Most liked posts in thread: Would you be happy with this guy in charge

You mean the three seasons of championship football whilst we've been languishing in L1/2? The three promotion campaigns he's overseen, two of which automatic?

The improvement of their academy from a cat 4 to a cat 2, so they can become truly self sufficient and bring their own lads through?

The investment in their training ground and scouting system so that they have proper infrastructure set up for the future?

The ongoing process of building a new stadium?

The continued high profit and reinvestment of exciting youngsters?

Yeh, terrible record that. Much rather have Rupp and Rhodes.

 

How many football clubs run at a profit every year anyway? Without looking it up I’m going to guess very few. Losses are part and parcel of the game and until very recently we’ve been fairly stable from a financial viewpoint. Truth is, we’ve also wasted a ridiculous amount of money over the years.

Parkinson signs Aaron McLean who turned out to be useless and there went the bulk of the Wells money. We then go on another miracle cup run, increase the budget and he wastes it again by signing high calibre players who simply didn’t justify their wage. Paul Anderson, Steve Davies, Mark Marshall, Mark Yeates and Josh Morris, all on big first team wages, all warming the bench depleting our large budget.Before you know it there goes another windfall wasted signing absolute crap or attacking players our manager simply didn’t know how to get the best out of.

We then rake it in again for what seemed like the 100th time with the Wisdom, Wells and Wyke money. Where does it go? Signing more duds like Akpan, Wright, Scannel etc as well as funding the dream of an absolute lunatic.

Another windfall wasted. Surely we won’t strike lucky again?

Only we do. Mcburnie gets sold to Sheffield and we net a mammoth £3M. This time it goes back towards paying back a multi millionaire who refuses to accept accountability for his self-indicted mess.

Appalling from a so called professional club. Over several years, through a combination of mismanagement and woeful decision making we’ve pissed literally millions down the drain and the only answer you’ve got for it is that the club run at a loss? Give over.

 

Whether you agree or not Jon, Rupps tenure has been nothing short of rubbish. The man has been at the top whilst the club has gone backwards. Relegation, freefall all in his tenure. This season, as the owner we kept hold of Bowyer in his tenure and saw the team drift away from promotion places to mid table obscurity. His tenure, his call ultimately.

So yes, I would have MacAnthony at this stage. After all, we have a club in decline, sod all investment in infrastructure and a vision of living off scraps. It may be my club but I would like some morsels of excitement, energy and bloody vision both off and on the field to excite me. The idea of lower league and khazi football as the normal, don't excite me. Sorry.

 

You sing Rupp’s praises but look down on an owner who’s achieved far more?

Can’t get my head around that one.

 

Ill founded because they don't agree with your original comment? Give over soft lad. There would be no demos at the ground, there wasn't any last season in the worst season i've seen in 40 years of football at Valley Parade. And how exctly would you 'expect' championship football, Peterborough are a club from a small town with no history of any success until MacAnthony took over. Their wage structure is comparable with ours, yet they have league 1 football, have played three seasons in the championship in the last eleven seasons, currently have a category 2 academy, have a new stadium on the horizon. I guess some see facts as ill founded but each to their own.

 

FFS, that’s like living in a huge house, driving a flash motor and taking expensive holidays, paid for on a credit card and hoping for a lottery win.

Maybe if Rhodes, who’s been at the helm for the majority of the last 20 years or so, and the saviour Rupp, had invested some of those windfalls in a proper scouting network, an academy or better youth system, the club wouldn’t be wasting millions on Josh Wrights, Joe Rileys, Hope Akpans, Jack Paynes, Sean Scannells, Jermaine Andersons, Kurtis Guthries, Butterfield, Seedorf, Bruenker, Alex Jones, Rouven, Raeders. Wasting millions renewing the squad. Every. Single. Season.

All of the money that’s come in has been pissed away on short termism and it’s failed. A well run business wouldn’t be begging its customers to pay for a scoreboard or to decorate a changing room. That’s the sort of stuff community clubs like Thackley or Eccleshill do.

At least Posh fans have hope, solid foundations and a belief that things can better, that the next star will be from their academy and then sold on to fund the next generation. Accrington, the same, a chairman who invests in the right things, keeping the club free of debt and making sure it’s there for the next generation of fans.

What have City fans got? An invisible CEO and an owner with zero connection to the City who in my opinion needs to shit or get off the pot. In my opinion the club appears to have been poorly managed to different degrees for a long time, take the Parky years and 1996-2000 out there has been nothing but failure for most of the last half century.

 

Shall we compare it to Julian Rhodes track record?

People in glass houses and all that!

 

Ill founded outbursts. I'll assume that's a thinly veiled dig at me so I'm biting.

He took over at Posh in 2006 when they were in L2 and we were in L1. Let's briefly break down what our respective clubs have achieved from then until now.

We have dropped a division. We have a stadium with almost 15 more years of wear and tear that we patch up and don't own. We train at a school. We've had 1 player score 20+ goals in a season. We've had unparalleled Cup luck and the money earned not invested. We've had record transfer fees from our players and lucky sell ons of former youth players and the money hasn't been invested. We have the lowest level youth academy. We have an excellent fan base but didn't time it correctly to increase prices in line with our success and we're now stuck with cheap tickets.

Contrast with Posh since 2006. They are a division higher and have spent 3 seasons in the Championship. They've had several 20+ goal scorers that they've sold on for massive profit. They've used that profit to build an infrastructure which makes them sustainable including a Cat2 youth system . A new ground on the way with support of investors and developers. Saleable assets in their squad that could wipe out the debt to the chairman if he desired.

Who's made the most progress in the last 15 years? Who's still making progress? Who's bumbling along from season to season?

