By Jake Verity
Last weekend, I took some friends to Colchester that had never been to watch us before. As a Bantam based in London, I often try to take friends to away games down South. On the train from Liverpool Street, they asked about our squad and who the players were to watch (they both knew about Andy Cook without me even needing to introduce him).
I talked about how we had one of the most exciting academy prospects in years starting games for us. About the fact we managed to poach a once Championship captain in Smallwood two-and-a-half years ago. That we had last year’s League Two right back of the season. When reading this on reflection, it doesn’t sound all that great. But we’re a League Two team and these are the small wins we can celebrate.
I then explained how we were blighted by injuries.That the serial promotion winner Sarcevic, our marquee signing, has been out for some time and we are missing him badly. How our most dynamic midfielder, Alex Pattison, is having another spell on the sidelines after spending most of last-season injured. That our best ball-playing centre back hasn’t played since September, and one of his partners in Ciaran Kelly has been out for the same length of time.
Despite the fact we have injuries, I made it clear it’s a decent enough squad for this level. That we had a striker low on confidence who was likely to partner Cook; but things should get better for him after he scored his first goal the other week. How Jamie Walker possesses plenty of quality for this division. That Clarke Odour has plenty of skill for this level and is a great utility player.
So combining my general enthusiasm and pride with a cursory glance at the league table, they came to the conclusion that Colchester would probably be an easy enough game for us.
On paper, it was a case of winning the match and we’d more than likely be in the play-offs. Should results go our way, we’d potentially be on the precipice of the automatics too. Lose and we miss out on yet another wonderful opportunity.
The enormous issue is that they took far too logical an approach to looking at a Bradford City fixture. I had to stop them and tell them the bad news. We have had countless games like this over the years and this is exactly the sort of fixture where we struggle.
Because going to an out of form Colchester side who have won eight of their last forty games should be a comfortable win for any team with a realistic hope of promotion. Just like a trip to a Fleetwood Town that hadn’t won in five games should have been. But we walked away with one point from two games. Pitiful.
While I do try to be balanced, I often end up being a bit too optimistic when thinking about our prospects (see my above descriptions of our squad pre-Colchester). Not least because I want us to do well. We all do. But I’m running out of patience. Because put simply, it’s just not good enough. We seem to be allergic to success sometimes.
Regaining some of that balance, I know there’s a long way to go. We remain just outside the play-offs and this league is weak. Good players will come back from injury. We are in a period of poor form, but should eventually turn it around. But it’s just so frustrating. I am so fed up with League Two. Aren’t we all?
Looking at the first season we were back in League Two, only four clubs who are still members of the Football League besides ourselves haven’t had a promotion. They are Colchester United, Salford City, Walsall and Newport County. That is not a list you want to be the last team on.
Analysing Alexander
Now look, Alexander does deserve some blame for the past two league games. A bizarre experiment against Fleetwood coupled with some odd choices for game management against Colchester have led to lost points. It’s that simple.
Why on earth do we have Paul Huntington on the bench if he’s not suitable to play? If there’s ever going to be suitable context to bring on a 37-year-old defender who has experience of seeing out hundreds of games, it’s this one. Why are we bringing on Vadaine Oliver when we should be looking to stretch the game away from our own box, not sit back and defend it? Most perplexingly, why on earth are we not getting at teams from the start who are lower down the division?
I am sympathetic to Alexander at the minute for two reasons. Firstly, it must be so frustrating trying to find a foil to Cook, with legacy options up-front who no doubt he wants rid of. He is paying the price for the club’s previously poor recruitment. Both Sanderson and Kavanagh, players who arrived under his tenure offer far more than other options, even if they are struggling in front of goal. Though the former had a tricky game on Saturday, and the latter was a big miss.
