Interesting Interview with David Sharpe

Refreshing honesty….I like him…

Eventual CEO imho?

 

Eventual? If he is going to be on a full time basis on a full time wage, that should have been his role has soon as he stepped foot in the door

 

Sharpe mentioning training grounds and how he'd like a new one because things can always be better. Good luck with that one....

 

I feel it’s something we should’ve prioritised if Rupp wasn’t going to buy back the ground all those years ago. He’s relatively put very little in the club and had he bought a piece of land and built a suitable training complex, then his alleged £10 million asking price might have had some justification.

 

Bit early mate

 

I would like a Ferrari for Christmas
Think we will both be disappointed

 

It’s a disgrace Sharpe won’t speak, what’s he doing?
Sharpe speaks: It’s a disgrace he’s only doing it to sell tickets. Talk about damned if he doesn’t and damned if he does.

 

Never too early to peddle bullshit mate!

 

I saw that Gareth Evans podcast clip was going around again over the weekend. Where he basically says there's something wrong in the way the club is run and it will never go forwards with its current setup. But he mentioned the training ground and again sparks the whole discussion again. Evans saying even he came back a few years ago, there's no nutrition, the team have 3 microwaves they can use in the corner or the canteen.

We need a training base, purely to be a more professional outfit for my liking. I'm not going into the big "why do we train at a school" debate which comes up every few month. My stance on it is, I don't care how good the facilities are at Woodhouse, they could be the best around but at the end of the day, it's a school, it's not a professional look for a football club. It will always feel less than and that's the problem with the running of the club, it's just all "less than" or hell, it's mediocrity.

 

When I worked in the College of Health and Social Care at Salford Uni, which is going back a decade now they had strong links with Salford Reds Rugby League. The uni was well-known for its sport science and rehabilitation work. I saw Aguero a couple of times there, Olympic athletes etc. Top quality facilities.

Notwithstanding the training ground issue, I would have thought that the club could have built a similar relationship with a West Yorkshire based university with similar facilities and expertise.

 

Naturally the club have a good relationship with Bradford University. Although I don’t know how good there sports facilities there. They don’t have the best reputation for Sports.

Leeds Beckett over at Headingley has decent facilities and has a better sporting reputation. I went there for 4 years so seen some of the facilities on offer. Both Leeds Rhinos and Yorkshire use the facilities in pre season testing which shows its qualities.

Although I would much rather us build our own training ground rather than sharing other facilities. Just funding and finding the land proves tricky with our self-sustainable approach. Fleetwood’s new training ground cost them £8 million and that’s about level we’d have to spend.

 

I can hear those sighs of relief......all is well again.

There are idiots in our fanbase who will take these words at face value - like they did Rupps open letter.

 

Yes if Rupp wanted him to do that job he would have terminated Sparks.

 

Wrong time of year, but a conspiracy theory every now and again pops up!

 

It’s not a priority though …That’s the issue.
Three priorities

Getting out of this division
Owning VP
Owning our own testing and training facility

All are mega bucks .

 

I know it's a huge expense, but so are signing 15 players a season with none of them making much to any progression without much to an resale value because so few make steps forward. It's a tough one to prioritise for me. As Evans said on the podcast, it had been 10 years since he left City and since they had had a promotion, a few long cup runs, change of ownership and he assumed in 10 years the club had made the step forward in the world, but everything was the same as the decade prior.

I think like with the stadium ownership, we need to make steps into showing that we are at least publicly, wanting to make steps forward in the world. Even if it's down the pecking order of things, we need to look like a club with a plan, rather than one that gets to share a field with the year 10s on a Thursday afternoon. It cant be seen as a good thing for morale sharing space with a school. We've made our way through dozens and dozens of players, players who have left rivals, who have recent promotions under their belts, loanees from above with promise (at the time).... and throughout the months they all look a shell of what's expected. Too many get "Bradford-ised" in no time and surely it's got to be something we look at as to why.

 

So we agree on priorities , it’s the chicken and egg scenario when there isn’t (endless) investment, …….which comes first? A conundrum Jordan I agree.

We saw the L1 squad depth standard last night, it was honestly worse than ours on that show.

 

If you achieve the first (hopefully via promotion) then the same priorities remain.

 

One interesting thing Sharpe said was that he will look at offering players he wants to keep new contracts after the January window has shut and not wait until the end of the season like we have done for many years.
I wonder if he will offer Jamie Walker a new contract?

 

I doubt he will offer Jamie a new contract I reckon he was of those fans' favourites he mentioned.