The Narrative

To try and get some perspective into this last week’s happenings, here’s my take on the last 2 years or so. As the Rahic regime collapsed and Hopkin left Rupp turns to Rhodes in desperation. Rhodes, not unreasonably, appoints Bowyer as manager hoping he can keep us up but the rubbish he has inherited means he can’t. Down we go. Bowyer tells Rhodes he needs a complete clearout and Rhodes persuades Rupp that this will give us a great chance of bouncing back up. Rupp agrees to fund a big summer. So Bowyer goes ahead with his recruiting. Unfortunately, it turns out he’s clueless. He makes several useless signings as well as adding Vaughan and Donaldson, one past it as it turned out and one a known trouble maker. He also falls out with Doyle. Despite an encouraging start the wheels come off and by the end of November there is huge disquiet amongst the fans. Rhodes realises Bowyer must go and sometime in December he gets in touch with Stuart who agrees to come back. Rupp is mightily pigged off by developments and insists that there must be no more big spending. He’s won over, though, by Rhodes’ view that Stuart was badly treated by Rahic and that he will vastly increase season ticket sales, but to defray the cost we need to get rid of Vaughan and Doyle. Off they go. Before he’s officially announced Rhodes tells Stuart that we will need strikers but they must be cheap. So Stuart suggests Novak, whom he knows from Scunthorpe, and Guthrie. How he knows about him I don’t know but he does and so Guthrie arrives. If you’re sceptical about this think how Stuart was praising Guthrie to the heights in pre-season, even to the extent of claiming two as yet unsubstantiated bids for him. Through his Rangers connection we also bring in Middleton on loan. Soon after Bowyer is gone and Stuart returns.

So the messiah comes for a third time, but he’s hamstrung by a terrible squad left by Bowyer. Nothing improves but Stuart’s been promised money in the summer to revamp the squad.

Then covid strikes. Rapp and Rhodes are badly spooked by the projected mayhem in the English game. Massive losses, dozens of clubs folding, wholesale restructuring of the leagues. Rupp lays down the law that the only thing that matters from now on is survival. No summer spending, cut costs wherever, and maintain financial stability come what may. But as the new season appears on the horizon, season tickets have to be sold and enthusiasm engendered in the fanbase.

This is where it gets very interesting. Rupp is insistent that we spend as little as possible because the whole league structure could collapse at any time. So two more people have to be drawn into the narrative: Sparks and McCall. Ryan is told that he will have to put a positive spin on the summer. Do this and you will get the reward of being the next CEO. Ryan gladly agrees. Stuart is told that he must spend as little as possible, just enough to keep us ticking over for the season to come. No promotion bid or anything as reckless as that. Do this and we’ll give you an extra year on your contract and money in 2021 when you can clear out all the dross you’ve inherited. Stuart agrees. There are now four people involved in a conspiracy to deceive the Bradford City supporters into believing something that will never happen. We won’t go for promotion, we won’t replace Vaughan, we won’t make any meaningful signings, but all the time we’ll say that’s just what we will do.

Ryan and Stuart play their parts well for a while. They both tell us how we won’t let Vaughan go for nothing, and certainly without an adequate replacement, and then when he of course does go they spin it to look like we did everything we could to keep him. They tell us we have numerous transfer targets but none of them materialise. Stuart says he is happy with a small squad when he is nothing of the sort but he doesn’t mind. His reward will come.

They hope for the best, but things start to go wrong. Stuart is a terrible manager and the wheels come off even sooner than anyone imagined. He is also very poor at keeping his mouth shut and lets the cat out of the bag on a number of occasions, not least after the Orient game this week when he made reference to having another 18 months to turn things round. For some weeks they’ve been damping down the expectations that they themselves never had.

And so it came to pass this week. Ryan and Stuart get their reward for their work in the summer. The positive spin about January has begun. We can all look forward to a bright future next year; if we are still in the league.

Ladies and gentlemen, I put it to you that we have been unforgiveably deceived. And all four of the people mentioned above are part of that deception.