The second reason I’m sympathetic is he is getting a much harder time than he deserves. His record in charge of us is excellent on the whole. The major issue is these winless streaks (though they are often offset by good runs of form). On the whole he has a play-off form at the very least based on his record. With time, that should hopefully bear fruit. We’re currently in one of those streaks though. That’s four without a win in the league now – plus a loss against Rotherham in the EFL Trophy last night.
There is no manager available either better than him, or willing to take the job. Fans must be realistic, we are possibly one of the least attractive options in the Football League in terms of managerial stints; relative success and weight of expectation. He must stay.
But it’s also fair to say we can be critical if things don’t improve in January. If he wants to stay as our manager he needs to improve the squad and win the argument in the boardroom to do so. We are not going to progress without doing that – and also find a way to keep players fit. A big failure this season.
A fortnight can change everything
The next two weeks have the potential to be a positive reset, or for things to get much worse. We play a very limited Accrington team at home. But paradoxically, it’s possibly the worst fixture we could hope for. Their top scorer is Dara Costelloe. You can just see it, can’t you?
If that’s not bad enough, it’s followed by a FA Cup Third Round game away against Derek Adams Morecambe. Again, the script writes itself.
If you could choose two fixtures for any club wanting to put an end to a poor spell of form, these are the ones you’d want. But both bring not only enormous jeopardy for us, but potentially real toxicity.
On the flip side, there’s the outcome we all want. Beat Accrington 3-0 in front of a buoyant home crowd. Get a decent result away at Morecambe. Into the 3rd round and draw a Premier League club. If only it was that easy.
The worst part is if we do get through, we’ll probably end up drawing Exeter away on a Monday night. I personally look forward to Morecambe’s trip to the Etihad…
Rounding it all up
I feel whenever I write these pieces, I say we’ve always got big games ahead. It’s true, though.. In this league we simply need to be winning every game possible if we want to get out of it.
Look at the last few seasons. Crawley at home cost us the play-offs last year in the end. A small gap on the final day would have been overturned, had we not given away a 2-1 lead back in January – even holding onto a draw would have been enough.
The season before it was Swindon and Crewe away that ended up being costly and consigned us to play-off failure against Carlisle. In a play-off race, it’s fine margins that often end up being the difference. We’re not even close to an automatic promotion race, yet.
I said a while ago we have to be ruthless in January. That remains more true than ever. We have no plan beyond Andy Cook up-front and run the real risk of our season being over in a matter of seconds should anything happen to him. We need to get rid of the strikers who don’t score goals and bring in some ones that do at any cost. Stagnating in League Two forever is arguably worse than taking a calculated risk on a decent striker. After all, we’ve spent money before and had nothing to show for it so far, so why not take a real gamble?
When I originally wrote this, I was going to say it had been quiet – but an interview with David Sharpe on Tuesday was a useful listen. More of that is a good thing.
But that’s just one interview and we probably deserve to hear more from the club. We can’t keep being loyal forever and receive no outcome in return. At some point, patience will have to give. It feels like everything gets marginally worse the more time passes.
Because if I’m feeling this way, surely there are others who feel much worse. I am and will always be a loyal Bradford City fan. But at the minute I feel more of a sufferer than a supporter. We’ve been through it over and over again about the club and how it runs off the pitch. But maybe we are truly stuck here forever?
I hope I’m wrong. I really do. In fact I’d love nothing more for that to be the case.
But the only way it will be is if the club really does take this season seriously – we’re already talking about January like it’s our saviour because we’ve been here before – even if the league position is actually not too bad considering our injuries.
I honestly think these next two games probably define our season. The question is how?
Categories: Opinion
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I was looking into this the other day and the only teams who’ve been in league 2 as long as us are as you mentioned Colchester, Salford, Newport and Walsall. That is terrible company, meanwhile we’ve seen Morecambe, Crewe, Stevenage, Forest Green and Cheltenham all promoted out of this division. Even larger teams such as Plymouth, Bolton and Stockport managed it, showing that you can turn round a larger club at this level.
