The news that League One Bradford City’s joint chairman Edin Rahic is expected to leave the club will likely only be celebrated by their embattled fanbase once the departure they have spent many months calling for is sealed definitively.
Much has happened to the club, which reached the 2013 League Cup final as a League Two team, since its relegation from the top flight in 2001. They dropped like a stone and in 2007 landed in League Two, still cash-strapped from maxing out every credit card going during their lads’ holiday to the Premier League at the turn of the millennium. There were two administrations during that time and they woke up in the bottom tier as all of us do after headier days: hungover and terrified of checking their bank balance.
It took them six attempts to reach League One but they did so in 2013 under Phil Parkinson. Two years later, two German investors, Rahic and Stefan Rupp, paid £5million for a 100 per cent buyout.
Parkinson was so perturbed by whatever their vision looked like that he willingly jumped ship to a Bolton side entrenched in off-field calamity. Three years and five head coaches later, Bradford are currently bottom of League One with the worst record of any club in the four professional divisions over this calendar year.
It is difficult to know where to begin unpacking the network of systemic and fundamental failings at Bradford that have claimed coach after coach as collateral. Club legend Stuart McCall became Parkinson’s successor but tensions quickly became apparent. Rahic made public his desire to influence player recruitment, and often the full extent of McCall’s assessment of signings went: “I don’t know much about him.”
Nonetheless, the team thrived under McCall’s human touch. Within nine months he had them walking out at Wembley in the League One play-off final. They were defeated 1-0 by Millwall, and, in hindsight, that success feels more like a final attempt at a sticking plaster to a now-gaping wound. He was sacked in February this year, with the team inside the top six, and since then Bradford’s annus horribilis has played out like a grim tragicomedy.
Even the parts that are public knowledge verge on the scarcely believable. The Bradford local paper, the Telegraph and Argus, alleged Rahic attempted to ban McCall from covering a game at Valley Parade for Sky on ‘safety grounds’. Simon Grayson was so jaded by his brief tenure that he summarised it with the words: “three months that felt like years”.
It took them 61 days to find someone willing to succeed him, and in the end they went for the 32-year-old youth team coach, Michael Collins, who never even applied for the job and was sacked 77 days later. They replaced him with former Livingston boss David Hopkin, who revealed in his maiden press conference that he’d had to “introduce” ice baths to the players’ recovery plans.
The kindest thing you can say about the playing squad this season is that they have, on occasion, demonstrated a vague look of a football team. As a rule, it is not a good sign when a centre half begins his assessment of the playing group with the words: “I’ve got to call a spade a spade.”
Relegation to League Two looks increasingly likely but the blow will be softened for supporters should Rahic, as Telegraph sources have suggested he will, actually step down. His reign has comprised of too many missteps, like a bored office worker blindly tapping Minesweeper squares on Windows 2000, and a plausible route back into fans’ affections does not look forthcoming.
Coach after coach has departed from the club this year parroting the same list of grievances. Complaints about interference have soundtracked Rahic’s tenure like an incessant echo, and it will come as a relief to all involved if and when they finally have to stop hearing them.
Good luck to them. Yes, they're a well supported town club and deserve better. The EFL really do need to get their act together on the fit and proper testing.
I'm sure they had 19000 there the other week. Cheap seats or not they are a Well supported town club.
It's like the official attendances given out at Charlton
Bullshit
Isn't it one of those situations where lots of people have bought the cheap STs but aren't necessarily attending...
And lots of people didn't renew this season, a BIG campaign now to get half season tickets at half the original price. Like I have said before we will be very lucky if we ever get an owner who is both rich enough and wise enough to please most of us.
"Nonetheless, the team thrived under McCall’s human touch. Within nine months he had them walking out at Wembley in the League One play-off final. They were defeated 1-0 by Millwall, and, in hindsight, that success feels more like a final attempt at a sticking plaster to a now-gaping wound. He was sacked in February this year, with the team inside the top six"
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Much has happened to the club, which reached the 2013 League Cup final as a League Two team, since its relegation from the top flight in 2001. They dropped like a stone and in 2007 landed in League Two, still cash-strapped from maxing out every credit card going during their lads’ holiday to the Premier League at the turn of the millennium. There were two administrations during that time and they woke up in the bottom tier as all of us do after headier days: hungover and terrified of checking their bank balance.
It took them six attempts to reach League One but they did so in 2013 under Phil Parkinson. Two years later, two German investors, Rahic and Stefan Rupp, paid £5million for a 100 per cent buyout.
Parkinson was so perturbed by whatever their vision looked like that he willingly jumped ship to a Bolton side entrenched in off-field calamity. Three years and five head coaches later, Bradford are currently bottom of League One with the worst record of any club in the four professional divisions over this calendar year.
It is difficult to know where to begin unpacking the network of systemic and fundamental failings at Bradford that have claimed coach after coach as collateral. Club legend Stuart McCall became Parkinson’s successor but tensions quickly became apparent. Rahic made public his desire to influence player recruitment, and often the full extent of McCall’s assessment of signings went: “I don’t know much about him.”
Nonetheless, the team thrived under McCall’s human touch. Within nine months he had them walking out at Wembley in the League One play-off final. They were defeated 1-0 by Millwall, and, in hindsight, that success feels more like a final attempt at a sticking plaster to a now-gaping wound. He was sacked in February this year, with the team inside the top six, and since then Bradford’s annus horribilis has played out like a grim tragicomedy.
Even the parts that are public knowledge verge on the scarcely believable. The Bradford local paper, the Telegraph and Argus, alleged Rahic attempted to ban McCall from covering a game at Valley Parade for Sky on ‘safety grounds’. Simon Grayson was so jaded by his brief tenure that he summarised it with the words: “three months that felt like years”.
It took them 61 days to find someone willing to succeed him, and in the end they went for the 32-year-old youth team coach, Michael Collins, who never even applied for the job and was sacked 77 days later. They replaced him with former Livingston boss David Hopkin, who revealed in his maiden press conference that he’d had to “introduce” ice baths to the players’ recovery plans.
The kindest thing you can say about the playing squad this season is that they have, on occasion, demonstrated a vague look of a football team. As a rule, it is not a good sign when a centre half begins his assessment of the playing group with the words: “I’ve got to call a spade a spade.”
Relegation to League Two looks increasingly likely but the blow will be softened for supporters should Rahic, as Telegraph sources have suggested he will, actually step down. His reign has comprised of too many missteps, like a bored office worker blindly tapping Minesweeper squares on Windows 2000, and a plausible route back into fans’ affections does not look forthcoming.
Coach after coach has departed from the club this year parroting the same list of grievances. Complaints about interference have soundtracked Rahic’s tenure like an incessant echo, and it will come as a relief to all involved if and when they finally have to stop hearing them.
Can't we just corral all these useless twats that have ruined football and get them jobs at Palarse or the Spanners?
Bullshit
Seems like a really wise sacking.........