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Inspector · Sep 2, 2018

What happened to the radio Leeds Monday night programme that had the manager, Mason or a player discussing all things at the club?

HUDDERSSBANTAM · Sep 2, 2018

Inspector said: ↑

What happened to the radio Leeds Monday night programme that had the manager, Mason or a player discussing all things at the club?
Click to expand...

It only happens when we win back to back games.

Inspector · Sep 2, 2018

HUDDERSSBANTAM said: ↑

It only happens when we win back to back games.
Click to expand...

Mothballed then.

Botswana Bantam · Sep 2, 2018

Fordy117 said: ↑

Make it clear.

COLLINS OUT!
EDIN OUT!

People need to stop pussy footing around now!
Click to expand...

Is there a buyer for the club looking to invest? Not heard of one.

Fordy117 · Sep 2, 2018

Botswana Bantam said: ↑

Is there a buyer for the club looking to invest? Not heard of one.
Click to expand...

And you won't.

Did you know about EdIn coming in to buy City.

The key is people knowing the club is for sale then people/groups might be interested in buying the club.

RCarol · Sep 2, 2018

Onside said: ↑

By Alex Scott

Where do you even start?

It’s not good, is it? There are dismal away defeats. There are dismal away defeats against ten men. There are dismal away defeats against ten men where your only chance is a soft penalty. And then there is whatever that was.

They say it’s sometimes harder to play against ten men. City partially proved that on Saturday as they were thoroughly outplayed by an outnumbered Fleetwood Town. That said, they didn’t look up to much against eleven either.

At times during their abject second half performance you began to wonder how few opposition players it would take before that City team would look like an adequate third division team. Nine? Six? Eight, but their keeper has his hands tied behind his back?

It’s not good, is it? The way this team plays and the futility you feel when they inevitably fall behind is disappointingly reminiscent of the last City team that was relegated from this division. For what I am sure are many good attributes I’ve not had a chance to see yet, George Miller and Eoin Doyle are demonstrating a little too much of the Moses Ashikodis for this fan’s liking.

The team looks out of their depth in a pool too deep, with their lifeguard stood watching pensively on the side, blaming them for losing their shape as they drown. The shape is the least of their worries.

Fellow Bradfordian Adil Rashid played in a Test Match for England recently where he didn’t score a run, take a catch, or take a wicket. England still won the game. Whilst a team can probably carry one Adil – up against a collapsible middle order at least – building an entire squad in his image seems to be an admittedly admirably parochial, but ultimately ill-advised, strategic decision.

If you’ve seen City at all this season, I doubt you really need me to fill in any blanks about what happened on Saturday. They could have fallen behind immediately, twice, but didn’t before City’s defence broke out its already well practised Keystone Cops rendition. Eoin Doyle cooly converted a soft penalty against the run of play, before Wes Burns slid in rashly on Adam Chicksen and saw red just before half time.

In fairness, after restricting myself to the Barnsley and Southend games thus far, the first half was certainly the best 45 minutes I’ve seen this season. The subsequent imbalance in personnel from the red card led to a surprisingly positive half time where dreams of maybe creating a chance from open play in the second half took hold throughout the away end.

***

Nine months ago to the day, City battled to a 2-1 victory on the same ground maintaining their run of two and half years mostly unbroken play off football. 2018 had promise. Watching City attempt to replicate that comeback in the second half brought that contrast to bear.

Not one of that squad was in today’s squad. Nor anyone in the dugout. That team in January wasn’t close to the strongest side we’ve had over recently years, but it was competent, committed and organised.

Not one of this squad has yet demonstrated in a City shirt they are an improvement upon any of that squad in January.

The second half performance was abject. At times, it bordered on performance art. A dispiriting cocktail of several experienced professionals abdicating responsibility whilst hiding from the ball, and many young players who whilst trying admirably, had, at best, been put in a position to fail by their manager, or, at worst, had been hung out to dry in an attempt to deflect pressure off himself.

It became the latest in a run of matches where you stare at the names of the players who finished the game and wonder what on earth happened during it to lead to that jumble.

