Monday 25th January, 20106 months ago
Legend (as a man)
I’ve never written for a website before and I don’t intend to again, but today I’ve got my blood pumping and the reason for this is the phrase I keep hearing “McCall is a legend as a player.”
As a Bradford City player no player has ever equalled what Stuart McCall achieved for this club and probably no one ever will. In saying this I do not include simply his performances as a player in two spells for the club but what he has done as a man. A man of dignity and character.
I have stood next Stuart McCall at Fire Memorial services for the best part of twenty-five years, I’ve had him shake my hand and tell be two decades after when he was a young man as was I that he still feels for my loss and I’ve looked into his eyes as he had said it to me and I have seen an empathy. I’ve talked to him about the pain of his own father’s injuries and shown the same eyes back to him.
This means more to me than promotions and the number of times he kicked a ball for the club and the number of wins and losses under his stewardship.
This is what legends are made of.
I read this phrase “Legend as a player” and it makes me sick to the pit of my stomach. It makes me more sick than a thousand defeats ever will.
I talk to my friends who rationalise with me saying that people do not have my experiences and that people only mean that they respect him as a player, but not as a manager and I take a drink and hear what they say but I do not agree.
What does that mean anyway? That they support Stuart McCall when he is a player who they can cheer in the best of times but when he is a manager and things are going badly they do not consider him worth cheering? Worse that they consider him worth abusing?
They talk as if McCall himself will shake them by the hand and take a drink with them saying “Thanks for your support when we were going up and I fully understand why you had to treat me like garbage as a manager later on because I was not pleasing you.”
There is no player, there is no manager. There is just a man.
A young man who supported us at the worst time in our lives and gets everything he has done for us sliced into pieces on the basis of how much glory some “fans” think they can get out of it and how much glory they can feel reflected from it. As if the balance of a man’s legend could be weighed up by how much success he brought to you. What is this phrase “Legend” that gets thrown around these days anyway? It is one of those modern society words that means “How much I can get out of it” and “How good is it for me.”
People tell me that we can’t keep a manager on sentiment and I tell them that I’m not talking about a manager or result, I’m talking about a man and the decent treatment of a man. A man who deserves so much more than a set of brackets that say which parts of his life you like and which you don’t.
A good man, and for what he has done for this football club, a legend.
Full stop.
This is the first and only anonymous article BfB will ever carry.
It is not about Stuart McCall as a manager so it will not be followed by another debate on those merits nor is it about strategies of appointing and dismissing managers and how the enable success. Comments of that are not appropriate.
It is something heartfelt that is increasingly forgotten in the last year of discussion on Bradford City. The author complained to me that I was allowing the phrase on the site and I asked why, this is the author’s response. That the author does not want to be named is a decision I respect and I think you will to.
Poignant words. That McCall, for a good number of City fans, myself included, transcends player, manager and even any glorified label casually pinned upon him, will not likely factor into what appears to be inevitable ends. Hopefully, whatever occurs throughout the coming weeks or months, we will not alter our profoundly respectful view of perhaps the club’s most loyal and iconic servant in recent memory.
Hear, hear. Eloquently written, I suspect you reflect the opinions of many, many supporters.
I think this is why a lot of fans are willing to give Stuart a lot longer (at least till the end of the season). As with anything in life, such as a good film, or a great meal; Always good to see or eat by yourself but when shared and enjoyed with someone you love (ok maybe a tad too strong!!), or a great friend then this enhances the enjoyment. Yes I want Bradford to be successful but wouldnt it be so much better if this was with Stuart in charge and partly for these reasons I want him to stay.
Its very rare that I read something and agree wholeheartdly and completely with every single word that is written. Thank you for writing this article.
Extraordinary.
An article that summoned up deep emotion inside me; thank you so much for sharing your very intimate thoughts. I’m currently re-reading that literary classic by Joseph Conrad – Heart of Darkness. As with anyone who cares about BCFC things do feel very black at the moment – almost a bed dream that re-visits me every time my team takes the field. Perhaps we are all guilty to a greater or lesser extent at seeing SM as something that we all have a right to have a piece of and debate his future like trading a commodity.
I can’t even begin to imagine the turmoil going through his head at the moment – his hurt must be immense. As the author points out though he is a man and what a man. He is currently the heart in the darkness.
I agree with every single word written above,a quite moving description of Stuart McCall,the man and Bradford City legend.
A simply perfect article, that certainly expresses the views of myself and my father. Long may we stick by Stuart, the way he’s always stuck by us. This club was never the same in the spells he was away and should that fateful day ever arrive when he’s no longer linked to this club, then from then on everything will change again. I consider myself very fortunate to have been here to witness the effort and dedication of a truly great ‘professional’.
Thanks for the article and thanks Stuart.
Thank you for writing this.
In the event that Stuart is sacked, I am genuinely not sure how I will feel about a club who show so little loyalty to a man who has shown us all so much loyalty.
For me, City without Stuart McCall wouldn’t be the same.