Sometimes it does seem as though the ship just won’t right itself
Sick to the back teeth of this level of football, Sunday league grounds and hoof.
i am so envious when I see clubs that have fallen unto this terrible league, then almost straight away got back out.
Bolton, Sheffield Utd, Coventry etc etc, no excuses about ‘cup finals’ ‘ teams raising their game’ that are constantly churned out at VP.
Yes, ‘bigger’ don’t hang about at this level long, they find a way out.
The owners have small club mentality.
Also some of our fans have small club mentality, how often do you see comments from apologist fans damming others that want out of this league, telling us that even after six years in the khazi league that we’ve to be patient, that we’ve to build over the next few years.
When we’re sat 15th come March, we’ll get the same old nonsense from the club, the next season will be our season etc…
If they want a blueprint, then just look at the clubs that you mention in your post, then we’ll climb away from L2.
If not, then keep rolling the dice and cross the fingers.
You’re not alone Jake, and thanks for writing the article – it prompted a thought.
We are the Manchester United of League 2.
In the interview with Sharpe on Tuesday (still no words from Rupp, despite the promises, worthy of note), he talked about plans for January. Like you, the focus was on rotation of the playing squad. Would there be investment? He’d had assurances there would be.
Sharpe also gave the impression that he has a strong working relationship with Alexander, so the other rotation you hint at – another change in manager – isn’t going to happen mid-season. Like you, I think that’s the right call.
But something else that Jamie Raynor raised in that interview that in my view remains the primary cause of our pathetic stagnation as “playoff also rans” in League 2 is the environment at the club.
When he assumed control at Old Trafford, Sir Jim Ratcliffe said:
“In the last 11 years, Manchester United have had a lot of coaches and nobody has been very successful in that environment. That says to me there is something wrong with the environment. It is not constructive for me to blame anyone, it’s just a fact. My focus is on how I change that environment to get the best out of the coach and squad.”
Sounds familiar doesn’t it?
A massive club with a huge fan base perennially underperforming despite a high turnover of managers and players. It’s the environment that needs fixing.
The interview with Sharpe covered the situation at Woodhouse Grove, and the changes that were made at Mansfield to provide an elite training and sports science department (that didn’t have to be scheduled around double-Maths).
Until we invest fully and sustainably in the club’s infrastructure and environment, we’ll always achieve things sporadically by luck rather than design. Why spend a fortune on new players if you’re plan is to throw them into an environment where so many other decent prospects have floundered or outright failed to deliver? Why spend a fortune paying off another manager with a solid win ratio at this level, when that money could be better spent on improving the infrastructure at the club for the long-term?
The reason we’re still stuck here, still suffering, is because we haven’t yet tried anything different. Gareth Evans admitted as much in his infamous podcast interview when he said he couldn’t believe returning to the club after a decade away literally nothing had changes. He knew it was a mistake inside his first week.
Change the environment. Or never change.
I was going to make pretty much this point about being the Man Utd of League Two – because you’re absolutely right.
Temporary periods of enjoyment; big build ups for new Managers only to fall into the same habits; marquee signings dropping off & eventually we have to rely on the longer serving players.
It’s tiring – but at least the benefit for Man United fans is they get 75,000 a week, European football and Premier League games!
Agree with your sentiment, Mark, but I’d say we are more akin to Sunderland (especially when they were in League 1). Man Utd is no suitable comparator – they are a club which (still) wins trophies, even if by their standards they are under-performing.
Sunderland, a “massive” club, always seem to be in the “wrong” league (according to them, anyway). They are weighed down by their own hubris. Like City.
City fans like to sneer at Accrington, Morecambe, Harrogate – but they everything City are not. The use their limited resources better than most and punch well above their weight.
Cultural change is needed, not a new manager.
Great balanced piece. I’m down south too if you need company at away games. Contact me on FB.
