Apart from my like for Abbot I also have a soft spot for Akpo Sodje, he worked his socks off despite the fact he wasn't as technically gifted as other are and have been but when he ran around single man up from when we went down to 9 men after like 30 mins against swindow to the extent he walked off the pitch, not to time waste but simply because he was f****** knackered. Gained so much respect for him after that
I agree Ted, on that performance alone he is a legend. What was wrong was big Phil signed him permanently before the play offs. He wanted him in the championship!
Like AHLL I thought Uncle Les would be the new Lennie Lawrence, and also that Super Pardew would keep us in the Prem. I also thought Hasselbaink was a great signing. Nice to see we're all avoiding dragging Parky on to this thread.
I too like Akpo. I never understood the claim that he was lazy, but a lot of our strikers seem to suffer with that tag (currently BWP).
I thought BWP was lazy when he was banging them in for fun, he wouldn't seem to run around outside the box like Bent or Burton did, but then he was scoring so I didn't mind, then he started to work hard outside the box and went on that like 14 game goalless streak or whatever, got nothing against him though, even though if we got Balldock and a decent fee for him I would let BWP go, but that's me and I've already been ridiculed for it on another thread. Stephan Anderson also had the potential to be a better shut out keeper then Deano in my opinion too, and if it hadn't been for Scott Carson on loan he would have been first choice that season.
I never thought we'd drop to league 1. I though we'd get promoted at the start of our first season there. I thought it was almost certain at Christmas in our first season there. I thought we could do it on our last normal game. I thought we could win the playoffs. I thought we'd finish in at least the playoffs in the second season. So many expectations shattered. In two years.
Didn't curbs sell Anderson and dowie sign Carson? So they weren't at the club at the same time any way?
Carson arrived towards the end of Andersen's three-year stint at Charlton and was preferred to the Dane. Previously Curbs had preferred Kiely, then Myhre, to Andersen, and quite right too in my opinion. Andersen may be a high-quality keeper these days, but he has taken an awful long time to get there.
I also thought Martin Christensen had quite some potential, I like to think I'm a good judge of talent but obv wasn't up to our standards
Does anyone think Parky will take Bradford up this season? It looks like he is building a fairly decent squad, with strength in depth.
I would agree with your point in terms of the first League One campaign, AllHell. That year we had a squad worthy of winning the title. But the season after, with the likes of Francis, Doherty, McOxo and Abbott, would have tested any manager. They were his signings though, so no sympathy on that score. Anyway, who cares? I got my season ticket this morning! Yipeee!
Wasn't that the season he brought in The Mooney to get us over the line? As I said "always found a way of screwing it up"
I think the club as a whole has a mental block. They seemingly have a good squad and setup every season but something happens and they tail off. I do however expect them to improve this season and would be happy to see PP get them promoted.
Last year Bradford had a good number of League One/Championship quality players in their team (***an, Seip, Reid etc) and yet for one reason or another they were near the drop zone for a large part of the season. I hold nothing against Parkinson to be honest (I always think he did a decent job with the players/resources that he had) and I actually have a soft spot for Bradford too. But I can't see them going up. As Super says, there seems to be some sort of mental block or something, almost as though their fall from grace has had a strong psychological affect upon the club - players and fans alike.
Like Luton in the Conference, I think Bradford struggle with the fact that they are a big fish in a small pond. Maybe expectation weighs them down - a bit like our first two seasons in League One. Managing Bradford is an excellent opportunity to become a local hero. I wouldn't mind having a pop at it.