City finished a game chasing a goal with two inexperienced wingers (one of whom was a full back on debut), a teenage attacking midfielder (in his fourth game) as primary playmaker, the squad’s only striker in the hole, two full backs in a back three and a combined 89 City appearances across the pitch (24 of them from Adam Chicksen). Their captain, star player, and Australian international defender had been withdrawn to enable this.

It has become clear over the first few weeks of the season as they have been routinely outplayed and outcoached that there is a fatal problem with either the message or the messenger. It’s becoming clearer by the week that it’s probably both.

In 1969, Canadian academic and hierarchologist Dr Lawrence J. Peter famously established the Peter Principle, which went along the lines that every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.

Forty two years later, former businessmen and City chairmen Mark Lawn and Julian Rhodes established the less well-known Peter Jackson Principle, which went along the lines that it is never too soon to admit a mistake when it is apparent to everyone paying attention. Both of these felt pretty apt walking away from Highbury.

***

In two years and a few months, the club have managed to lose the services of their two most successful managers this century, as well as dismantle not one but two play off teams. And, for what? The promise of a new, exciting, ambitious club the fans could get behind? They already had that! Twice!

As philosopher and *@?$ fighting enthusiast Peter Griffin once stated “Not so fast Lois, a boat is a boat, but a box could be anything. It could even be a boat!”

When the man in charge of strategic decisions at your city’s premier sporting asset is following axioms established by a poor man’s Homer Simpson you end up with performances like Saturday afternoon.

At the away games at Southend and Fleetwood, I’ve cumulatively seen a soft penalty and a Jordan Gibson one on one in the form of chances created. Two decent fish and chips at least, so not all lost.

But whilst the mostly southern based City fans could find solace in the fact that “I don’t know, maybe Southend are good?” The crowd at Fleetwood appears to have made up its mind and it wants to convict on all counts.

The owners – and in a spectacular showing of hubris, the manager – may put this discontent down to the fickleness of the fanbase, but they are betraying their lack of understanding about the motivations of their fans (their customers), and human beings in general.

You methodologically, and with malice of forethought, remove every single player from the squad with whom the fans have a relationship and wonder why the fans aren’t giving the benefit of the doubt to the team?

You sack the club’s iconic figure as manager for one bad run and replace him with the miserable dirge of Simon Grayson, then whatever this is supposed to be, and wonder why the fans are frustrated?

You make the exact same series of decisions a sleeper agent trying to ruin the club would make over a prolonged two year span, and wonder why the fans don’t have faith in your vision?

***

The final ten minutes on Saturday watching City fail to locate the screw, let alone turn it, bore out the myriad ills of the club at the moment. Not only have they managed to recruit an entire squad of players who to a man are not replicating the performances of their predecessors, they are organised in a way where every in-game decision or substitution makes them weaker in defence, and also somehow less dangerous in attack.

It isn’t just that the team are performing poorly, or are failing to adapt together. It’s feels more fundamental than that. The machine feels broken. Everything we are seeing feels like a symptom of something worse.

I’m sat here on the train back home trying to think of the positives in the manner of a man who has earnestly picked up a broken appliance, stared at it for ten minutes before concluding, “nah… it’s fecked, that.”

Where do you even start?
Click to expand...

Enjoyed this article, thanks.
Even had a giggle at "the miserable dirge of Simon Grayson" mention.

Keefly Bantam · Sep 2, 2018

Onside said: ↑

By Alex Scott

Where do you even start?

It’s not good, is it? There are dismal away defeats. There are dismal away defeats against ten men. There are dismal away defeats against ten men where your only chance is a soft penalty. And then there is whatever that was.

They say it’s sometimes harder to play against ten men. City partially proved that on Saturday as they were thoroughly outplayed by an outnumbered Fleetwood Town. That said, they didn’t look up to much against eleven either.

At times during their abject second half performance you began to wonder how few opposition players it would take before that City team would look like an adequate third division team. Nine? Six? Eight, but their keeper has his hands tied behind his back?

It’s not good, is it? The way this team plays and the futility you feel when they inevitably fall behind is disappointingly reminiscent of the last City team that was relegated from this division. For what I am sure are many good attributes I’ve not had a chance to see yet, George Miller and Eoin Doyle are demonstrating a little too much of the Moses Ashikodis for this fan’s liking.