Always good to read this writer’s impressions. This is a poor division with an unusual number of drawn games. Any team that can put a number of wins together will shoot up the table. Since we are now looking at promotion via the playoffs, it’s worth reminding ourselves that the opportunity to get into the top 7 exists for a long time for all the teams in the top half of the table. Indeed we have seen late runs from teams in the bottom 6 that got them there. So no, the next 2 matches will not define our season: they will merely, one way or another, affect the mood of supporters. I’m hoping we are able to field a well balanced eleven on Saturday with players in the right positions. But win, lose or draw, we need to hold our nerve. We have players coming back from injury and new recruits expected in January.
Nothing will change till the guys at the top leave ………………………
Unfortunately football and sport isn’t played on paper and size of club means nothing on the pitch.
I get fed up of hearing on radio and social media that City deserve to be higher than League Two. No we don’t, we are where we deserve to be. That’s not to say we couldn’t be higher and we have the means of being higher however we have no god given right to turn up and easily beat teams in this league.
As in all sport, teams will have good form and bad form so we don’t need to be panicking over the current run. Naturally in all sport, the best teams and players minimise the poor form/performances and maximise the winning form. Being a cricketer, I’ll use a cricket analogy but it’s true for all sport – Even the best batsmen in cricket have tough spells of form going several innings without a score but they’re the best because their run of poor form doesn’t last as long as a lesser batsman and they respond by going on a run of big scores after
Nothing is a must win currently, obviously it’s more ideal if we do win, but the season is long and there’s plenty of time to go on a run. Even if we lose the next two, it doesn’t write off our season, it just makes it slightly harder but still very doable. Just look at Doncaster last year. Their fans were very worried about going down to the Conference, oh how it changes. I’m by no means Alexander’s biggest supporter, however we need to stick with him when it gets tough. If we sack him then we can wave goodbye to hopes of going up – there was a stat last year that no clubs in this league have gone up after sacking a manager during the season – City didn’t break the mould last year.
Theres no point looking at certain games and saying that game cost us because you don’t know that. Had City beat Crawley last year they may have lost the next 6 games, you don’t know. Same goes for any game that we threw away that season or “should have won”, a different result would have affected the approach/mindset of the next games. It’s like when a team has 3 good chances of scoring after 10 minutes and the commentator says they could be 3-0 up already. Well they wouldn’t have been 3-0 up because after the first goal the whole outlook of the game would be different and rather than having a corner the ball would be on the centre circle.
Even if we can somehow escape L2, there’s little to suggest we could survive, never mind steady ourselves, at L1 level.
There’s no foundation, on or off the pitch. It’s been that way for 20+ years in some places, and doesn’t look like changing. Pre-forum article on buying VP aside, there’s been nothing from Rupp to say he’ll ever invest in anything – ground, training facilities, youth development, first team… it’s been 8+ years. He isn’t going to suddenly change.
This side may actually stumble its way to a promotion, but would need a massive overhaul and injection of funds to bring in L1 quality. And that’s even before the concerns around the infrastructure.
We worry about how to survive in L1 once you get there.
The numbers are different for a start..more tv revenue, added prize money, etc etc.
Higher attendances. But added cost of L1 standard players.
So many variables.
Lets get up there and take it from there.
There has been enough evidence on the eye to say that on the pitch the situation has improved over the past 12 months. However, what we’re feeling is probably partly a hangover from the crushing Doncaster defeat a few weeks ago. It’s hard to overstate how significant a swing that game had on both teams’ outlooks, and we came out close second best, but second best all the same and at home. For a team that had found itself in a bizarre and discouraging injury crisis, it was such a momentum killer, and if there’s one thing Alexander feeds off and needs, it’s momentum.
You talk about “Getting rid in January ” as if it’s a flick of a switch. Oliver has 7+ months on a contract of about 4 grand a week. Where is he gonna go when he can stay fit, warm a bench and run his contract down. They hold all the aces !
