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Post by Lethal Jizzle on Nov 23, 2020 11:05:49 GMT
This will be a fairly short thread I assume
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Post by Dick on Nov 23, 2020 11:13:36 GMT
I'd started a thread in anticipation of the upcoming window (shitshow) but too long to type the thing up.
With the one exception of the year when we broke with tradition and signed Charlie Wyke, our January transfer activity has been uninspiring to say the least. From 2018-20 however, it seems to have become absolutely dire - just an opportunity to cut costs and do everything as cheaply as possible. Leave business till the last minute, trot out excuses around player costs and demands, then
Can we top 2020 in terms of being misled about there being money to spend and bringing in even worse signings that DMH and Guthrie? That was the window - combined with performances and results - that seemed to be the start of a huge turn on the club from even the most positive of fans. City fans may be gompers, but they aren't complete idiots - they can smell the bullshit and now they're putting all the pieces together know something isn't right.
Another poor window and our luck might run out - clubs as relatively large as us have gone down from this level, if the standard of performance continues for the next 5-6 weeks into the window then it could be last chance saloon for the club and McCall.
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Post by fish on Nov 23, 2020 11:16:33 GMT
Here's a question. Which January window was worse - 2019 when we signed the likes of Clarke, Woods and Anderson to try and survive in L1 or 2020 when Bowyer spunked 18 month deals on turds like Novak and Guthrie?
Either way, this will be worse.
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Post by Lethal Jizzle on Nov 23, 2020 11:26:16 GMT
If I'm honest we probably won't have enough money to fix this. Looking at the table and games to come I can't see us getting past 20 points by the time the window opens. We will leave any deals till the last minute and as usual miss out on a load more points again. I've now gone from pessimistic to seriously concerned at losing our league status. If this happens we seriously need to hunt down those responsible and give them a good caning
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Post by bantam147 on Nov 23, 2020 20:57:59 GMT
Well i for one, am delighted that our approach to dealing with the worst Bradford City squad in living memory - possibly ever - is based around not signing better players. Its exactly the sort of revolutionary and balls-out thinking that made this country great.
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Post by rcbantam on Nov 23, 2020 21:14:50 GMT
McCall cant not be trusted to sign anyone else.
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moshi
Sparks is a cunt Bantam
Posts: 118
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Post by moshi on Nov 23, 2020 22:03:16 GMT
If I'm honest we probably won't have enough money to fix this. Looking at the table and games to come I can't see us getting past 20 points by the time the window opens. We will leave any deals till the last minute and as usual miss out on a load more points again. I've now gone from pessimistic to seriously concerned at losing our league status. If this happens we seriously need to hunt down those responsible and give them a good caning Bingo. Look how the budget was slashed over the summer. Our January record is atrocious, but with the budgets cut with an eye on the lack of gate receipts - and that now lasting longer than first anticipated we can completely forget about any signings. Not even a free, or a loan. Probably goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway - we'd probably need to offload before making a signing. But unless there is a club as stupid as we were last January that fancy taking a woeful striker off a club struggling towards the bottom of the table then we've no chance.
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Post by Hoochy on Nov 23, 2020 22:09:06 GMT
If I'm honest we probably won't have enough money to fix this. Looking at the table and games to come I can't see us getting past 20 points by the time the window opens. We will leave any deals till the last minute and as usual miss out on a load more points again. I've now gone from pessimistic to seriously concerned at losing our league status. If this happens we seriously need to hunt down those responsible and give them a good caning Bingo. Look how the budget was slashed over the summer. Our January record is atrocious, but with the budgets cut with an eye on the lack of gate receipts - and that now lasting longer than first anticipated we can completely forget about any signings. Not even a free, or a loan. Probably goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway - we'd probably need to offload before making a signing. But unless there is a club as stupid as we were last January that fancy taking a woeful striker off a club struggling towards the bottom of the table then we've no chance. One out before one in. Nobody wants our crap so the only lads leaving will be the halfway decent players. Sell our best players for peanuts or less and go down with the worst squad in our history.
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Post by Dick on Nov 24, 2020 7:55:15 GMT
Wood was our only saleable asset - who is going to be worth fuck all as he's out of contract next summer. After him, then what - Staunton or one of the other kids?
Is one reason why we're playing them to put them in the shop window? We're Bradford City, of course it is.
I just wonder when we'll start to see the first comments from the club about January expectation setting. Of course they'd be daft to boast about spending money, but at the same time we're experts at downplaying any kind of expectation or excitement.
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Post by mikehunt on Nov 24, 2020 8:00:23 GMT
Wood was our only saleable asset - who is going to be worth fuck all as he's out of contract next summer. After him, then what - Staunton or one of the other kids? Is one reason why we're playing them to put them in the shop window? We're Bradford City, of course it is. I just wonder when we'll start to see the first comments from the club about January expectation setting. Of course they'd be daft to boast about spending money, but at the same time we're experts at downplaying any kind of expectation or excitement. January is a difficult time to sign players, you’ve got to bring someone in who adds to what you’ve got, and that’s hard. We’ve a good bunch of lads here and you don’t want to destroy what they’ve got. Agents will offer you all sorts but they’re not an improvement on what we’ve got.
