By Luke Lockwood
Emotions are running high at Bradford City right now and the fanbase becomes more divisive. Different groups are being setup and varying opinions are put forward strongly as fact. Considered debate appears rare with each group shouting down anyone who disagrees. (Although the efforts of Steve Hamilton and the Bradford City Fans Independent Group managed to mediate quite well on a Twitter space.)
So I’ll be clear from the start this is an opinion piece. My tin hat is on and I’m ready for my ‘Happy Clapper’ bashing.
Objectively the team is underperforming, objectively we have declined significantly since the club was taken over by Stefan Rupp and objectively his custodianship of the club is not going well at all.
I am confident we can all agree with those statements. I can also say with certainty that 1PM on Saturday and four goals down felt like my lowest point as a City supporter since I watched Jon McLaughlin and Andrew Davies walk down the tunnel, having seen red in more ways than one, after the Crawley brawl. That day I feared our Football League status was done for, Phil Parkinson was our manager.
Saturday at half-time felt like we had done it again. Hired a manager with a completely different approach to the plan we had worked towards. Wedded to 442 when we had recruited for every formation but 442. The strategy put together by the club hierarchy once again seemed non-existent or, possibly worse, once again ripped up and the panic button pressed.
That may still be the case and I’m not convinced we have the structure in place to resolve many of the problems for the football side of the business.
What I’m less sure of is that the club is ‘rotten to the core’ and we need to replace everyone. Footballing matters appear to have been mismanaged over the summer and even more so following the start of the football season. Communication also hasn’t exactly been expertly managed.
So here are my thoughts on the current ‘problems’ at the football club.
Stephen Gent
I’ll get my most controversial opinion out of the way first and foremost. Stephen Gent is doing a good job.
Stephen Gent is responsible for recruitment at the football club, Mark Hughes was responsible for getting the most out of the players he was given. It obviously is not as black and white as that – I doubt Stephen Gent was responsible for flying Matt Derbyshire back from his retirement home in India.
However, if Stephen Gent is ultimately responsible for recruitment and it is as woeful as supporters claim then Mark Hughes must have been doing a phenomenal job to get Bradford City to a play-off semi-final and he should never have been sacked.
As supporters we are in a fortunate position of not having to stand behind our judgements of players. A supporter campaign left those running the club under no illusions as to their feelings on Dion Pereira and the signing felt as much a PR move as a footballing decision – Dion is now struggling for game time at bottom placed Sutton United. Similarly, Alex Gilliead was offered a new contract to the astoundment of a supporter base who seemingly consider him now to be a good to very good League Two player.
Scott Banks, Jake Young, Tyreik Wright, Alex Pattison, Romoney Critchlow, Harry Lewis, Sam Stubbs, all these are players it doesn’t feel like Bradford City would have identified and signed in previous years. Unfortunately many were too brief, while others are injured or scoring goals for League Two competitors.
It also feels that the philosophies of the Manager and Head of Recruitment clashed and hence we see Ryan East, Young and Timi Odusina out on loan. Having Young out on loan while we have Matt Derbyshire warming the bench isn’t on Gent, but Hughes.
Add Harry Chapman, Alex Pattison and Vadaine Oliver into the current crop, bring Young and potentially East back in January, and we still have a decent squad of ~20 players.
However, the squad is bloated by the Manager of the side panicking in the off-season and again in the early throws of this season.
Even with that in mind, we haven’t seen many of his recruits playing consistently in the role they were brought in for. Particularly Lewis Richards, who was brought in for a fee and Jon Tomkinson who we worked so hard to get over the line at the last hour. The jury is out on the likes Ciaran Kelly, Clarke Oduor and Tyler Smith, but all have shown some promise to be worked with.
Gent has got it wrong this summer and should not escape criticism, but we should judge him on his body of work not one window. The decisions not made by him made his job phenomenally difficult and the problems we ended up with were not of his making.
Let’s remember we were not far off achieving our goal last season and many feel Hughes should have done better with the players he had available to him. I believe Gent should be given chance to make right the mistakes made, recruit to a footballing strategy and find more Scott Banks and less Chisom Afoka.
Ryan Sparks
As per any business Ryan will have objectives he has to meet and his performance will be judged accordingly by the shareholders – in this case I believe that consists of one, Mr. Rupp.
