant who could manage in this league in his own right.

If we fail, and we won't in my view, it's down to Sparky.

 

You were doing well until you mentioned Pritchard. Look where he is now. Connelly was class though.

 

Evans may have been a decent earner, we don't know.
O'Donnell took a pay cut to re-sign
Robinson & Lavery were likely on not a lot as we were the last chance saloon (they signed late)
Delfonueso & Elliot were on loan, so you would think Bolton & Salford were paying a chunk of their wages.

I think it's fair to presume Rupp has put his hand in his pocket. Sparks had already stated that our budget was going to be higher this season than last, prior to selling season tickets.

 

I usually agree with the majority of your posts Captain unfortunately I can't with regards this one, Rupp saw us through the Rahic mess and rightly so he was as much to blame as Rahic maybe more as it was all his brass.

He said we would be O/K through the Covid pandemic but he'd either had a massive part of Ollie McBurnies transfer fee to Sheffield United or he was aware it was in the pipe line and it was only a matter of time before it was paid, we didn't know at the time but IFollow was a massive earner for the club that season, so that helped financially bearing in mind the club had already got the money for season tickets sales.

With regards Marks loan we've done this one to death mate, when Mark lent the club the £1million loan there wasn't a financial institution who would have touched Bradford City 5 years after our second administration never mind giving the club a loan at 9% were told agreed by the then owners David Rhodes and Julian at the time.

The kid Sahil Bashir who's gone to Brighton for £250,000, Darryl Ombang gone to Leeds although no fee was mentioned whilst Freddy Jeffreys is being closely monitored by Southampton and Fulham could the monies from these three deals have helped boost the transfer budget, Davide Longo and his staff have once again brought even more finance to the club through sponsorship.

Sorry mate Stephan has seen us go from a club pushing to get into the Championship to a club that finished 14th in division four in (old money) the buck has to stop at his door IMHO, he'll get plenty of plaudits if we are successful this coming season lets hope we see him once again dancing on the pitch at Valley Parade after were crowned League Two Champions.

 

I’m not bothered where he is now when we signed him he had come through non league and become an established EFL player, he was no great shakes but played right supplying that front line he’d have got plenty of assists. We probably helped ruin his career, not the first time we’ve done it tbh.

 

Come from non league, back to non league. Perpetually injured. Not up to it compared to Chapman or Lord Luton. We've moved on from the dross we signed at that point (Like BRE)

 

We’ll have to see how our new signings get on, but most teams would have taken the squad Bowyer had and most didn’t complain on here at the time. It was a good squad wasted, naming one or two players doesn’t change that.

 

Rupp will get no plaudits if we do well this season Dave as people’s views are too entrenched. I don’t know what more Rupp can do this summer to redeem people’s perception. As for McBurnie money being guaranteed it was October in 2018 when the financial roof caved in and there was no guarantee that he would be sold but Rupp still bailed us out. Only Sheff Utd showed interest in McBurnie following summer and I imagine they’ve regretted it since. Sparks told me in summer 2019 that if McBurnie isn’t sold Rupp would be almost buying the club again, but Rupp felt he had a duty of care and said he would sort out the problem. I don’t think people were aware how grim our financial position was at the time. As for Lawn I agree no bank would touch us and we needed his loan. My comment is that Rupp lent interest free yet gets dogs abuse compared to Lawn who was entitled to 9% if there was no other choice.

 

Rupp may have lent it interst free its his club he's the sole owner, Mark was lending it as part owner with I believe the Rhodes family still being the major share holding there a big difference.
Maybe many would prefer an owner who showed more interest by attending games once in a while, obviously he couldn't during lock down but it would be interesting to know how many times Stefan has actually been over to take in a game since he bought our club, I accept it's not a necessity to be here all the time but to many it looks like our club is his toy rather than his racing team that are obviously his passion.
I'm far from a Rupp hater but his past record has not been great maybe one of the first things he should have done before buying a football club was have an better insight into the business IE can it be run as any other business, he certainly should have done a back ground check on is business partner.
I heard the duty of care comment before and do believe he's a man of honour, I know for a fact once the Rahic debacle had come to light he personally went round businesses that Rahic had used shall we say and offered to financially recompense them.