Most liked posts in thread: Takeover Rumours

Rahic was a former player and very much a 'football man', the problem is he was a pretender who thought he knew best. His performance at Bradford City was the worst of any individual in living memory as far as I'm concerned.

I would back any number of people to do a better job than Rahic even without a strong understanding of the game because they'd be able to do what Rahic could not, and that's seek out advise and listen to others.

 

Well, that's Bradford City. But hey, we're all still here supporting them. Moaning, groaning and sick as pigs about the state of our club like we always have been. All of us suffer from PTBD - Post Traumatic Bantams Disorder. And it's really hard to shake.

 

I've never seen true cause to doubt any of these WAGMI guys. All I've seen is people recoil in fear. That's fine, I'm not crying that we weren't taken over, and it makes Crawley a fun experiment for us to watch from afar.

But the idea Rupp is definitely a safer pair of hands is absolutely laughable! The guy is a disaster, one of the worst performing owners in the entire EFL, and his cocky CEO is not doing much better.

I have no idea why people are content with where we are as a club.

It is not going well

 

His reward for delivering success.

i dont expect owners to work for free and not take dividends if we are enjoying success

I said it at the time but the Lawn/Rhodes era, with Parky at the helm, was the golden era. Punching above our weight with magical cup runs, achieving a promotion, and having a team full of unforgettable characters…… and we were paying ridiculously cheap ST prices to get in and see it. Packed houses for the cup games too. Magical times.

Yes he was outspoken but Lawn had ambition and we gambled within reason to improve our squad. Not this pathetic situation we are trapped in now from the bean counters.

 

Here's a novel idea @Park bantam - you know when we sign a player and everyone says it's a terrible signing and you say "let's see how he plays, maybe he'll come good"

Well, how about you just give these folks a chance to explain their proposal clearly before you rush to judgements. How about that?

 

I’ve been bored stiff, you have, everyone has for 3-4 years now. It’s a disappointing chore going to the games.
Kids are losing interest, even adults. Football is supposed to be your weekend distraction, your enjoyment.
I’d be more than happy to toss that coin, take a risk and try something drastically different.
A risk, yeah we know the potential consequences of a risk.
Right now, I think there’s an equally big risk from staying as we are, which is a continuing downwards trend with no sign of it being averted.
Bring on some adventure is what I say.

 

Realistically I don’t think any takeover from these will happen, but you talk of shit hitting the fan as if it hasn’t already. Your friend Rupp has help put this club on its knees, two more seasons like this and the budget for a sustainable club will be even smaller and the quality of player coming in even worse. Pardon those who don’t want to see the club die a slow death which is the path it’s heading down without investment and proper leadership. You also claimed last season Bolton were heading to non league and potentially out of business, how did that go?

 

Daft thing is it wouldn't have taken a huge investment this season to have had the fans on Rupps side, half a million on wages for three decent league 2 players would arguably see us top three. And with that a chance to get that investment back with a promotion. Instead he's chosen to do bugger all bar tell Sparks to steady the ship from a financial point of view. Which to be fair he has but to the detriment of the product on the pitch. Risk versus reward, something I'll expect he looks at every week with his other business dealings. Just not with the football club...

 

Irrespective of how this saga has ended, the last couple of days has probably been the most promising and exciting few days we've had in the last 4/5 years. And what has it consisted of? A couple of random American crypto investors hosting a Twitter space claiming they were buying us.

We're that starved of success and positivity that the first sign of Rupp being replaced with someone who actually wants to progress the club, nomatter how flimsy and distant the connection, it created a buzz that the on field performances could only dream of.

And that in itself is a damning indictment of Rupp's reign at VP.

 

this has always been the absolute crux of my issue with rupps time as owner. as I always bang on about, we were told he had the finances that rhodes and lawn specifically didn't that could 'take us to the next level', and yet we're now run on more of a shoestring than when rhodes and lawn had us. its a fecking disgrace

 

Hi Jon. When I left this Board some weeks ago I made a pact with myself to only post what I thought might be informative matters and not to cause any more confrontation, hence my post on my part with the exit of Rahic. Sadly after the Stevenage game I let that slip which I say here and now was a mistake I greatly regret, I should have known better.
Your post leads me to the informative issues. The Associate Directors don't really fall into Honorary status, we are there to help and offer advice, do tasks if asked and so on. My task list over the years is as long as your arm, for example. As you say we also pay for the 'privilege'.
The term Honorary both in law and fact means no power or authority and thus no corporate responsibility. ML is Honorary in his position, I know he has opinions and expresses them, why wouldn't he but as for heavily involved, no. Mark missed almost all the closed doors games and spends time in Spain at his house, he's there now as far as I know. As to the rest of us Associates, several do give advice and are sounding boards if asked. A panel of ADs lead by Steve Longbottom have meetings with the Club at regular intervals and in my case I'm at the ground with various matters once a week on average.
Hope that helps.