I am guessing, but Ryan Sparks’ primary objective will be to keep the business in the black, while increasing the revenue and therefore making the club a more attractive proposition to future buyers. Between himself and David Longo, they are doing a seemingly good job of running the commercial side of the business.
His secondary objective will be to make the footballing side of the business competitive. Unfortunately for us as supporters, this should be the primary and only objective of the organisation with all other departments of the business working to support that goal.
However, last year we were competitive and, while he needs to answer to why we are falling short of the footballing targets, Sparks will also point Rupp to the overall performance of the business and this will likely satisfy him.
On the excellent Hard Truth podcast, Bradford City fan Phillip Ideson’s co-host, Darragh MacAnthony, tells his supporters that Peterborough will play a certain way, investing in youth and he will stick with his manager regardless – to a point – of results.
While not all fans love MacAntony, and he still comes in for his fair share of criticism, there is transparency, there is a plan and it is on the whole appreciated. To rebuild the bridges something similar is required from Bradford City, Ryan Sparks and/or his owner.
It seemed for a while that Sparks and MacAnthony had a good relationship which appears to have gone quiet. Not that I am in a position to advise Ryan Sparks, but if I did it would be to reach out to MacAnthony, who took control of a football club at a similarly young age, and use him as a coach and mentor.
Look at how – despite actually seemingly ‘knowing football’ – MacAnthony employs Barry Fry to run the football side of the business and trusts him completely. When Hughes came to Sparks with a last minute change in approach, he can’t challenge a former international and Premier League Manager from a position of strength as someone with Fry’s standing in the game.
Look at the support Sparks has on the commercial side of the business, an area he appears more adept, and look at how little support he has on the football side. Ryan wants to do the right things but a lack of expertise and experience on the football side is holding him back from doing so.
Stefan Rupp
Stefan is not interested in football, he’s a businessman interested in money and fast cars. If he was to start prioritising the footballing side of the business and invest more money at a higher risk, with POTENTIAL higher reward, then Sparks might have more intent to put the structure in place to help the football operations.
I agree Rupp should not get credit for merely protecting his investment, but he should get credit for being diligent in only selling to a better custodian of the football club than himself. Now the Crawley bubble appears to have burst after a decent start, the apparent mismanagement of Wagmi United appears to be coming back to bite them. From my understanding, Rupp could have sailed off into the sunset with a tidy profit on his investment and I thank him for that. He appears to be a good man with strong principles.
The fact Rupp didn’t make it a priority to speak to his new manager does show apathy towards his investment. We, therefore, shouldn’t expect a man with a disinterest in football to risk his fortune on trying to get Bradford City promoted.
Unfortunately for Rupp though, he may never get his investment back unless he takes the on-field matters more seriously. He does not need to invest his own money to get Bradford City out of League Two, we have a budget to compete without that. However, he needs to realise that the current strategy – if there is one – isn’t working and support Ryan Sparks in finding a solution with the strategic thinking he would apply to any of his other investments.
If we were fan owned then we would work within our resources and we would not have disinterested shareholders. We may still find ourselves underperforming in the lower reaches of League Two. Investment would help but it isn’t the biggest issue we have here.
The lack of transparency from the top of the football club is the frustration for supporters Again, looking at MacAnthony he has called for Rupp to show his hand, ‘there’s never been a better time to sell a football club’, he says. Rupp needs to sell up (if possible) or speak up and provide assurances to his stakeholders, the fans, who’s money keeps the club afloat. If not he may lose the one asset of the business and his investment may start to become further devalued
The ‘Toxic’ Fans
From a happy clapper – we have some of the greatest fans in the country. That includes all those threatening to protest this weekend. They are fanatics who care and they want to do something about it. Not many clubs can go through the truly awful 20 years we have endured – save for 2013-2016 – and still turn up in their numbers home and away as Bradford City fans do. Regardless of cheap season tickets, for an area as economically deprived as Bradford, to see the support we get makes me proud to be from a BD postcode.
I do not believe the fans are toxic, but I do believe we have a direct correlation to performance. If we as supporters consider ourselves a 12th man when things are going well we also have to understand the impact of our negativity when things are bad. We are in a unique position, our fanbase is too big for its league position and we regularly hear opposition managers talk of turning the crowd.