The only formula I can see is that Oliver gets an 19 month contract on 2 grand a week. We pay the difference for the first 7 months. He retains his income+has an extra 12 months left+has 19 months to rejuvenate his fading career+City save 2 grand a week+City have an opportunity to hunt for a striker who can actually score at least 1:4+Rupp can somehow demonstrate that he will pay the difference.
So far there is Zero obvious evidence, that the current squad has been ‘enhanced’, by Rupp injecting additional sums. Given the exodus at the end of last season, then the new recruits hardly seem to be players who could attract higher wages than those who had left.
The only formula I can see is that Oliver gets an 19 month contract on 2 grand a week. We pay the difference for the first 7 months. He retains his income+has an extra 12 months left+has 19 months to rejuvenate his fading career+City save 2 grand a week+City have an opportunity to hunt for a striker who can actually score at least 1:4+Rupp can somehow demonstrate that he will pay the difference.
So far there is Zero obvious evidence, that the current squad has been ‘enhanced’, by Rupp injecting additional sums. Given the exodus at the end of last season, then the new recruits hardly seem to be players who could attract higher wages than those who had left.
Ive binned going to VP for this season, the first in many years. Until we have a serious owner who genuinely believes in City reaching its potential, we’ll get the same result each year. In fact I’ve found the 3-4hr Ive saved by not going, better for my well being. The wife’s to-do list for me is finally starting to reduce.
It’s the least I’ve been invested/connected to the club for a long while. If things change I’ll probably head back, but Im content to sit this period out.
I have supported City since 1954, as my Dad and Grandad did before me. Granted, I moved to Leicestershire in 1968 but attempts to “transfer” to a more local club were a total failure ! I watch City whenever I can, and follow the results and news with excited interest as far as age allows !
However, this season there is something missing. I think years of under achievement are catching up with me, and I am convinced that the Club`s future lies with a more enthusiastic ownership. It is not the fault of Herr Rupp that he is saddled with ownership. I believe he regrets it, and there are good well chronicled reasons for this, but that is where the lack of supporter spirit is coming from. Who can blame him for awaiting the best moment to sell and minimise his losses? No real enthusiasm at the top is a massive deficit.
“City till I die” though, and I live in hope, but for goodness sake, can we stop playing in blue. My Dad would “turn in his grave” !
In the meantime, my local Northern Premier League Midlands Division Club is on a 14 game run without dropping a point, so I will be cheering them on again tomorrow.
JRW
Good post, JRW – I’m a recent newcomer, having attended my first game at Valley Parade in the 1968-69 season. You’re absolutely right that 1. the club needs more enthusiastic ownership and 2. the blue kit should go straight in the bin.
The club needs a complete overhaul from the top to the bottom the recruitment has been poor at best for years since Gent came to the club and this has continued with Shape bringing players in who have played up to 25 games a season at their previous clubs at Stockport and Mansfield and our best centre half ever present goes to Notts County and utility player goes up a league to Shrewsbury. The league does not lie with the number of games we have played currently and in the main GA has done a good job with his win percentage but last year run of winning games was when we couldn’t quite get into the playoffs and that is when really we had nothing to play for. Remember when we appointed GA he was 4th choice so the answer to the conundrum is why did 3 other reject the change to manage our fabulous club? It’s more endemic than the fans know. So I do think that until Gent leaves out of the door first showing everyone that changes are afoot we shall continue to have the same results unfortunately. Break the bank and offer Mark Robins a king’s ransom on a 3 year contract to come and sort this mess out. He has managed at this level before?
Great article on here as usual. I’m a supporter of 49 years and have never felt so disinterested in the club as i currently do. I am going today (weather permitting) but do mostly out of a sense of duty , in fact i look forward more to the pre match refreshments these days. January is massive i believe also, as are the next two games, a win today and success next week and things will seem rosier, im one of the old fashioned fans who enjoys the fa cup , i don’t see it as a hindrance as some do “we need to focus on the league” they say ha but we never do owt in the league any more. Most of my best memories of City atte the cup runs and the excitement they brought
Fingers crossed for next year(again)