Imagine what he could have done here in the same timescale.

 

He's right though. Potential is massive at Bradford.

Unfortunately, just hadn't had owners that don't want to drive that potential forward.

 

A couple of seasons in the championship and usually at the top end of league one whilst playing decent football and always scoring lots of goals?

Any chance of us treading water for a bit?

 

Unless we strike lucky like we did with Phil Parkinson. I know Parky has his critics but he along with Geoffrey Richmond are pretty much the only reason i've ever seen any success at this club.

 

I don't think the jump to the championship is insurmountable for any of those clubs, we nearly got there on a far lower wage structure than the likes of Wigan, Sheffield Utd and Millwall. The problem comes the season after as the likes of Rotherham, Barnsley and Luton this season were finding. I think the the discrepancy between the Premiership and the championship is the main cause of concern for lower league football. I think it was Andy Holt who made the comparison of TV monies this season, Leeds were in line for 3million for going up as champions whereas Norwich as bottom premier club were in line for over £100 million. For long term stability in all divisions this helps no club at all.

 

Think City fans have had the patience of a saint, since Rhodes, Rupp & Rahic have been in charge. Since 2003 when Rhodes took control, apart from 2013 & the FA cup run what success have we had? What developments have been made off the field? We are run like a non league club, on hand me downs & goodwill. Any money we have had has gone, non invested in the long term future of the club.

 

That comes back as a brothel in West Bowling.
Anything you want to tell us?

 

The Rupp, Rahic scenario was strange to say the least.I've owned several
businesses in my time and all were within my capabilities in regards the
understanding of the kind of business I undertook.

It helps a great deal to like and have knowledge of what you are undertaking.

They say "partnerships are the worst ships that ever sailed" and there is truth
in that to a degree because you have to have two or more people with the same
mindset and ambition if it's to have a chance to succeed.Stick a lot of hard work,
dedication and sacrifice with adequate funding and give it your best.

So,looking at Rack and Ruin,they didn't even know each other,Rahic had little money
but lots of dreams he turned into nightmares and Rupp went along with it and found
himself adrift in a boat and he can't swim.

No passion from Rupp,he doesn't care about City or football so where does that leave us?
He left the job to Rhodes who has no financial input as far as I know although sure he cares
about the club so all in all,a new football dedicated owner with adequate finance would be
welcome in my view.

 

You make some interesting points, along with Park in Post 67. You and I are of a similar age but I don't agree it was Rugby over football. Remember we had 2 League Clubs until 1960s and when my old man first took me it was BPA who were the top dogs in Div. 2 with us in Div. 3 North. BPA had the bigger crowds and better stadium, then failed. Bradford Northern, as was, had success, then failed to rise again to huge success and fail once more to a point where, after poor ownership over several years they will probably never get back, with no sign of a rich backer.
In our case we have always been the poor relation. When I started going at age 5 having been given the choice of BPA or City I picked City because they had the better brass band, like you do at that age. Even then VP was run down, had a poor playing area and for several years was only three sided because there was no money to develop.
Against all this through the years Bradford was a City with wealth, at one time it had a higher number of Rolls Royce per head than London and whilst some of the 'Wool Barons' gave themselves to Civic life for the City they did so in most cases out of self interest, putting their wealth into their own families, property e.g. the big houses of Nab Wood in Shipley or Baildon or Ilkley for example. They were not too interested in things like Valley Parade.
That has been the case all my life. Yes, we have had the odd money man, Stafford and Geoffrey possibly but not a true multi millionaire and I suspect we never will.
Bradford per se is not seen as an attractive place to the outside world as I know through my business career. We have a low income economy, hence our Season Ticket price and the demographic by country of origin and other sporting backgrounds goes against. When you get Manningham based Arsenal 'supporters' ringing for League Cup tickets a few seasons ago then asking where the ground is, yes I was there when it happened, then you see just how attractive we are. We have a massive problem in attracting investment. Contrary to some on here we are not a huge Club, we do not have a fully supportive Local Authority unless we have a Cup run and then they look for free tickets.
BCFC is a reflection of the City as are the Bulls and BPA and the Speedway and the Stockcars and even local league cricket.
I know a lot on here don't agree with my apparent support for Stefan but rid of his appalling partner he is the best we are likely to have for a while. I have said several months ago I forecast up to 5 years to get over Rahic and until we can do that I fear there will be little interest from new buyers. Possibly Stefan can get some additional investment, I'm not in a position to know but I do know without the money that has gone in since the departure of Rahic we may be another BPA or Bulls.

 

We seem to be infested with a complete lack of ambition. An owner thats seen us completely mismanage a playing budget, assemble a god awful squad, relegated, drifting outside the playoffs, 5 managers in 2 years, rotten pitch, reduced attendances and eroded trust between club and fans. That’s the best we can hope for is it?

 

2 seasons in league 2 when he first took over, back to back promotions to the championship followed by relegation. Promoted back to the championship for two seasons then relegated back to where they have now been for 8 seasons. Depends on what the criteria are for rating such a track record but before he took over Peterborough were the perennial bottom division side, only becoming a football league club in the sixties. For a club with little in terms of history and supporter base i'd say MacAnthoy's record since becoming chairman/owner at Peterborough, in terms of league position and transfer dealings has been undoubted success.

 

Decaying stadium we don’t own in a less than salubrious part of town. Fan base propped up by cheap season tickets, a fan base which I maintain will die out as a proportion of them move away from the city and their offspring will find other clubs, an acceptance of mediocrity, a history of pissing about in the lower leagues and a completely disinterested council. Apart from that. Massive potential.