Monday 17th January, 2011last year, mid-January
The sad truth
The Byline
More Information
It goes against how I believe any football manager should be treated – I know they should get, and deserve, far more time than this – and his predecessors have received greater support and commitment from me in similar circumstances.
But I’m afraid I can’t do it this time…
I don’t want Peter Taylor to be our manager anymore.
Two straight defeats have undone the excellent work of beginning the year with back-to-back wins. City have twice climbed to the cusp of the play offs this season, on both occasions after they had beaten Bury 1-0. However a lack of consistency and the hindrance of starting the campaign so badly leaves the team seemingly unable to take that next step and elevate themselves from play off hopefuls to play off contenders. It just doesn’t look like it’s going to happen this year.
And I can live with that, really I can. Years of disappointment mean you have to learn to accept failure or find something else other than Bradford City to care about. So I don’t believe Taylor should leave Valley Parade because he is failing to deliver success in his first full season – in time I think he would get this club promoted, just look at his track record – it’s something deeper than that.
I’m sick and fed up of the horrible style of football we’re enduring under Taylor.
I didn’t go to Oxford, so I’m not in a position to criticise the 13th league defeat of the season. But listening to Derm Tanner and Mike Harrison commentating on the game for Radio Leeds, a feeling of embarrassment and despair grew inside me that I can no longer dismiss. It was obvious that, once again, City possessed no greater ambition than to defend deep and nick a goal. Indeed Taylor’s post-match interview admission that he’d played Omar Daley and Mark Cullen up front so the team could counter-attack – rather than speaking of a more positive game plan – was depressingly familiar. We’ve played this way so often this campaign.
And his approach is unlikely to change. In October and November we saw City playing some excellent football, but when a few close games subsequently went against us the attacking style that had turned around the campaign was reined back again. Entertainment and excitement has been largely lacking all season.
That matters a great deal to me. Don’t get me wrong, I am desperate for my football club to achieve promotion and to escape this division. I want us to climb back up the leagues and, ultimately, re-establish ourselves as a Championship club. I especially want to see City earn a promotion via Wembley and all the excitement that brings. I want to see larger Valley Parade crowds roaring on the team, and for that feeling that we belong in the division we are part of to return – rather than this current unsatisfying state of considering ourselves superior to our league opponents.
But more than anything, I want to enjoy watching City. Supporting Bradford City has never been about glory, and as overdue as some success now is such great moments can’t last forever and the regular week-to-week experience has to be enjoyed not endured.
That’s why I ultimately don’t want Taylor to manage my club – because the style we play and the enjoyment factor is, to me, perhaps more important than the league table. I’m probably in a minority for thinking this way – football is all about results and, if City were winning most weeks from this style of football, few of us would be complaining. But as I listened to City apparently stick 11 men behind the ball at Oxford and be 11 minutes away from winning, I knew that even if we’d have held out I would not have felt happy about the three points.
I guess I just don’t want it this way.
Taylor can take City to League One in time, heck he can take us to the Championship eventually. But if the journey there is going to feel this underwhelming and tedious, I’d rather we stopped and dug out the map to find a different route. I want to love watching City again, like I have felt for many years even during difficult times. That desire to go to games as often as possible remains for me – starting with Burton home on Saturday, I’ll be attending all five of City’s matches that will take place in that next fortnight – but these days watching the Bantams is more of a routine than an escape. It’s supposed to be the opposite way round.
All of which leaves me feeling and looking a little foolish. For much of the last 11 months I have argued Taylor should have been awarded longer contracts than the club were willing to provide. Yet if they’d have acted on my views, dismissing Taylor now would prove a costlier exercise. All I can say is that the principle of giving managers time to deliver success is, to me, absolutely the right one to uphold. Over the last year the club has focused too much on the short-term and, 13 months on from throwing away the longer-term building work of Stuart McCall, it hasn’t got us any further. It’s time to stop making each season promotion or bust; we have to give the manager – Taylor or whoever – time to get it right.
So if you want Taylor to be sacked because of the current league table, I can’t agree with you. Sure the poor results point to a poor manager, but after a decade of utter failure it should be obvious there are no quick fixes and overnight success was always unlikely to occur. Equally I don’t believe sacking Taylor will improve results and enhance our promotion prospects, it will most likely mean taking a step back initially. It’s just I’d rather take that step back and then move forwards if it means we don’t have to endure football as dismal to watch as it has been for most of this season.
