Statement from the chairman

I wasn't the one that posed the original question.

 

It's debatable. Football was a very different game back then so theres an argument that getting to the PL and remaining there was a very similar achievement.

 

And City still have a better PL record than Hudders

 

Geoffrey Richmond. It's obvious.

 

I like your style kida .

 

I would have thought so, apparently not.

 

Fact mate, for all Hoyle's cash
P W D L F A GD P
45 Bradford City 76 14 20 42 68:138 -70 62
46 Huddersfield Town 76 12 17 47 50:134 -84 53
47 Blackpool FC 38 10 9 19 55:78 -23 39
48 Barnsley FC 38 10 5 23 37:82 -45 35
49 Swindon Town 42 5 15 22 47:100 -53 30

 

Given the club is now out of the post-Richmond financial nightmare, the major legacy for me is the stadium - one of the key reasons we are described as having 'potential' by MacAnthony.

I think the stadium is great, the location isn't ideal, but I certainly wouldn't and never have advocated moving to Odsal or the M606 or anywhere else.

However, the sheer carnage Richmond left (and to blame the Rhodes family is folly) wasn't worth it, IMHO.

I didn't mess my pants just because we were playing Manchester United in embarrassingly lopsided matches, but I get that some loved it. The best season we ever had was the promotion TO the Premier League. Fantastic football, great away days, the pride of seeing City defeating some very good, very big clubs, and AUTOMATIC promotion at the end of it. Glory days.

But if you said someone was going to come in and overspend monstrously, restore our position as PL whipping boys, and dish out another decade of sheer decline, it would be a 'no' from me.

Yes, we all know you can achieve in football by spending far more than you have; that's not unique to us. But it's a stupid, stupid policy, and until they balance the game out more evenly, it's about the only way most of us can succeed... temporarily. Sad.

 

Yes, you read it right. Lawn might not be everyones cup of tea, but he was a far more astute businessman than Richmond and ran our club better, and didnt leave us with the carnage Richmond did


If I had the choice of either of them coming back, no brainer for me, its the lad from Thorpe Edge

 

I think when people make statement like this it needs to be balanced out with the fact that he threatened to put us into admin because his car was damaged and we were potentially months away from ripping out the seats and taking them up to Odsal.

The Mark Lawn era brought about it's fair share of financial chaos.

 

We were a basket case when he came in tbf. Took us to Wembley twice and got a fair share of PL scalps as well from our cup runs.Arguably sweeter than some of our PL victories as we achieved them from the lower leagues with a team that cost about 14k and that all went to the Co-op for Jim . He also didn't do a runner and left us in a better position when he sold us than when he bought us. Good manager, good squad that the fans loved, all round good vibes at the club and looking up not down. Not a perfect chairman by any stretch (ITS LIKE WE BEAT BARCELONA), but to me a heck of a lot more good than bad. Richmond achieved some historic stuff but broke the club in doing so then ran away. V much tarnishes what he achieved for me.

I think it's fair to say Rupp at present would have to get 20 goals a season from the directors box to even get anywhere near either of those two.

 

Yep that the balance. I think it can be reasonably summed us as....

1) Mark Lawn (and Rhodes) with Parkinson.....amazing - arguably the best times

2) Mark Lawn (and Rhodes) without Parkinson.....utterly terrible - arguably the worst times.

Balance. I would think the real difference maker behind the two would be obvious though.

 

The main difference to me is that when one of them left, he left us in the biggest financial mess in our history. The other one left us in a better state than we he arrived, and we still had some success and good times along the way.

 

Find it hard to disagree with any of that Mark Lawn was and still is a City fan at heart he was very much the driving force between him and JR not forgetting he had a personal tragedy to deal with during his tenure I know how much that would have affected him I went through exactly the same at the same time business was the last thing on my mind
He needs some recognition for what he did through adversity granted a lot of the success could be attributed to PP but he still oversaw all the progress
Mind boggling to imagine what a Mark Lawn/ Geoffrey Richmond partnership would have been like we would have been either Champions League or National League either option would have been a distinct possibility
Mr Rupp would have to sign Messi and take us to a Champions league final for me to believe he is the right man for us too many false promises am afraid

 

Yep. Guess that comes down to timing rather than ability though.

 

https://www.bradfordcityfc.co.uk/news/2020/may/rhodes-message-to-supporters/

Now this is a more balanced and stark view of things. The circumstances that the game finds itself in ARE a threat to the survival of the club. The owner is committed and will provide a further level of financial support, but we'll only survive through the sort of concerted effort that was needed to pull us through 2 administrations.

Anyone who thought 'all is well, Rupp will just fund us until the fog clears' was dreaming.

 

A very well balanced realistic statement from Julian, all please read...

 

It was Parky that put this club back to being self sustainable. Those two cup runs and the success of Wells did this, nothing else. I guess its all down to the interpretation of successful. But if you're asking me to relive an era that brought me the most joy and the best football its the Richmond era by a country mile.