Clapping harder won’t bring success, but supporting the new manager and players incredibly low on confidence could help in the short term. Tennis balls and ironic chanting is unlikely to help the cause on the pitch – or bring action where we want it to off it.
We do have a lot to be disappointed and even angry about, we do need to make our feelings known and we do need answers from Stefan Rupp and Ryan Sparks. I don’t think a protest disrupting the game is the way to achieve that, or that ‘not spending a penny more’ is either.
We need to engage them in conversation and hold them accountable for where we are now.
How do we move forward
I do think Ryan needs to show strength in leadership and open communication. This year he has outwardly supported the weekly podcast, ‘A Season with Bradford City’ and he should use channels such as this to speak to the fans and he should be supported by his owner too.
Tom McDermott spoke on a Twitter space with the Bradford City Fans Independent Group and claimed that Sparks has given him all the access he wants. If that is the case then, as a reporter, McDermott should pursue the only real story fans care about right now.
He also made the point that EFL clubs do not make a habit of releasing their plans to supporters, and whilst this is true, that doesn’t mean to say it isn’t right to do so. MacAnthony has shown there is another way.
I think Sparks now needs to show some humility and even vulnerability, admit where things have gone wrong and propose a way forward.
He should manage expectations and fans might not be ready to hear it. While we have a budget that should see us competing at the top end of the table we have no more right to be promoted than, for example, Salford who’s budget will be equally competitive.
Incidentally, despite very involved owners and investors with real football knowledge they also continue to find League Two difficult to navigate.
The difference between us and Salford? Expectations based on a large fan base, the size of the city and a history of managing to compete at a higher level. I imagine it’s as frustrating for Neville and co to see their former boss Richie Wellens get promoted on a lot less resource than Salford afforded him and their other managers.
Final thoughts…
Ironically the pitch at Valley Parade does appear to be in much better shape than it was in our successful years, but we need to be careful about our next move as the grass may not be greener without our owner.
A protest that impacts Stefan’s pocket might force his hand, but the alternative is horrifying. Not turning up next season could result in us not having a football club to support anymore.
I believe we can be successful despite Rupp’s disinterest and we can be successful under Sparks – but the current plan does appear to rest on striking it lucky with another Phil Parkinson who takes control. In place of finding the messiah, let’s have structure that makes the manager accountable to someone who owns the footballing strategy and have courage and patience to stick with it.
Alternatively, we could all ask Phillip Ideson to get his good friend to invest in a ‘big’ club rather than little, Posh Peterborough.
(Note to any Posh fans that is tongue and cheek!)
Categories: Opinion
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How can the person responsible for recruiting these players be deemed as “doing a good job”?! OMG – another one happy with league 2 mediocracy and failure
None of us are happy with mediocrity and failure but some of us realise that there isn’t a quick fix. Besides, having just changed the manager isn’t it worth being patient and giving him the chance to improve the results? There is no magic dust to provide an overnight transformation.
I agree, we have (another) new manager and he needs to be given time to get the best out of the players we currently have. There is no magic dust – I’ve been supporting BCFC for 50 years and, apart from two or three short spells, we’ve been mediocre for much of those 50 years.
Steven Gent must go anybody who thinks he has done a good job is deluded. He signed his brother in law Smallwood on a 3 year deal. When we should have got the other midfielder who was on a free transfer from Hull at the time Moncur who help take Orient up. What permanent signings Gent has made are any good? Answers on a postcard? Don’t say Lewis as Hughes signed him from his previous club Southampton.
It is on record that Gent identified and signed Harry Lewis, not Hughes. This came from Lewis himself.
I’m pointing the finger at Gent – not the new manager John
A spot on analysis and insight into what is becoming a difficult time for both club and supporters.
If the thumbs up polls on this website are an accurate reflection on sentiment then it’s about 60/40 in favour of Rupp at the moment
A fan protest of 5,000 or more fans would be quite powerful?
We are still at the stage where this could all blow over (again) but 3 more losses and we will see either huge protests or an empty stadium
I agree that I think Gent is doing ok. It’s not his fault that some of the best young talent he brought in has been mismanaged or loaned out. You can’t also blame him for the the likes of Derbyshire & Afoka who my opinion were “panic buys” from the manager.