 

If Stefan Rupp went out and appointed Neil Warnock as Director of Football, half of our problems would be solved over night.

If we have to give him until the end of the season as manager, so be it.

That's what United are doing with Ralf Rangnick.

Good God, you could imagine how the tension would ease almost instantly among the fan base knowing we had someone like Neil at the club, taking control.

 

Probably really well and we are stuck with this German plum

 

Deflection tactics. Our club and fans are premier league at this stuff. Babbling on about how poorly run a club that's top end of league one and in recent times seen championship football is.

We've even got the "club representative" @wetherbywhaler telling us how poor 'Premier league' Leeds Uniteds training facilities are.

Meanwhile we're enduring our worst season for a decade after 5 years of year on year decline.

But yeah, we've nothing to moan about.

 

I think its less about ownership, than it is about leadership. You can succeed purely on the basis of a decent manager having a decent budget and applying decent coaching methods, but what's really needed is a structure within a club that see's it being able to run well on (ironically) a sustainable basis. We hear that word all the time - but we haven't been operating sustainably at all. All we've done is reduce the operating costs that Rahic saddled us with to match the income we generate. We're in a cycle of decline and every new manager means we start again from scratch because of how the club is set up. There's nothing sustainable about that.

Look at the very top end of the food chain. Pep and Klopp succeed as brilliantly as they do - not just because they're excellent managers with good budgets (huge budgets in City's case), they succeed because there's a clear ethos and vision from the top of the club down and other people in key roles are aligned to that vision, and highly capable of delivering it. Then contrast that with Man United - despite appointing some of the world's most proven and successful coaches, and providing sizeable playing budgets, they've being going backwards and backwards. Why? Because they're completely disjointed, lacking in a proper football strategy and the structure to enable a successful coach just isn't there. The scale at this level is different, of course, but its reductive to just expect a formula of Hughes + decent budget = promotion to apply. It may happen, of course, but Sparks/Rupp are responsible for the other tools and resources he'll need to be successful. Part of why we are where we are is precisely because we've underestimated the other key elements beyond manager and budget, in building successful sides.

 

The daft thing about all this is had the powers that be decided to show a modicum of ambition in what is a terrible standard of a division we wouldn't be talking about January transfer windows or Dereks alleged poor style of football. A couple of quality signings in the goal departments and we'd have been in the top three off the back of the glut of chances created. Instead, Sparks remit from his gaffer was all out sustainability, get those books balanced at all costs. And with those cost come a caveat. That being signing players no one else really wanted, signings from clubs that finished below us last season. Should any of us really be surprised that the cries of promotion and not accepting mediocrity come a poor second to striving for that sustainability. I guess I should just be happy to have a club to support eh?

 

Very exciting news that we have more than one group interested in buying the club.

Finally gives us the chance to have a full discussion on how we should be pluralising consortium.

Heralding from Wyke, I'd always go for Consortia, a consequence of the relentless classics focussed learning at the esteemed Wyke Manor learning establishment.

Consortium's is probably also ok.

 

With great respect this post only exaggerates the disconnect between the club and fans
The team are floundering on the pitch and fans are supposed to be grateful for a few shiny new seats to sit on
Fans patience is wearing very thin we need progress on the pitch and quick or the shiny seats won't be getting much use
Hopefully one of your projects is to find an interested owner and a manager who doesn't trot out the same old post match post mortem again respect to you but this club is failing where it really matters ON THE PITCH
Happy Christmas to you too and am 100% with you for an unlikely promotional new year

 

To be honest, this is the post that Wetherby should be responding to - there is balance and passion in these words, not the 'hysteria' Roger referred to

 

If this is kosher, bring it on. This club has enormous potential, a passionate fan base that either can’t remember or doesn’t know what real success looks like. We need a complete transformation, people need to be willing to embrace change and move with the times.

As long as our name, and the tragic heritage that sits at the core of our football club are protected, I think everything else is fair game.