Despite my views, I won’t be leading the cries of ‘Taylor out’. In fact if that chant is aired on Saturday it’s unlikely I’d join in. Match day should be a time for positive support, no matter how difficult that often can be to muster. My personal views are less important than the efforts of the team to win, and I wouldn’t want to undermine that effort for my own selfish reasons.
But unless Taylor returns to the more positive attacking football that we’ve seen in the past – for which he’d quickly receive back my full support , even if results aren’t transformed – I fancy I’ll raise a smile if or when he leaves the club. After so much tedium this season, it will make a rare change.
The Byline
More Information
16 Comments
Comments Closed
- The article could be over fourteen days old and have had comment turned off automatically.
- We might have turned off comments on the article believing that it needs no more further discussion.
- We may have decided the article will not be subject to comments. Sometimes a statement is a start of a debate, sometime it is simply a statement.
- On rare occasions we are not able to respond and approve comments owing to time pressures and we may have turned comments off for a period of time.
Don’t feel foolish because many of us would agree with you. I don’t think any us us would really be complaining if this style of football has us in the automatic promotion places but rather wishing things could be different and us still achieve.
I think the main frustrations come down to the fact that we have seen glimpses of good play but no consistency either from most players, or more worryingly, from the manager.
We have seen us play open, positive, exciting football against Oxford and Cheltenham at home and we got big wins. These however have been followed up by negative away tactics and we’ve been embarrassed both times.
We have also seen us play PT tactics executed brilliantly against Bury both times. These wins however came through excellent work ethic and a solid formation with players committing themselves to counter-attacking play. This is defensive football but a far cry from the 8-2 formation apparently displayed at the weekend.
I think ultimately though, the frustration comes from the fact the most of us believe a change to attractive football would in fact see an upturn in our fortunes. Playing positively would help the crowd get behind the team e.g. Cheltenham, and would help the players play like we know they can rather than nervous and desperate e.g. Daley against Oxford and Bury.
Lastly, we need Flynny back to play alongside player of the season Syers.
Jason, you’ve hit the nail on the head here. Whilst there are no guarantees of anything in football, we knew that when PT was appointed, his track record told of dour games, sneaking 1-0 wins.
If we were in the automatic places or even the play-offs, we could probably cope with the lack of entertainment, but to be where we are, which is no better than we have been for 3 seasons now, means the manager comes under closer scrutiny.
I haven’t been to an away match this season & after listening to the radio commentaries so far this season, am unlikely to in the near future. The last few home games (Bury aside) have been a chore & I’ve given up trying to persuade my 2 kids to come with me – why inflict more suffering at such a tender age..?!!
I can’t see myself renewing my season ticket either, unless by some miracle we start playing some attractive football and I start enjoying myself again – for God’s sake, we applauded them off last season after they’d just been beaten by Crewe!
Come on you Bantams….please!!
Well said Jason.
Having followed City for over 25 years I can honestly say that this is the worst football I have seen providing the least entertainment I could possibly imagine. If this is what watching Bradford City is going to be like for the next few years I’ll give up now and await a time when either Taylor has departed or he decides that the tactics he is employing is both not working and driving support away, and changes to a more entertaining style of football.
I did not venture to Oxford. It’s a ground I haven’t visited and in the normal run of things I would have wanted to go and support the team and tick off another ground attended. However I decided against going as ticking off of another ground did not outweigh the thought of having to watch another 90 mins of Tayloresque dross.
This is a dangerous precedent as far as support is concerned. I know that I am not the only one feeling this way and a number of fans who regularly travel away stayed away for the same reason. Once you break the habit of travelling all over the country to watch your team on a Saturday it is not so easily unbroken. You become more distant from the team and eventually the malaise sets in and you are not that bothered about attending matches at home either.
I want to be entertained. Simple. I don’t care if we win, lose or draw so long as we look to put in 100% effort and give the opposition a game. This is not unachievable but under Peter Taylor it certainly looks it. Putting a defensive wall in front of a team and inviting them to break us down is not what I want to see. Taylor appears hell bent on driving every like minded fan away.
Taylor left Wycombe after 11 league games in 2009 having taken them up to League one the previous season. Their owner confirmed that Peter knew it was time to move on. We have played 24 league games and won only 9 having the lowest away goal tally in the league along with Lincoln. Whilst we may not be in a position to dismiss Taylor at this present time I do hope that Lawn, Rhodes et al are busy sourcing a suitable replacement for next season.
I’m sorry to say but it’s embarrassing to be a City fan at present.