The team looks out of their depth in a pool too deep, with their lifeguard stood watching pensively on the side, blaming them for losing their shape as they drown. The shape is the least of their worries.

Fellow Bradfordian Adil Rashid played in a Test Match for England recently where he didn’t score a run, take a catch, or take a wicket. England still won the game. Whilst a team can probably carry one Adil – up against a collapsible middle order at least – building an entire squad in his image seems to be an admittedly admirably parochial, but ultimately ill-advised, strategic decision.

If you’ve seen City at all this season, I doubt you really need me to fill in any blanks about what happened on Saturday. They could have fallen behind immediately, twice, but didn’t before City’s defence broke out its already well practised Keystone Cops rendition. Eoin Doyle cooly converted a soft penalty against the run of play, before Wes Burns slid in rashly on Adam Chicksen and saw red just before half time.

In fairness, after restricting myself to the Barnsley and Southend games thus far, the first half was certainly the best 45 minutes I’ve seen this season. The subsequent imbalance in personnel from the red card led to a surprisingly positive half time where dreams of maybe creating a chance from open play in the second half took hold throughout the away end.

***

Nine months ago to the day, City battled to a 2-1 victory on the same ground maintaining their run of two and half years mostly unbroken play off football. 2018 had promise. Watching City attempt to replicate that comeback in the second half brought that contrast to bear.

Not one of that squad was in today’s squad. Nor anyone in the dugout. That team in January wasn’t close to the strongest side we’ve had over recently years, but it was competent, committed and organised.

Not one of this squad has yet demonstrated in a City shirt they are an improvement upon any of that squad in January.

The second half performance was abject. At times, it bordered on performance art. A dispiriting cocktail of several experienced professionals abdicating responsibility whilst hiding from the ball, and many young players who whilst trying admirably, had, at best, been put in a position to fail by their manager, or, at worst, had been hung out to dry in an attempt to deflect pressure off himself.

It became the latest in a run of matches where you stare at the names of the players who finished the game and wonder what on earth happened during it to lead to that jumble.

City finished a game chasing a goal with two inexperienced wingers (one of whom was a full back on debut), a teenage attacking midfielder (in his fourth game) as primary playmaker, the squad’s only striker in the hole, two full backs in a back three and a combined 89 City appearances across the pitch (24 of them from Adam Chicksen). Their captain, star player, and Australian international defender had been withdrawn to enable this.

It has become clear over the first few weeks of the season as they have been routinely outplayed and outcoached that there is a fatal problem with either the message or the messenger. It’s becoming clearer by the week that it’s probably both.

In 1969, Canadian academic and hierarchologist Dr Lawrence J. Peter famously established the Peter Principle, which went along the lines that every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.

Forty two years later, former businessmen and City chairmen Mark Lawn and Julian Rhodes established the less well-known Peter Jackson Principle, which went along the lines that it is never too soon to admit a mistake when it is apparent to everyone paying attention. Both of these felt pretty apt walking away from Highbury.

***

In two years and a few months, the club have managed to lose the services of their two most successful managers this century, as well as dismantle not one but two play off teams. And, for what? The promise of a new, exciting, ambitious club the fans could get behind? They already had that! Twice!

As philosopher and *@?$ fighting enthusiast Peter Griffin once stated “Not so fast Lois, a boat is a boat, but a box could be anything. It could even be a boat!”

When the man in charge of strategic decisions at your city’s premier sporting asset is following axioms established by a poor man’s Homer Simpson you end up with performances like Saturday afternoon.

At the away games at Southend and Fleetwood, I’ve cumulatively seen a soft penalty and a Jordan Gibson one on one in the form of chances created. Two decent fish and chips at least, so not all lost.

But whilst the mostly southern based City fans could find solace in the fact that “I don’t know, maybe Southend are good?” The crowd at Fleetwood appears to have made up its mind and it wants to convict on all counts.

The owners – and in a spectacular showing of hubris, the manager – may put this discontent down to the fickleness of the fanbase, but they are betraying their lack of understanding about the motivations of their fans (their customers), and human beings in general.

You methodologically, and with malice of forethought, remove every single player from the squad with whom the fans have a relationship and wonder why the fans aren’t giving the benefit of the doubt to the team?

