Stefan Rupp - An Open Letter

Genuine question - given that he's made similar promises of investment and changes of fortune and not delivered on either, why do you trust that this latest round of promises will actually come to fruition?

 

Possibly
But until the whole club is restructured i cant share your optimism

 

We get slagged off for not going along with this though even though empty promises have been made before ............. sadly a certain section of our fanbase will slag you off for being negative they are simply blinkered to whats happened over the last 7 years they think probably like Rupp that will fall into line and run down to Valley parade and spend our hard earned money on this sham

So as an act of faith after years of failure can he not extend the early bird deal to the end of May ???,
Where we can all see whats in store and what his plan is ???

We know why he wont because nothing at all will happen its just a ploy to push season tickets and sadly for him a fair few thousands aint gonba be suckered in

 

Well read that twice now and a few things stand out for me.

1. RS and SR apparently haven't been on the same page for a while but now are-that's worrying in itself
2. SR is going to buy VP
3. RS is still here
4. SR thinks throwing more money at it will improve our league position next season-it won't -it's HOW its spent that has been the problem
5. Sounds like a DoF is incoming
6. Contrition is acceptable if action follows

IF RS is taken completely out of footballing matters that would be a start-that's clearly where the problem lies.

The protest tomorrow still has to proceed to hold SR to account and that the fans won't accept statements that appear to mirror closely others where a lot was promised and nothing actually happened.

 

Remember, sharing is caring.

 

So be it.

 

In the past 8 seasons the problem has not been recruiting players of the right mentality, it’s been quality. Most good recruitment teams will research a player’s temperament. The flat issue is quality, despite your assertions of the 150+ players signed in the Rupp era precious few have gone on to bigger and better things. Excluding loans off the top of my head,
Wyke, Meredith, Paudie, McLaughlin, Ben Wilson, Halliday, Lewis, Doyle, Scannell, Payne, AOC and Vernam left to higher division clubs. Watt and the boys at Harrogate are doing well but that’s it. Feel free to add to it.

In contrast millions has been wasted on the likes of Guthrie, Theo Robinson, Derbyshire, Akpan, DMH, Ash Taylor, Threlkeld, Lavery, Angol, Delfouneso, Tom Elliot, Donaldson, McCarten, Jermaine Anderson and BRE who have plummeted down the leagues after leaving City. Then you have the likes of seemingly permanently injured players like Ismail and to a lesser extent, Jamie Walker.

City’s problem isn’t the budget, it isn’t the ability to recruit players with the right temperament, it’s the constant chopping and changing of managers and style of football by an inexperienced CEO and the inability of those at the club to plan recruitment more than ten minutes before the end of the transfer windows, leaving us in the Guthrie Zone

 

.

it will be a difficult pill to swallow if and I accept its a big if you've stopped watching something that has been a big part of yours and most fans life who have made a similar comment, in the past.

 

Is this a trick question?

 

Ifollow is a simple substitute these days, for those boycotting. Sources offering it for 50 quid for the year via dodgy firesticks are all over the place. So those threatening don’t have to go ‘cold turkey’ from City. Club won’t see a penny of their cash either. Double whammy

 

There's the problem Dave
The older end are fed up and are finding/found other things to do on match days
Fans of the future are virtually non existent they have so many options these days
The problems the club have now have far reaching consequences

 

How long does this buy them?

If everyone sat down and said fair do's over to you guys, when is an acceptable point to hold them to account and say you haven't delivered this?

It's a very open ended statement on many fronts..

How many of these points he has offered are short term fixes, that he can be judged on?

To me as a cynic, we could be here next year saying we are still in league two, we don't own the ground, we still have an over inflated squad, Director of football hasn't yet shown any change of luck etc.

Yet in Rupps defence, All could be construed as genuine long term goals and indeed all points may take more than a year a bear fruit, and that's why what has been said is raising as many questions as answers in my eyes

 

You sound like your enjoying this @borderlescott which I would I thought no one took pleasure from ?.

 

I'd have thought the contrary Steve older fans would not react to not renewing because they have been though worse times, where as may newish fans Premier League and Parky's great period they haven't seen much of the down side of supporting Bradford City, but it is what it is I personally haven't read anything in that statement to convince me Rupp realises what's require going forward, making comments about putting money in, maybe if he took a little more interest in how the vast majority of other clubs are run he would not have wasted his time or money originally.
He knew the reasons behind Julian & Mark selling because they'd gone as far as they could financially, Rupp seems to forget what he has said in past in the likes of "Matter of The Heart" where he actually states he/they would invest when required but wont throw money at the problem.

 

Given that most if not all of our budget is dictated by season ticket sales I’m not sure how they’ve come to this conclusion.

 

My thoughts are us older ones not going don't take our sons/ grandsons to the game so fans of the future are drying up
I would have a job convincing my grandsons to watch the poor fayre we have been subjected to lately
Don't know about you whether it's rose tinted spectacles or not but I was happier going in the late 60s and 70s we were a poor team a ramshackle ground with not many expectations but somehow I felt more connected and couldn't wait for the next match
Rupp is well wide of the mark with his "statement" as you say nothing concrete no blue print for long and short term future and very little idea as to what/who the problems are I take no optimism from it
Tipping money into it at this stage/structure is not going to solve much only waste it begs the question why now and not when we were a top end L1 side theres so many anomalies

 

If we are to take this statement as face value ( I don’t by the way I think it’s bollocks)

He missed the whole point of why we are struggling, yes we need more budget to attract players who can play for this club (I have beens saying this for 6 years).

It’s our infrastructure that will hold us back:
Medical
Coaching staff
Trainning facilitates that are in operable from Nov - March
Poor pitch Nov - April

If these are not addressed it will be same results. We need a strategic plan to address those points. They’ve been neglected as much as anything else.

 

If you have X, can you please vote on whether you wish for the continued protest tomorrow.
It's very important that the club understand the wishes of the support base

https://x.com/bcf_independent/status/1773374615009530273?s=20

 

I don't do X etc but just looking at your link around 800 people have said for the protest to continue.