Without even commenting on Taylor how can we – as Bradford City fans – have any hope in the board sourcing a suitable replacement? Mark Lawn has let it be known that he thinks (or thought, two weeks ago) that Peter Taylor is doing a good job. Taylor is Lawn’s choice after not only a selection process but also an unprecedented three month probationary period in which the performances were no different than they have been this season.
He is Lawn’s selection – checked and double checked like no other manager – and I doubt I am the only City fan who considers the Devil we do not know approaching with some worry.
The absolute disaster was clearly that Taylor turned down the job at Newcastle. Lawn and Rhodes must have been salivating at the prospect of getting compensation for a bloke they were about to sack. There are managers who can get us out of this league but Taylor is a million miles off that sadly. Another season wasted.
Mark Ashdown
If this is true, and for legal reasons I fell it is worth pointing out that this is only speculation, then it would make a liar of Lawn who said very publicly that he did not want Taylor to go and that he thought he was doing a good job.
I couldn’t agree more with Jason’s article and the follow up comments.
I’ve supported City for over 50 years, unfortunately for the last 24 years as an exile in Gloucestershire. Because I don’t get to see many matches, I try to go to watch them when they play somewhere in the area. The last 3 matches I’ve been to were Hereford away last season and Wycombe and Cheltenham this season. In all 3 matches (which City lost without scoring a goal) the standard of football was awful, particularly the Cheltenham game. When I go to a game, whether they win or lose, I want to be entertained. Quite clearly, from the games I’ve seen and reading comments from people who watch far more matches than I do, the entertainment factor for most games is zero. Ultimately, this will have a negative effect on season ticket sales and attendances in general.
Success (as measured by promotion) can never be guaranteed no matter what style of football is played but failure becomes a little more palletable if we have been entertained along the way.
Thankyou Jason.
You sum up my feelings so well.
It’s not the man so much as the manner that makes me feel as you do.
There is an arrogance to the way players are publicly criticised by the manager but any criticism of Peter Taylor is deemed to be lack of support.
It is not! It is the honesty of disillusioned fans and it needs to be addressed by those who run the club.After much thought,as explained in my piece “The Last Time”,my season ticket was renewed in the hope that Peter Taylor will not be given a new contract at the end of this season.
Which ever radio station you listened to last Saturday the performance sounded poor and negative and I respect the honesty of those involved with the commentary. My heart goes out to those poor souls who made the trip to actually watch it.
The club has my money, the players have my support but the faith I had in the manager has long since gone.
Remember when the team came out to “Let me entertain you”?
I’ve never contributed to BfB, despite it being my daily reading for many years now.
I merely want to thank Jason for saving me the job of expressing how I felt after Saturday’s debacle. I’ve been going to see City regularly for 50 years now and have witnessed many worse results, on paper at least, than 2-1 at the Kassam. 0-6 at Spotland in my teens and seven goals shipped at Vicarage Rd spring to mind, but never, as Jason puts it, have I felt so sick and fed up with the style of football being played by team I love as I do today. I suspect it’s the prospect of another miserable Tuesday night in Aldershot tomorrow – last year’s fixture was another Tayloresque defeat – and that I’ll get over it, but for now I’m grateful that I’m not alone in my bewilderment at our tactics, team selection and use of loanees.
OK Jason, it was obviously very difficult to make that admission. the football isn’t good to watch and doesn’t seem to be working anyway. but, your article and the comments which followed only addressed 1/2 of the problem. I guess you’d all agree that City must have a manager, so my question couldn’t be simpler…if not peter taylor then who? don’t forget, he must be available for free cos we can’t afford to pay for anyone. Please, serious suggestions only. (a few weeks back I read on another site suggestions of sam allardyce or chris hughton…I’d like a pint of whatever those lads who made those suggestions had been drinking!)
Hi Paul
Well it sounds like Martin O’Neill isn’t going to West Ham…
Just joking of course. No doubt readers will have their views, but my opinion is that – should Taylor depart – we need to avoid the classic mistake we, and other clubs always seem to make. That is to decide that we need a manager who is the polar opposite of the one who has just departed. Typically when you have an old manager under pressure, there are calls for a ‘young hungry manager’ to come in. If a manager with a previous great track record from divisions below is on his way out, it’s often claimed they can’t handle the bigger players and so the club needs someone who’s managed at a higher level. It becomes more than the manager ‘failing’, but apparently the policy was completely wrong in the first place.
