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Post by Hoochy on Dec 2, 2020 13:03:47 GMT
Something's afoot.
Start with Wood, our most saleable asset. Not offered a new deal because that's a job for the new CEO apparently. We're told the Sparks appointment decision was made a few months ago, so why hasn't he been offered a deal yet? Contract running out this summer. Meredith situation all over again. Doesn't make sense.
Moving on to free agents. There's tons around but we're not touching them. No trials, no short term deals, no pay as you play, nothing. Sure, there's Covid restrictions but you've got to test all the players regularly anyway. Again, doesn't make sense.
Stuart is not stupid and has been in football forever. He must see that we desperately need experienced players. We can't expect the youth team graduates to pull us out of a relegation scrap alongside half fit senior pros returning from injury.
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Post by rahicscissorbudget on Dec 2, 2020 13:16:07 GMT
We don’t have the budget for it?
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Post by Dick on Dec 2, 2020 13:17:03 GMT
I'd rather than defend absolutely every thing for the good of the club McCall just come out and say there is no fucking money and he is being asked to operate under ridiculous constraints. We wouldn't even let Bowyer have an assistant remember?
Wood situation - we appear to have no intention of offering him a deal, or if we've done it quietly, he's not accepted. I wonder if there was something in this contract about improved terms if he was offered a new deal? The CEO reason doesn't hold up for me. TBH, I could see him leaving in January for something like £30k.
Definitely doesn't make sense, IMO it's much more a case than penny pinching. October 16 was when McCall first said no to free agents - surely by now someone around him such as Kenny Black, Julian, Rupp, Sparks etc would have said 'Look Stuart, I don't want to tell you how to do your job, but...'
And indeed, he's not stupid - but he already looks stubborn like Hopkin, and is on the risk of looking deluded. E.g. he should have given a more ambiguous answer when talking about free agents. He's now said it 3 times and would look daft if he suddenly publicly changed his stance.
I do get in the past few years we've said there would be money to spend in January then we didn't - so my hope is we're doing the opposite now as if there ever was a situation that needed it, it's now.
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Post by Hobhead on Dec 2, 2020 13:21:53 GMT
We don’t have the budget for it? This is the conclusion I’m leaning toward-we’re church mouse poor. We’ve deliberately spent under the cap because we didn’t have a choice. Publishing the accounts might help but we did that via club-approved proxy which wasn’t suspicious at all. Our manager is trying to convince everyone including himself that we don’t need any solution that requires cash. I think we’re fucked because the alternative is that we’re we’re being sucked down the plug hole into non league while sitting on over £400k in budget because we don’t need to spend it. If McCall thinks that he’s dangerously deluded and if Sparks is backing that call then he’s incompetent. I think we’re teetering on the brink and Rupp will let us fall.
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Post by bantam147 on Dec 2, 2020 13:25:40 GMT
Looking at the Wood situation in isolation - would you sign, if you were him? I think that’s a simple case of his agent advising not to sign a deal because he knows he can get him a better move in the summer. So I’d box that one off.
As for the rest, putting aside my misgivings about how we’ve been run for the last few years. In general terms I can see some sort of rationale along the following lines. The club are planning for a fairly significant overhaul next summer. The change in CEO, circumstances around Covid and extent of contracts due to expiry in the summer - I can believe that we’ve shied away from anything consider a short term fix, Ride out the season and build again next summer. I can see that sense in that logic.
Where I think the club has really misjudged things, is in vastly overestimating - even now - the strength of the squad. I’m not sure they fully realise how bad it is. It was obvious weeks ago that we needed more, but the plan was clearly to limp through to at least January. I don’t think we can even afford to do that. We could be 5 or 6 points adrift by then. It bears all the hallmarks of the 18/19 season. Totally ballsed up the summer recruitment, obvious by Oct that we were in a relegation scrap, desperate for January, then made a balls up in January too.
History repeating itself, because our approach repeats itself.
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Post by bantam147 on Dec 2, 2020 13:27:58 GMT
I think the only chance of significant change and longer term ‘success’ that this club has, is in folding and rebuilding as a phoenix club from the ground up. Completely from scratch, top to bottom.
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Post by hobbes on Dec 2, 2020 13:40:01 GMT
I think the only chance of significant change and longer term ‘success’ that this club has, is in folding and rebuilding as a phoenix club from the ground up. Completely from scratch, top to bottom. I vote we call it Bradford Rangers.
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Post by mikehunt on Dec 2, 2020 15:11:45 GMT
I can’t see how Rupp would let us fail over £400k in this years budget. He’s done most of his £6m investment, that’s gone, but he could get some back if he sells. If the club goes in to the NL there is a half million plus hole in the budget, he either puts it into administration, winds it up or throws more good money after bad. I more inclined to believe they have taken a gamble, underspent, overestimated the quality, especially up front and believed a club or two might have gone to the wall because of Covid.
Even Dewhirst wrote an article about how the pandemic was a chance to get the edge on everyone else. What I don’t get is why they’ve not signed anyone on a free, for all McCall witters on about getting them up to speed they can’t be worse than a half fit Guthrie or BRE and would have been up to speed by now had the signed in October.
