The cost of changing managers

As Phil Parkinson sits down to watch his first Bradford City game as manager already he will have made a signing and put in approaches for others with Charlton’s Paul Benson having talked to City as one of three clubs he is expected to consider joining before tomorrow’s transfer deadline.

Parkinson is unequivocal. He wants to add players to the squad and he wants to do it before Wednesday. This time last week the current squad were Peter Jackson’s team, his lads, hand-picked and with some security. Now some of them are looking at a long time on the sidelines.

Jack Compton is first with his neck on the block. A player on loan from Falkirk having not parted on the best of terms with his manager he worries that he might be sent back to Scotland but the arrival of Kyel Reid casts a shadow over his future. For sure Parkinson might have watched Compton for a couple of games, but he knows Reid from old.

Compton though is a loanee, and such is the life, but what the likes of Nialle Rodney, Nakhi Wells and Ross Hannah will make of Paul Benson’s arrival should it is a little more significant. These players might all have a future at City, but that future is pushed further away when the club start bringing in senior players over your head. Hannah might look at Benson’s record at Dagenham and Redbridge and think that he could do now what Benson did then, but that he might not get the chance to now.

Hannah is bubbling under, and so are James Hanson and Mark Stewart. Performances like Saturday and momentum builds and careers come from that. Sitting on the bench watching players signed over your head is a route back to non-league.

As Benson would probably testify to League Two is a league that makes players and as Stuart McCall would note bringing in the big names often does not work. Watching Saturday’s performance one might conclude that if you put eleven men on the field and got them playing the right way then you have eleven good players.

Nevertheless manager’s want to change things and while three months ago Peter Jackson was feathering his nest with his own squad so Phil Parkinson will do the same. Players come in with signing on fees, players go out with contract termination agreements. It is not cheap and the three rebuilding jobs of the last few season suggest it is not effective either. Peter Taylor’s self assembled team did no better than Stuart McCall’s.

There is scope for improvement at any time of course. The squad needs more wide men and has very limited resources in the holding midfield area. There is also an argument that when the right player becomes available then you add him to the squad. The right player is an example to the younger players in the squad, someone who trains and plays in the right way and with the right professional attitude. A Stuart McCall if you will, a Peter Beagrie. Paul Benson might be that kind of player.

Ultimately Bradford City, once again, pick up the price of changing the squad once more but there is a different cost an a more human one. Peter Jackson went to people like Hannah, Wells, Rodney et al and – on behalf of the club – told them that Bradford City was a way to start your career. The cost of changing managers may end up being those careers.

The best manager in the history of Bradford City

Colin Cooper is expected to take a hand in selecting the team for Bradford City’s game with Sheffield Wednesday but when looking back the history books will ready that Phil Parkinson took over at Bradford City on the 29th of August 2011 and that Colin Cooper managed the club for one game.

One game, one win, no draws, no defeats, four goals and – for relish although it will not be recorded – a great performance. When looking at Phil Parkinson’s profile the mind boils everything down to win percentages. Cooper will forever top such a list for Bradford City: 100%.

That Cooper reverts to assistant if he is lucky – or like Wayne Jacobs before him – ends up being told to leave is a little saddening. Two cheers for the club for making decisive action after Jackson’s departure, and a note of sadness that Cooper has not had the chance to show what he can do in the job.

Show what he could do like Terry Dolan who took the club to a height after being given the job until Martin O’Neill’s contract details were sorted out. Dolan was caretaker who made himself unignorable and got the job but it seems that the die was cast in favour of Parkinson before Cooper’s team started. It is a shame, but one game should not chance long term planning.

So Cooper takes his place in history and points a way forward for Phil Parkinson. The Bradford City team which beat Barnet is a team of promise who can play a bit of football and Parkinson may do well to notice that. The team can play a bit, and does not need to be shoehorned into a style which does not suit it.

Much is made of Parkinson’s direct playing style but – until Pat Rice decided he would extend his contract this season – he was to be Arsene Wenger’s number two at Arsenal running a team famous for trying to pass and walk the ball into the goal.

If the criticism of Peter Jackson was that he was not using the resources as well as he should then one should expect his replacement to do things differently and arriving at Valley Parade, watching Saturday’s performance, and decides that they would be better served whacking the ball long would be to fritter away the resources for the sake of enforcing a style of play.

Such discussions are for the future. Parkinson will set out his team and hope to be as effective as Colin Copper’s side was.

Oscar Jansson will keep his place in the side and the back four of Liam Moore, Guy Branston, Luke Oliver and Robbie Threlfall are expected to stay in place although Steve Williams hopes to be fit soon and Luke O’Brien’s place on the bench signals that he is coming in from the cold. When Peter Jackson tells his side of the story of why he left Bradford City one hopes that someone asks him what he was doing with O’Brien.

The midfield four of Chris Mitchell, Richie Jones, Michael Flynn and Jack Compton will stay in place having got everything very right but with Kyel Reid having joined the club Compton may face some competition for his place. Parkinson would do well to have watched Saturday’s performance and decided that the route to improvement was to replace any of those four.

Likewise James Hanson and Mark Stewart will be wondering which of them will be standing down to allow Paul Benson to be give a place in the forward line. Cooper’s single game as City manager shows everything anyone needs to know about the striking pair and – were Benson to join – one would think less of Parkinson if he were to make changes without giving the current side a chance.

That is if the current side are deployed in the Associate Members Cup rather than the development team. This competition has given many a young player a run out in the past and brought very little success for the Bantams on the way.

Sheffield Wednesday arrive at Valley Parade sitting ninth in League One and with their own new manager – Gary Megson – still looking for his first win on the road. Wilson’s trips away have included a visit to Alfreton Town in which the Owls XI lost 14-0. One wonders how many of the starting side from Saturday will be played if the XI side gets results like that.

Then again, what can one read from a single result in isolation?