Sparks desperately needs help, either he has to ask for it (and if not, consider his position for the good of his mental health), or Rupp needs to actually pay attention and step in and insist on some kind of support.
I don’t believe for a moment Rupp would allow another business interst to be ran in the way ours is, so why us?
A foreign country, an industry he’s not involved or has interest in, and he was fine for Sparks being fast tracked into the role? Sorry, but it screams of doing it on the cheap, with the only priority being sustainable, or rather making sure Rupp doesn’t have to spend anything.
As for Gent, it must have been an oversight or conveniently not mentioned but he was responsible Ash Taylor, who is probably the worst footballer we’ve had since Guthrie.
How do you know that he’s not getting help or are you just speculating?
For christ sake give it a rest. You had a full article yesterday, which folk agreed or disagreed with. You’re taking over the forum.
You’d hope with all the venom aimed at Sparks and Rupp that if help were to come in – and by that I meant experienced director or senior level appointments – they’d be keen to inform fans to show they’re doing something proactive.
It would also help take Sparks out of the firing line, and show Rupp has more interest than what people are calling him out on having. He’s publicly spoken once in two years since the Wagmi interest I think, and that was a T&A interview.
The club certainly needs some more pro-active, intelligent, positiven leadership and communication, as said by many, including on here. So no more odd statements like ‘Alexander was first choice to replace Hughes’ or instagram posts like the ‘for all the doubters’ one.
Tell the fans more about what is going on. We don’t need every business detail or conversation, obviously, but reassure us at least that the owner has more active interest and the CEO isn’t just desperately trying to plug leaks.
One thing, I hope if there is ‘support’ going on in the background, it isn’t just in the form of a certian previous chairman on speed dial.
John, I don’t understand the point you’re making here. You literally wrote an article yesterday where you said Ryan needs more support through non-exec director roles which I thought was right. Today you seem to be suggesting Ryan is getting help so were you right today or right yesterday or were appointments made in the last 24 hours?
The reference was to a wider non exec advisory board, not necessarily football specific and distinct from someone acting in DoF role. No contradiction in the statement made previously with that above.
Was my reply to your satisfaction John?
Sparks needs the boot he believes his own propaganda and is not clever enough to remember what he has said previously. Eg We need a big squad going into the season and now we need a smaller squad with more quality. He has never apologised for the managers he has employed previously and now we are a laughing stock in football for taking so long in appointing a manager and interview candidates and then at the very last minute appointing someone who actually contacted him for the job. No wonder he has been turned down previously as he messes people about and is not very decisive. Both Stevenage’s and Orient’s managers came out in the press and said they wanted the job and he ignored them both. Anybody can make a mistake in appointing a manager once, twice is unforgivable but numerous times is not up to the job.
At the end of the day we are a football club and results are the business we are in and as it is now being shown under Sparks stewardship we are no better and the players are worse than when he first stepped into the previous CEOs shoes. Here ends the lesson.
Wise words Jimmy!
By that token, virtually every club will be sacking their CEO.
Recently I’ve read many words, and written a few myself, on what’s wrong with our club, who is to blame and how circumstances might be improved. They are just words. This latest lengthy piece actually leaves me not exactly lost for words, but with very few to say. I cannot work out where in summation the writer stands. What does he think needs to be done?
I’ll summarise to hopefully clear up where I stand:
1) I’d like a more interested owner. However, I don’t see one coming to the table and Ryan has to make what we have work (and Rupp isn’t all bad)
2) To do that I think 2 things have to happen. Open communication lines with the fans. together them back onside and get more help and expertise on the football side of the business.
We have the resources to be successful and I actually believe we have the players to be competitive but Ryan doesn’t seem to have conviction in his football plan. As he isn’t a football expert that isn’t surprising.
Allocate budget to recruit a DoF working under Sparks and who the manager and Gent report into.
At present we have a Manager, Assistant Manager and a first team coach plus a number of other backroom staff on the playing side. How many bodies does a League 2 need? In terms of the size of the football department I think it is comparable with all but Wrecsam I would surmise. To get a D of E of sufficient calibre is going to cost and bearing in mind GA’s experience is a luxury we probably can avoid.It sounds trite but the single most important appointment is the Manager at this level. Get that wrong and you are going nowhere. You could see the logic in both Ryan’s appointments but they did not work out. Personally I am optimistic GA can get a tune out of this squad which although unbalanced and bloated has a core of decent players. I don’t think we have seen enough of the loan players in particular to form a judgement. Overall a considered and fair appraisal of where we are btw👍
I agree that the single most important appointment at this manger in terms of turning a corner in the short term is the manager but I think who they are accountable to is also important.