They seem like rabbits caught in the headlights
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Post by Dick on Dec 2, 2020 15:47:32 GMT
I more inclined to believe they have taken a gamble, underspent, overestimated the quality, especially up front and believed a club or two might have gone to the wall because of Covid. I think that's a big part of it TBH. Like in January 2007 when we were mid-table, sold everyone we could in January then won just twice in 5 months and went down. We took a small risk and it massively backfired. We've seen the club do silly things to save money over the years - e.g loaning out Vaughan, supposedly because he was a bad egg but more likely to just save cash. It's more obvious now the aim this season was just to consolidate until the summer where we could get rid of some of the remnants of previous years - probably under the assumption that even though we weren't great, we wouldn't be as poor as we are. It would have been so easy to write this season off as the one that was impacted by Covid, so there were no real expectations and anything we were to get from it would be a bonus. Grossly overestimated the quality is exactly it though. The scary thing was the fans - not just us - were calling them out for it for months over the summer.
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slymutha
Due Diligence Bantam
Posts: 253
Member is Online
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Post by slymutha on Dec 3, 2020 8:28:13 GMT
Regarding Wood, nothing concrete, but I have heard he is currently on a very low wage. About a third of what a regular first teamer would normally be on in this league, and way under what a top player would be on (and let's face it, he is our top player in terms of performance and saleability).
No idea how we got him to accept those terms, probably when we signed him he needed to prove himself and we got him to agree to a low wage and use us as a platform.
He would be a fool if he wasn't trying to get nearer to our top earners. That means at probably 4 or 5 times the wage he is on now. We just won't be able to afford that.
Uncomfortable truthnisnhe is leaving on a free at the end of the season and now he is just showing other teams what he can do. Cant say I blame him at all
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Post by Dick on Dec 3, 2020 9:14:21 GMT
Regarding Wood, nothing concrete, but I have heard he is currently on a very low wage. About a third of what a regular first teamer would normally be on in this league, and way under what a top player would be on (and let's face it, he is our top player in terms of performance and saleability). No idea how we got him to accept those terms, probably when we signed him he needed to prove himself and we got him to agree to a low wage and use us as a platform. He would be a fool if he wasn't trying to get nearer to our top earners. That means at probably 4 or 5 times the wage he is on now. We just won't be able to afford that. Uncomfortable truthnisnhe is leaving on a free at the end of the season and now he is just showing other teams what he can do. Cant say I blame him at all That? Here? I don't believe it.
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Post by Lethal Jizzle on Dec 3, 2020 14:45:08 GMT
Regarding Wood, nothing concrete, but I have heard he is currently on a very low wage. About a third of what a regular first teamer would normally be on in this league, and way under what a top player would be on (and let's face it, he is our top player in terms of performance and saleability). No idea how we got him to accept those terms, probably when we signed him he needed to prove himself and we got him to agree to a low wage and use us as a platform. He would be a fool if he wasn't trying to get nearer to our top earners. That means at probably 4 or 5 times the wage he is on now. We just won't be able to afford that. Uncomfortable truthnisnhe is leaving on a free at the end of the season and now he is just showing other teams what he can do. Cant say I blame him at all Nah that's wrong, he's one of the highest and Sparks used him as an example as one of those who's wages are higher than a salary cap average. AOC Wood Donaldson are the top boys
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Post by Hobhead on Dec 3, 2020 16:08:43 GMT
Would anybody be surprised if we had a sudden change of heart on free agents?:
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moshi
Sparks is a cunt Bantam
Posts: 118
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Post by moshi on Dec 5, 2020 3:36:13 GMT
No mystery here lads, we’re fucking skint and Stuart is doing exactly what Rhodes wanted in taking the bullet for the club.
Also, Wood hot take: when he arrived he was shit couldn’t get in the team, relegation season poor. This season poor. Especially defensively. He put a few half decent balls in once. That’s it. It shows how far our water mark for a decent player has fallen.
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Post by Mossley Bantam on Dec 5, 2020 7:59:55 GMT
No mystery here lads, we’re fucking skint and Stuart is doing exactly what Rhodes wanted in taking the bullet for the club. Also, Wood hot take: when he arrived he was shit couldn’t get in the team, relegation season poor. This season poor. Especially defensively. He put a few half decent balls in once. That’s it. It shows how far our water mark for a decent player has fallen. Agree on Wood. Compare him to Meredith 3 years into his time at City. Not even close.
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Post by Hoochy on Dec 6, 2020 8:57:54 GMT
Someone is coming in to help with recruitment. A week into December with the transfer window looming large. Far too late to have an impact on this window in terms of hidden gems but perhaps able to identify some key positions that need filling.
I don't have high hopes. Fully expecting an ex employee to be back on the gravy train.
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Post by jose on Dec 6, 2020 9:55:15 GMT
We won the salary cap award before it was even voted on.
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Post by Hoochy on Dec 7, 2020 12:41:36 GMT
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Post by Dick on Dec 7, 2020 13:20:10 GMT
Talk of Jewell, Abbott coming back - don't talk daft. We all know who's going to get it Does everything else, why not this?
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Post by Hoochy on Dec 7, 2020 16:05:36 GMT
Talk of Jewell, Abbott coming back - don't talk daft. We all know who's going to get it Does everything else, why not this? Bully 😢
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