So if Taylor departs any time soon, if I were Mark and Julian I would look at the fine qualities Taylor undoubtedly has and revisit the recruitment process that lead to appointing him in the first place. If they judged Taylor was the right man then for reasons A, B and C, but it’s turned out reason C was the wrong quality to look for in a manager and there are other traits Taylor has that we’re tolerated at the time but have proved to be an issue, it doesn’t mean the qualities of A and B should be abandoned when it’s time to look for the next manager.
If Taylor goes, let us not make the error of believing everything about him was wrong, because it wasn’t. There are things I like about Taylor, and these qualities can take this club forward if they can be found in another person.
Great article Jason.
As bad as things are under PT I still think the worst football I’ve seen at VP was the route one tedium produced by the John Docherty team of 1990-92. Still, this season has been undeniably abysmal.
I think most of us would agree that in PT the chairmen recruited the best available candidate for the job but despite having a decent pedigree I find it increasingly difficult to see him delivering promotion (and I’m pragmatic and desperate enough to admit I’d take umpteen repeats of the dismal game that was City 1 Stevenage 0 if it meant we got out of Division Four).
If we’re agreed that we want a new manager who will increase the chances of us seeing some entertainment the question is who on earth do we want? The rumoured list of candidates last time around didn’t inspire much excitement – my fear is we may soon be in the hands of Peter Jackson, Russell Slade or some other failed lower league manager.
I fully accept that the position we’re in dictates that we can only ever hope to take our pick from managers who have failed elsewhere but a (tiny) part of me worries that we may yet find that sacking PT may be followed by similar results to those that followed the sacking of the almost equally unpopular Colin Todd.
As terrible as this season has been I genuinely believe that the odds are it would get worse if we sacked PT now. My reluctant vote goes for sticking with him, praying that Ramsden and Flynn return ASAP and PT realises that producing some entertainment will get the fans back onside and who knows, perhaps even result in us making a 1996 style late push to the play offs. I’m not holding my breath though…
3 Reasons Why Taylor Should Stay
1. Why sack the January manager of the month?
Ok, so he won’t be. But we were woodwork away against Barnet and a fluffed one-on-one away against Oxford from making it 4 wins from 4. It would’ve been daylight robbery had we taken even a point from Oxford, but Taylor is not wrong when he says that we had a great chance to win it. Small margins make a big difference and in a parallel universe somewhere Taylor has just won back-to-back 2-0 wins and is being lauded as a man who doesn’t play great football but gets the job done, which I’m sure every City fan would take.
2. Who else?
We have so many games this month, why change now? We have a poor recent record of caretaker managers. Moreover, this is Taylor’s squad and even if we brought in Ruud Gullit he would have to play sexy football with Evans toiling on the wing. There is, apparently, no budget left for this year so what can a new manager achieve with no wingers and none of his own players?
3. We will go up in the play-offs
If we get there, Taylor’s tactics go from boring to masterstroke. First leg away at Plainmoor (where it inevitably will be) on Tuesday night: keep it tight and hit them on the break. Take them back to VP and the great City crowd will roar us to victory, because like against Forest and Preston, we always seem to get behind the boys in the one-off games.
I’m not a happy fan right now, I just wanted to say that like Taylor surprising us by not taking Mike Ashley’s cash, perhaps we should surprise a seasoned manager by not calling for his head after a couple of bad results.
Jason, were you not asking for more time and loyalty for Taylor less than two weeks ago.
The malaise that surrounds the club goes much deeper than Taylor. I can’t name a manager that’s available or realistic that would come in and get my excitement levels increasing again.
In some ways I think we’ve just hit the end of the obvious options. When things were bad under previous managers there was always a single name that would be the favourite for the managers job, it was like McCall was destined to be the light at the end of our dark tunnel. The prospect of the prodigal son returning always gave us hope and something to be excited about for the future. When that didn’t work out as planned we appointed unquestionably the most successful lower league manager available which kept the excitement going to an extent.
Now the chosen one hasn’t worked and the proven one hasn’t worked where do we turn to give us that feel good factor back? They might come in and do a better job eventually but in the short term how can we lift the gloom?
I was, and I’d like to be able to show Taylor more loyalty and get behind him. All I can say is don’t expect to see Taylor-out articles or match reports from me blaming defeats on Taylor and refusing to praise him when he does good things. I’m not going to start – or join with – any campaign to get him out. It’s my personal view that I can’t tolerate this style of football, but my view isn’t any more important than anyone else’s. I hope those who want him to be our manager get behind him if that’s what they believe, I just can’t join in myself.
Head & nail in one articulate hit. 95% of me doesn’t care any more. Team selection by loan agreement with no shape… no passion… no wingers … no chance