We currently have a 30 player squad not including players out on loan, I’d happily give up the wage of 2 of those players for a DoF.
I don’t know if you’ve seen the VSI Sporting Directors podcast but they have Stockport County’s DoF on currently who talks about setting them up for the Championship now.
Thanks will check it out👍
Ideally, the Director of Football needs to be brought in before the manager and to be fully aligned with the manager – not brought in later and imposed on the manager. A decent D of F sticks another 100k on the payroll, adds another level of bureaucracy and does not guarantee success. Many teams succeed without them: others fail with them. Yes, in some cases they work, establish continuity and a ‘culture’, in football speak. But, with respect, I think it’s the wrong time to be debating the role. Let’s just let Alexander get on with it and see if he can get a tune out of Gent’s signings – that you think are pretty good. I hope your assessment is proved correct.
I agree it’s not a silver bullet. However, I do feel (and this is just a feeling) upwardly mobile clubs are seemingly moving more towards this model.
GA has worked under DoF before – MK Dons and Salford. It went well at Salford and maybe not so much at MK Dons.
To your point, you need a manager you don’t need a DoF and I don’t see a world where the DoF is brought in before the manager unless it was a summer restructure. I would hope that it had been discussed as the approach with the incoming manager and he was aligned to that.
I agree with your point about letting GA crack on but I would hope the club are exploring this route in the background and planning for it. It’s a significant change and isn’t just about putting a bum on a seat.
And there in lies the problem Mitchell.
Given the comments on Social Media you’d be forgiven for thinking the supporter base is full of people with business degrees.
It’s easy to point out what’s wrong. More difficult to understand how to put it right given the constraints that City work under.
My frustration is that other basket case clubs like Blackpool, Portsmouth and Coventry seem to be able to turn the corner and become successfull again whilst we continue to drift about…
The flip side of that I suppose is that we are succeeding where Bury, Oldham and Rochdale have not.
My other frustration is that if we’re saying that protesting is counter productive (and I agree) how do supporters legitimately challenge and hold to account those responsible for running the club. Increasingly i feel taken for a mug, living out ground hog season every year…
We are succeeding?
Hi Leon,
Admittedly it’s a low bar but in terms of the clubs I mentioned I suspect their fans would swap places with us tomorrow.
It’s not something we should be proud about or shout about but in the interests of balance it was something I felt should be included in my comment.
It’s my belief that history is a wheel. “Inconstancy is my very essence” says the wheel.
Rise up on my spokes if you like, but don’t complain when you’re cast back down into the depths. Good times pass away, but then so do the bad.
Mutability is our tragedy, but it is also our hope. The worst of times, like the best, are always passing away
Very zen, and if your of a certain age you’ll have seen teams rise, fall and rise again over the years.
However this ignores the fact that success is not accidental but a result of good planning, managment, hard work and some luck.
In City’s case I don’t doubt the hard work or the bad luck. In my view I think the management and planning needs a little work.
This site needs to get real, always ends up brushing things under the carpet and ends up sounding like a PR exercise for the club. Little wonder we continue to stagnate.
If only we didn’t accept mediocrity any more!
I’m unconvinced that any us willingly “accept mediocrity” – it’s how you realistically improve things.
One thing that gets forgotten in the misty eyed romanticism of the Parky era, is that Lawn and Rhodes arguably made three worse managerial appointments than the three Sparks has.
It’s nearly always the case that mediocrity is turned around by a very good manager, who just happens to be at that club at that club’s right time.
Robbins for Coventry. Bowyer for Blackpool. Cook for Portsmouth. And of course Parkinson for us.
Because WoaP is much more cerebral and fact based, written in a coherent and much more pleasant language, that does not mean that it is accepting of mediocrity or full of pro club contributions.
Discussion between the contributors is much more detailed and not of the “he is sh×t ” kind of nonsensical phraseology of the TCA in.particular.
It’s good that we have supporters that can offer excellent debate in the the form of WoaP and City Gent.