You sack the club’s iconic figure as manager for one bad run and replace him with the miserable dirge of Simon Grayson, then whatever this is supposed to be, and wonder why the fans are frustrated?

You make the exact same series of decisions a sleeper agent trying to ruin the club would make over a prolonged two year span, and wonder why the fans don’t have faith in your vision?

***

The final ten minutes on Saturday watching City fail to locate the screw, let alone turn it, bore out the myriad ills of the club at the moment. Not only have they managed to recruit an entire squad of players who to a man are not replicating the performances of their predecessors, they are organised in a way where every in-game decision or substitution makes them weaker in defence, and also somehow less dangerous in attack.

It isn’t just that the team are performing poorly, or are failing to adapt together. It’s feels more fundamental than that. The machine feels broken. Everything we are seeing feels like a symptom of something worse.

I’m sat here on the train back home trying to think of the positives in the manner of a man who has earnestly picked up a broken appliance, stared at it for ten minutes before concluding, “nah… it’s fecked, that.”

Where do you even start?
Click to expand...

Agree with all the above apart from :
You methodologically, and with malice of forethought, remove every single player from the squad with whom the fans have a relationship and wonder why the fans aren’t giving the benefit of the doubt to the team?

This has happened every season since I started to watch in 1979. Players move on. I am struggling to think of any recent players that I have felt a player/fan relationship with. Last one for me was Gary Jones. Since then I have had no trouble whatsoever supporting the team and giving them the benefit of doubt. Until the last two games that is.

You sack the club’s iconic figure as manager for one bad run and replace him with the miserable dirge of Simon Grayson, then whatever this is supposed to be, and wonder why the fans are frustrated?

When McCall was sacked no one was really shocked and most round me agreed with the sacking. Grayson was received with open arms and very little , if any, animosity. As for MC well I have said what I now think on other threads.

Fuzzy · Sep 2, 2018

Inspector said: ↑

What happened to the radio Leeds Monday night programme that had the manager, Mason or a player discussing all things at the club?
Click to expand...

Monday night is always the generic catch up of all teams. I think the club specific one was on a Wednesday and it went in a 4 week cycle of Leeds, Huddersfield, City, Non League but not sure if it's carrying on this season or not.

Botswana Bantam · Sep 2, 2018

Fordy117 said: ↑

And you won't.

Did you know about EdIn coming in to buy City.

The key is people knowing the club is for sale then people/groups might be interested in buying the club.
Click to expand...

So what's the motivation for him to sell?

The Molenaar Turn · Sep 2, 2018

JonButterfield said: ↑

Excellent piece.
Click to expand...

“At times, it bordered on performance art”

Cathartic reading.

Silverbantam · Sep 2, 2018

I love Alex Scott !

RCarol · Sep 2, 2018

Keefly Bantam said: ↑

Agree with all the above apart from :
You methodologically, and with malice of forethought, remove every single player from the squad with whom the fans have a relationship and wonder why the fans aren’t giving the benefit of the doubt to the team?

This has happened every season since I started to watch in 1979. Players move on. I am struggling to think of any recent players that I have felt a player/fan relationship with. Last one for me was Gary Jones. Since then I have had no trouble whatsoever supporting the team and giving them the benefit of doubt. Until the last two games that is.

You sack the club’s iconic figure as manager for one bad run and replace him with the miserable dirge of Simon Grayson, then whatever this is supposed to be, and wonder why the fans are frustrated?

When McCall was sacked no one was really shocked and most round me agreed with the sacking. Grayson was received with open arms and very little , if any, animosity. As for MC well I have said what I now think on other threads.
Click to expand...

I weren't so receptive "with open arms"
Found Grayson a twit actually.

Keefly Bantam · Sep 2, 2018

RCarol said: ↑

I weren't so receptive "with open arms"
Found Grayson a twit actually.
Click to expand...

Before he became manager? Or after?

RCarol · Sep 2, 2018

Keefly Bantam said: ↑

Before he became manager? Or after?
Click to expand...

After his 1st game, miserable faced sod. And continued to be a twit with his post game comments. REALLY didn't care for him, all!!!

Inspector · Sep 2, 2018

Fuzzy said: ↑

Monday night is always the generic catch up of all teams. I think the club specific one was on a Wednesday and it went in a 4 week cycle of Leeds, Huddersfield, City, Non League but not sure if it's carrying on this season or not.
Click to expand...