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Post by Lofty on Nov 24, 2020 9:00:21 GMT
January always appears to be a difficult time to sign someone when it's us doing the signing.
When it's others trying to sign our lads (who's contracts we've inexplicable let run down) then we can't afford to risk losing them for nothing. It's pants down time at VP.
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Post by Dick on Nov 29, 2020 8:39:22 GMT
I was thinking about these lines about McCall’s reluctance to go into the free agent market -
McCall said: “If I bring one in now, they’ll need a month to get up to speed.
“There’s nobody that can come in and play. It would take a few weeks so we might as well wait for the players coming back from injury.
What sort of players do you often sign in January? Unless you spend money as we did for Wyke (and Guthrie...) you aren't just going to find regulars at other clubs willng to come to a league 2 relegation scrap - it'll be a case of bench warmers and reserves, and guess what, won't be fully match fit. Just like the free agents we haven't / won't have signed in the 2 months before the window opens.
He said something about identifying 2 loan players yesterday? It needs more than that, but he needs them in right away, not at the end of January.
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Post by Hobhead on Nov 29, 2020 9:07:14 GMT
If it’s so difficult to sign players in January why have we apparently decided it’ll be a good idea to hold some cash back until then?
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Post by mikehunt on Nov 29, 2020 9:10:27 GMT
If they couldn’t attract players in the summer, then I’m not sure how they’re going to attract them to a club at the arse end of League 2 with what seems from the outside to be some chronic problems off the field as well.
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Post by Lethal Jizzle on Nov 30, 2020 16:29:17 GMT
Who on earth is going to sign for a club halfway through the season that is bottom 2 and a few points from safety in a salary cap situation without us giving long contracts? The truth is nobody of any quality will sign for us, and we will largely have to rely on this appalling squad and management team. Of all the shit seasons we've had I've always thought we're too big or got enough to survive, not this season.
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Post by Hoochy on Nov 30, 2020 16:43:05 GMT
Who on earth is going to sign for a club halfway through the season that is bottom 2 and a few points from safety in a salary cap situation without us giving long contracts? The truth is nobody of any quality will sign for us, and we will largely have to rely on this appalling squad and management team. Of all the shit seasons we've had I've always thought we're too big or got enough to survive, not this season. This is my fear. Where are the goals coming from. Novak? 10ish. Donaldo might score another penalty or 2. Clarke has never been prolific. Guthrie, enough said. There's hardly 20 goals between them. Add in that we always look like conceding and where's the hope? Genuinely shitting it that we go down and that'll be us done. We've wasted a month pissing about wanting to rely on our own threadbare, not good enough squad. It's a fucking disaster.
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Post by Lethal Jizzle on Nov 30, 2020 16:58:43 GMT
Who on earth is going to sign for a club halfway through the season that is bottom 2 and a few points from safety in a salary cap situation without us giving long contracts? The truth is nobody of any quality will sign for us, and we will largely have to rely on this appalling squad and management team. Of all the shit seasons we've had I've always thought we're too big or got enough to survive, not this season. This is my fear. Where are the goals coming from. Novak? 10ish. Donaldo might score another penalty or 2. Clarke has never been prolific. Guthrie, enough said. There's hardly 20 goals between them. Add in that we always look like conceding and where's the hope? Genuinely shitting it that we go down and that'll be us done. We've wasted a month pissing about wanting to rely on our own threadbare, not good enough squad. It's a fucking disaster. The damage was done in the summer, I know we're an angry bunch and lament the club for all it's failings but the reality is sinking in and I genuinely can't see a way out in January.
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Post by Hoochy on Nov 30, 2020 17:06:44 GMT
This is my fear. Where are the goals coming from. Novak? 10ish. Donaldo might score another penalty or 2. Clarke has never been prolific. Guthrie, enough said. There's hardly 20 goals between them. Add in that we always look like conceding and where's the hope? Genuinely shitting it that we go down and that'll be us done. We've wasted a month pissing about wanting to rely on our own threadbare, not good enough squad. It's a fucking disaster. The damage was done in the summer, I know we're an angry bunch and lament the club for all it's failings but the reality is sinking in and I genuinely can't see a way out in January. I'm the same, can't see where we get enough points from. Look around the squad at what we've got even when all fully fit and it's lacking. Half of them were in the League 1 squad that went down. Losers.
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Post by Hobhead on Nov 30, 2020 17:29:29 GMT
If we go down the club’s finished and there’s a very real threat of us going down.
Meanwhile the club keeps going for more of the same.
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Post by mikehunt on Nov 30, 2020 17:42:34 GMT
If we go down the club’s finished and there’s a very real threat of us going down. Meanwhile the club keeps going for more of the same. Last I looked Oddschecker had us at 14/1 for relegation with six or seven clubs with worse odds. Either for once the bookies are wrong and there’s easy money to be made or they have more faith in Stuart and Ryan than many City fans do.
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