More About Sheffield United
Huddersfield Town line up for a League Cup second round game against Sheffield United looking at a break from the league to give them the same kind of boost they had when they beat Bradford City 4-0 two weeks ago.
In the two matches after that, Town have recorded a single point and go into the game against the Championship side on the back of a 3-1 home defeat to MK Dons after which Stan Ternant admitted he had “picked the wrong team“. This, coupled with the single point on the opening day leaves Town - retroactively many people’s favourites for promotion - struggling with two points.
Meanwhile, back at Valley Parade, not a goal has passed Rhys Evans since the fourth strike from Huddersfield and two Bantam goals in each game have put City in a commanding position in League Two’s embryonic table.
All of which contrasts sharply with the mood and the nerves after the Town defeat. The thought now that City might not have enough in the locker for a promotion campaign - “Its not nice watching your team getting beat, but i am sure you will get plenty of practice this season (sic)” as one Town fan who commented to BfB said - has been put to bed by Saturday’s impressive win over Rochdale.
Much is talked about Stuart McCall’s abilities as a manager but this is - on the whole - in the context of his recruitment abilities and the results his teams get which to date have been mixed but the first gold star in the golden haired manager’s portfolio comes from his minimise-and-move-on that followed the thrashing at Legoland. “It happened”, McCall’s manner said after, “Get over it.”
So City’s midweek is taken up watching Barry Conlon put five past Grimsby’s kids and casting an eye over the newboy from Brazil Italo Maciel while Town line up against McCall’s former side looking for a victory but knowing that the league form must take precedence. A slow start can be navigated around - City won promotion after two points in seven games in 1998/99 - but the League Cup is an unwelcome distraction from getting the campaign on track.
The gulf that separated the teams fifteen days ago could - at the weekend should Millwall and Hereford win and Aldershot Town lose - be reduced to a single space spanning from the bottom of one division to the top of another.
Now who would have thought that fourteen days ago?
It’s five years since Stuart McCall was shown the door by Bradford City. Considered too old, too expensive and a little disruptive, his contract was not renewed and his number four shirt handed to someone else.
The impending financial meltdown that would come to light weeks later was the true reason behind showing a City legend the door. Yet as a near full house waved goodbye to Stuart during his testimonial game with former club Rangers, it appeared his best days were behind him.
Stuart hooked up with Neil Warnock’s Sheffield United and enjoyed a new leash of life by playing a significant part in the Blades reaching the League and FA Cup semi-finals and losing the Play Off final. Not bad for a player who Jim Jefferies, less than a year earlier, famously wrote off by saying his legs had gone. When those legs did eventually go, his coaching career took off. Rising to Warnock’s assistant, the sight of Stuart stood behind the Blades boss in the dugout has become a regular sight on Match Of The Day this season.
As for his first love Bradford City, it’s not been pretty. Administration, administration again, relegation, relegation again. Six years ago City were the butt of people’s jokes as they exited the Premiership, relegation to League Two was deemed barely worth a mention. The fall from grace may not have been as quick as the club formerly known as Wimbledon, but it’s still startling.
But just as we wondered if good things would ever happen to City again, Stuart comes over the hill as the proverbial knight in shining armour. City shocked the footballing world by signing Benito Carbone seven years ago and some will again be left scratching their heads in disbelief at Stuart’s decision to take the reigns at Valley Parade. Chiefly among them will be us City supporters and the staff, probably even Julian Rhodes himself.
When Colin Todd was dismissed last February, Stuart became number one target. There was nothing doing at the time, so Rhodes entrusted David Wetherall to look after the team and saw it relegated in feeble fashion. The wait continued and, after a turbulent week for the Blades, Rhodes incredibly got his man.
Through all of the waiting and debate of who should be manager, most supporters wanted Stuart in charge. We hoped he’d take the job, but who really believed he would? This is a club that has sunk to its lowest position in quarter of a century, become saddled with debts and played increasingly poor football. Decent players were replaced by average players - and then they were replaced by even poorer ones.
What have we achieved, other than continuing survival, since Stuart left? Staying up in 2002-03, but losing relegation battles in 2003-04 and 2006-07. Signing some decent players like Paul Henderson, Damion Stewart and Andy Gray, but only receiving a fraction of their value back. Attracting a world class big name manager, but discovering he was not a world class manager. Winning some memorable games, but losing more often and when it really mattered.
Good things haven’t happened to Bradford City for a long time. So who would have been surprised if Stuart had of landed the Sheffield United position and turned us down? Of course part of the reason we have got him was because the Blades decided he wasn’t right. But it hardly matters a jot.
A manager to finally unite the fans, attract more interest in the club and breed genuine optimism. A Bradford City man to inspire those who work under him, emphasise with the fans and demonstrate the long sought after ‘passion’ that some supporters believed was lacking in previous managers. A hungry individual with a point to prove to those who rejected him, ambitious for a good career and determined to succeed.
A man to help us remember happier times and look to the future with new belief. Good things haven’t happened to Bradford City for a long time, Stuart’s arrival will hopefully herald a change.
One pinch of salt needed:
Stuart McCall will agree to be City manager today (Wednesday 16th of May 2007) or the job will be offered elsewhere.
Another pinch of salt needed:
Stuart McCall will agree to be City manager today.
McCall has spoken to BBC Radio Sheffield today and talked about the contract offer to Neil Warnock and how it is not acceptable to the Blades manager. Following that McCall intimated that should Warnock go he would leave also.
It would seem that McCall is split between head that tells him to see what falls down at Sheffield United and heart that pushes him back to Bradford. Significantly Mrs McCall favours the heart.
More salt:
City are believe to have investment - proper investment that comes with support as Peter Etherington once promised but most definitely not Etherington - coming in the not at all distant future and that investment is offering something more to McCall than League Two and an empty bank account. City are not looking at having cash to splash but - as BfB understands it and considering the income streams the club has built - enough to stop the reliance on Julian Rhodes’s handouts for survival and perhaps some squad building cash.
Still more salt:
McCall has been in informal talks. McCall knows about the investment. McCall is looking at both City and Sheffield United and it is not cut and dried.
On the day that one ginger midfielder said he would love to come back - Paul Bolland of Grimsby wants to rejoin the Bantams and rumour has it that Huddersfield’s Chris Brandon is keen to have a word too – the other one has a decision to make about his future.
Failing McCall there is a list of names: Peter Beagrie, Lee Sinnott of now Conference side Farsley Celtic, Roy McFarland, Peter Jackson and on and on. Failing McCall there is a list of names but McCall has never failed us in the past.