It’s a pity if it isn’t on this season. Then again would the club sanction sending anyone to attend?

Mike Hunt · Sep 2, 2018

BL_ said: ↑

Looking forward to your contribution to WOAP in the near future.
Click to expand...

I’m not, I think he’s barely literate.

Mike Hunt · Sep 2, 2018

Utters0 said: ↑

They’re just trying not to totally alienate the owners. Both Jason McKeown & Mike Harrison are attempting to contact Edin for meeting asap.
Click to expand...

Trying to get an interview? He’s not Ed Woodward at ManYoo. He’s the CEO of a relatively small business that’s in a severe decline and reliant on a fickle audience who, once they’re lost to other Saturday afternoon activities are lost for good. In those circumstances he should be seeking an audience to get his message across and reassure his customers, responding to email and calls, placating them. Not hiding away and telling people who disagree they can use the door.

Chris Withe · Sep 2, 2018

Keefly Bantam said: ↑

Agree with all the above apart from :
You methodologically, and with malice of forethought, remove every single player from the squad with whom the fans have a relationship and wonder why the fans aren’t giving the benefit of the doubt to the team?

This has happened every season since I started to watch in 1979. Players move on. I am struggling to think of any recent players that I have felt a player/fan relationship with. Last one for me was Gary Jones. Since then I have had no trouble whatsoever supporting the team and giving them the benefit of doubt. Until the last two games that is.

You sack the club’s iconic figure as manager for one bad run and replace him with the miserable dirge of Simon Grayson, then whatever this is supposed to be, and wonder why the fans are frustrated?

When McCall was sacked no one was really shocked and most round me agreed with the sacking. Grayson was received with open arms and very little , if any, animosity. As for MC well I have said what I now think on other threads.
Click to expand...

Yes, players move on. Both up, down and sideways. A team or squad naturally evolves over time. But it's highly unusual for a club to end one season with one team, then start the next one with practically an entirely new one. Barring exceptional events like financial disaster, promotion to the Premier League or a change in owners and a sudden influx of new wealth. I think the chance that this particular overhaul of the first team is due to natural processes is very slim.

Something undoubtedly happened between the playing staff and those higher up last season. Once the season was over those players were systematically told that their services were no longer required and if they wanted to play first team football, they had to find another club. To believe that this churn of players was a natural occurrence is purposefully naive.

Regarding McCall's sacking. Your straw poll involving 'most around me' is far from representative. I don't recall the internet being awash with people demanding he should be relieved of his duties before the event? Certainly not in the numbers we've seen in recent weeks. I do recall people wanting signings to be made to strengthen an obviously tired and disgruntled team. And it's unusual for an unpopular manager to have his name chanted at games once he's been sacked. Although, I'll admit that it is difficult for fans to chant something to say that they agree with the sacking once he's gone. I think McCall's sacking is best described as controversial. Especially when the club's owner went on the record saying that he didn't believe in short term-ism where managers are concerned.

Bigrod · Sep 2, 2018

Different source but a telling few lines!

In contrast, Bradford did not believe. It was a Bantams team that people have been unaccustomed to witnessing in recent times; a far cry from that side that knocked Town out of the League One play-offs in 2017.

Read more at: https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/sport/football/fleetwood-town-fc/verdict-fleetwood-town-2-bradford-city-1-1-9331059

Onside · Sep 3, 2018

Bigrod said: ↑

Different source but a telling few lines!

In contrast, Bradford did not believe. It was a Bantams team that people have been unaccustomed to witnessing in recent times; a far cry from that side that knocked Town out of the League One play-offs in 2017.

Read more at: https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/sport/football/fleetwood-town-fc/verdict-fleetwood-town-2-bradford-city-1-1-9331059
Click to expand...

Reading that makes you want to cry. We were like that under Parky and to some extent McCall. Rahic should read that and weap! That is just like the team you bought and you have smashed it with your incessant interference and know it all attitude.

Now we are in this shambles and it feels like we will be in league 2 next season and I do not think we will survive. I can hardly believe that under 18 months of your tenure you have taken a proud football club on the brink of promotion and pulled it to bits.

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