Re: Bulls Squad 2015 : Thu Jul 10, 2014 9:35 am  

I think Henry would be excellent in the championship. I think he would rip some championship clubs to pieces with his size. Defensively he is very poor but hopefully that's something he can work on.

On Donno, I would be surprised if he stayed. Can see a fair few SL clubs wanting to sign him.

Re: Bulls Squad 2015 : Thu Jul 10, 2014 5:48 pm  

martinwildbull wrote:

Patience Pump2 patience. Green has said there will be positive announcements, and clearly he has a tight hand on the PR machine, hence the I would like to stay comments to keep us happy (or not) until the time comes for fanfares of trumpets and we all gasp in amazement (or not).

btw did you get a match programme for Sunday, if so can you scan his answers to fans questions and post it either publicly or if you are worried about breach of copyright haha attach it to a pm to me so I can see what else he had to tell the fans, please?

and thanks if you stickied this, much handier than trawling pages 2 and 3

Here you go. Excuse any mistypes/ spelling errors as had to type it in rather than scanning. If any of mods feel it breaches AUP doing this then please remove post. Can't see it being an issue with programme notes but you never know.

as we head into the final third of the season, I am all too aware of some of the underlying questions which are plaguing everyone. Why are the club spending money on this high court claim instead of investing it in the club and rebuilding? Why are we not preparing for next year in the championship and accepting the writing on the wall? What is this big plan our new chairman wants everyone to buy into?

The answers are as follows: to date, not a single penny of club money has been spent on the appeal process or the proposed high court battle. A huge amount of work is being completed behind the scenes, preparing for either eventuality, and I can assure you of positive announcements in the coming weeks Which will endorse this.
As for the plan, it is simple and has been emphasised previously by me. The rebuilding of the club has to be a combined effort. The board can only spend club funds on developing your youth of tomorrow or strengthening the team of today if it is profitable and without your help it can't be.
Someone recently asked about why I had bought the club after all. They questioned my birthplace and heritage. I am not from Bradford. In fact the went on to state "I must get completely mad to have bought a business in a industry synonymous with failure, which itself has failed three times- and twice in the last 18 months"
I replied simply by saying "I don't fail". Surprised at my response they asked "is that it". I said "yes". This city has great people, the club has great supporters, great history and a great heart, in the right hands how can it fail.

If you were expecting in depth answers then I guess you'll be disappointed. IMO his answers amount to little more than sound bites which don't really answer anything.

Re: Bulls Squad 2015 : Thu Jul 10, 2014 6:34 pm  

thanks Mat, especially for typing it in! as you say most of the meat (such as it is) is in the bit that was on the website, interesting that he puts the youth of tomorrow first before the team of today and that so far does seem to be the balance, so its wait for the announcements in a few weeks. Also shows his resolve that the business is profitable.

Re: Bulls Squad 2015 : Fri Jul 11, 2014 5:11 am  

My main worry at the moment is that a lot of players are saying "Yes, I'd like to stay at Bradford even if we went down" but there doesn't seem to have been much movement on the re-signing front.

Given other clubs, including London, have been announcing signings already, I'm concerned that we're going to get left behind as it's not going to be like previous seasons when a SL club has dropped down and been able to kick back and steam roll the Championship clubs and come back up easily. There's a lot of sharks in those waters now and the Bulls look to be bleeding heavily

Re: Bulls Squad 2015 : Fri Jul 11, 2014 5:30 am  

I'm strangely reassured by the absence of a fans forums, 'in the know fans', and club insiders using the forum to spread wilful rubbish.

Lowes and Robbie are good blokes who wouldn't be involved if they didn't think Green was doing right by the club. Other than that, we'll all just have to wait and see what happens.

On Donno, I can't see a SL club wanting him as his go forward is poor. Having said that, just about all the forwards went backwards under Cummins. One mistake Green has made is not sacking FC sooner.

Re: Bulls Squad 2015 : Fri Jul 11, 2014 7:48 am  

And as if right on cue, Steve Ferres breaks his silence for a reassuring article. Is someone from the club reading these forums? Or is it just Ross from the t&a? The timing is uncanny. http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/11334132.Ferres_assures_Bradford_Bulls_fans__Signings_are_on_their_way/

And as if right on cue, Steve Ferres breaks his silence for a reassuring article. Is someone from the club reading these forums? Or is it just Ross from the t&a? The timing is uncanny. http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/11334132.Ferres_assures_Bradford_Bulls_fans__Signings_are_on_their_way/

Re: Bulls Squad 2015 : Fri Jul 11, 2014 8:42 am  

Good aricle that, some honesty and a realistic view on next season. 4000 fans as a base is probably about right, (makes a change from hoping for 10k!)but with a winning side and lots of "new" local derbies I think we could easily achieve 5000, which considering the club will actually be getting more central funds next year than we've had should see the club well able to rebuild within our means.

Leigh are well ahead of us at the moment for next season I think, but looking accross the other teams we'll likely be competeing against I dont see any reason (provided we keep a decent number of our current squad jimmy wants and add some appropriate quality) we cant get into the top 4 which is the first target to reach the middle 8. How many of the other championship clubs are even going to be full time next year? Us, Leigh, Halifax (?) London, Fev probably not now that idiot has bailed out with his fictional cash.

Now its a reality Im getting strangly excited by the change, new teams to play, probably more wins than this year, and a target we can realistically aim for whilst rebuilding with a club legend in charge of the team....sounds better than another season of admins and thumpings!!

Re: Bulls Squad 2015 : Fri Jul 11, 2014 9:35 am  

agreed DM, exciting - thats why I set up the topic. Very realistic too, him and Green have noses that could have drilled out the Hadron Collider tunnels in a day. Interesting to note he doesnt mention the home grown player £40k cap, as plenty of posters have said thats a good place to start to help pay for quality non hg players within the total spend that the 4000 fan income base allows. One downside of this regime, the obsession about Odsal, but I guess thats longer term news from the hard noses.

Re: Bulls Squad 2015 : Fri Jul 11, 2014 9:49 am  

Obsession with Odsal? Do you mean not considering alternatives such as VP? If so I suspect its just that for all the downsides Odsal is the cheapest place for the Bulls to play in the short to medium term. We could benefit quite significantly from the new home grown player rules in time, but I suspect its not too much of an influence for next seasons squad.

Re: Bulls Squad 2015 : Fri Jul 11, 2014 12:20 pm  

I would have thought that, at the start of this season, our highest earners would have been (roughly in order)

Carvell
Kearney
Scruton
Purtell
Ferguson
Gale
Diskin
Sammutt

We shed three before the season really got started. We know Gale is leaving, and the Aussie guys could well depart (who could blame them?). I hope we'll use the 'SL contacts become null and void' to get rid of Ferguson, and Diskin will probably either retire or join the coaching staff.

I think there are two conclusions to make from that list. Firstly, we aren't going to be significantly worse off talent-wise next year from losing most of that lot, and secondly, we can free up a large chunk of money from shedding those guys.

I'd be happy to see us shedding ALL of those remaining from that list, frankly, and investing the money saved in making sure that home grown talent such as Donaldson, Addy, Olbison and O'Brien are tied into contracts. I certainly hope that those guys will give us 12 months - I feel they owe us that much! Fair enough, if we don't come back up after the first year, then release clauses to enable them to sign for SL clubs would be reasonable, but I'd like to think they'll stick around and try to get us back up.