Comments on: Where is the plan as the search for a new manager starts?

By: Damian Clough

Damian Clough — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:12:16 +0000

As much as I hate to say it, surely the club has to seriously look at moving away from Valley Parade. It is like a millstone around the neck.

If Odsal did have new training facilities etc, think how much the extra £250-500k could do to a club, especially squad wise.

By: Alan Storton

Alan Storton — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:47:04 +0000

If this is the start of a new era it is imperative that the chairmen show some leadership and address supporters’ concerns rather than throwing quotes to the local press.

The last time I can remember the scouting system being mentioned was at a “Fans’Forum” in October 2007.Mark Lawn stated that on his arrival there wasn’t really one, just a couple of people who used to watch matches for the club on an ad hoc basis.At some expense he had brought in an internet agency used by other clubs such as Bolton.The agency sent match reports to clubs.At that time Bradford City had links a Belgian agency and George Rubinstein in Portugal.When asked why City were looking abroad? His reply was “Foreign players cost less money than home grown players and have a higher skill level.”

My fear is that there is no plan in place and they will seek the cheapest available person.

By: Rob Dimbleby

Rob Dimbleby — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:54:35 +0000

This article hits the nail on the head in so many ways. We need to build the club from the ground up, but Mr Lawn appears to be the new Geoffrey Richmond, albeit on a smaller scale: a man in a hurry. It’s understandable, and it can be successful – temporarily at least. But it’s an approach that comes to grief sooner rather than later, and is self-defeating.

Stuart McCall is a unique individual as far as our club is concerned. Making him manager was a unique opportunity, and it’s been wasted. As the surge in sales demonstrated, it was McCall that got the cheap Season Ticket deal off the ground. Something special had begun. Mr Lawn spoke last season of “how there has been enough instability at this club”. I thought that the present board were serious, that they realised that McCall was the man, perhaps the only man, around which long-term planning could take place. Now we’ve reverted to our default behaviour. And the board can only be partly to blame. They would have persevered if the rest of us had gritted our teeth and given McCall the backing to at least see his contract out.

Without Stuart in place, will there be enough warm feeling toward the club to make the Season Ticket deal work next Christmas? Without him there, our club looks increasingly like just another desperate, debt-ridden lower league outfit in search of a saviour. That’s clearly how the board and the rest of us regarded Stuart: as a messiah, and not a man. The club should have used the affection and loyalty McCall could command to build for the long-term. But the expectations were unrealistic (and I think Stuart was as unrealistic as the rest of us), and now the chance has been blown.

To make matters worse, it seems possible that the board in fact do not have a plan of any kind in mind. You hear it said often enough by commentators on the game that the best boards are always thinking about who their next manager should be while the current one is in place. Do the board really not have someone in mind? And if they have, and he’s not available until the Summer, then why be prepared to let McCall leave now? In the last few weeks it has become clear that the board were capable of being faithless. Let’s hope that it emerges over the next weeks and months that they’re not also clueless.

By: Michael Wood

Michael Wood — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:53:23 +0000

I feel the same way about rumours, that they are far too often without basis, and seldom repeat them which hopefully speaks to the veracity of these rumours as I understand them.

By: Robert Wade

Robert Wade — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:33:18 +0000

It’s a sad day today so don’t want to dwell on looking back. The thing I don’t like is rumour. We are about to go into admin again, Lawn forced McCall out, Lawn & Rhodes aren’t talking, I could go on – you know what I’m getting at. I read this site and I read the T&A (not the comments I might add). With the T&A the bloke seems to just make it up – you have to cut through his writing and look for the actual quotes. So the reason for the post – is there actually any substance to the rumours above or is it just based on assumption and “My pal’s Mrs’s sister goes to a hairdresser where Mark Lawn’s son’s best friend’s auntie works” type of rumour?

By: Mike Harrison

Mike Harrison — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:14:05 +0000

Well said Michael, I wholly agree with what is another well written article on this site.

Stuart’s failure is the board’s failure, it’s as simple as that.

You are correct in saying that if Mark Lawn has plans to improve the club, then now is the time to share those thoughts with the fans. As I have said in my editorial in the new issue of City gent, the club must start to communicate better with the fans and now is a very good time to make a start, though of course that should have started 2 years and 7 months ago shouldn’t it?

By: Laurence Monaghan

Laurence Monaghan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:41:03 +0000

I think there are some very good points in this article Michael. In particular I think that investing in the youth set up, scouting and training facilities are brilliant ideas and are often seen as after thoughts when a club has gained substantial finacial investment. As you’ve stated doing this would be by definition a long-term plan; it could take years for the ‘fruits’ of the academy to be gracing the field on a Saturday afternoon, and this is of course if the young talent has not already been snapped up by higher division teams. It would take a lot of courage and vision for this strategy to be adopted and as with anything else a bit of luck. Whether or not Lawn/Rhodes are the chairmen to put this into place I don’t know. In an ideal world the youth squad development(and future stability of the club) and the current squad development would be treated as seperate financial entities, however in the current financial climate I think it would be hard to differentiate for each cause, most likely leading to an ‘all eggs in one basket’ scenario. It depends which basket we want to be in. On the one hand invest in the future of the club and subsequently sacrifice the short-term success of the club, on the other aim to achieve success on a seasonly or bi-seasonly basis to please supporters of the club thirsty for success. Each can be argued for strongly and as Michael has pointed out it looks like the club will be trying to get a manager in to achieve the short-term success that is so heavily desired.

This thouht-provoking article has led me to consider that if we we’re ever going to have a long-term plan was McCall probably one of the only men who could’ve held the fans’ patience long enough to see it implemented? In this sense has the lack of a ‘plan’ from the boardroom jeopordised any future long-term success? (Well for now at least?)Realistically who could City appoint to see through a long-term objective? I, like many others, would love to see Paul Jewel back at the club but that would be a dream scenario and one which it seems to be not financially viable for the club.

It will be very interesting to see who we appoint and then maybe we will have a clearer idea of how the club intends to progress. I only hope that the board do right by the club to ensure its long-term health and hopefully its future prosperity.

By: Paul hodgson

Paul hodgson — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:37:10 +0000

Couldn’t agree more with all you say. no scouting system at all…nothing! training on a municipal ground that everyone else can use as well.
Lawn hasn’t made a good start. just seen on TV saying we’ll have a caretaker till summer then appoint a new man….Why do this?
any experienced manager could have told him that the worst time to take over is close season when you haven’t seen your team in any competitive matches.
i am increasingly reminded of the bradford city of the early ’90s and the dave simpson board. well meaning city fans who desperately want the team to succeed but lacking the wherewithall to actually make it happen. the club ended up on a drip feed with no money even for the smallest transfer fee. luckily then, the lone ranger in the unlikely shape of geoffrey richmond was just over the horizon. we can but hope for something similar because I’ve come to believe, like you that rhodes and lawn don’t have a plan and that we won’t progress as a club under their stewardship but are likely to bump along the bottom while they pretty much make it up as they go along.