McCall buries Bishop rumour (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Shame as Bishop looks a decent player but if Bury are rumoured to have offered him well over £2k a week there's no way we could afford him. Barnsley looks the likely move for him.

shame. thought bishop would have been an exellent signing. just worried that if city are not prepared to get a player of his calibure for any price then what is the point of a promotion push because thorne and conlon woulnt get us promoted maybe city have shot themselves in the foot.

I think there is still a need for at least 1. more Striker. Ideally 2., to be sure of cover for the remainder of the Season.

We are almost half way though the January Transfer Window, so there is a degree of urgency developing. I do not want to see 'emergency loanees' obtained, at some later stage/date, to cover for possible injuries.
"Hill-Fall"-EERHMM!

Maybe Big Bad Bazza the Bin-Man has a brother we could sign?
Worked for Boulding! ;-)

I remember Jack Tordoff having promotion aspirations some years ago and Terry Dolan wanted 'the final piece of the jigsaw' - Andy Townsend.
Tordoff didn't have the bottle to finance the move and the chance was blown.

Don't do the same, JR/ML.

I think that Barnsley have supposed to have offered £400,000 could have something to do with it, donations gratefully accepted guys !!!!

I don't think Stuart is in any rush to sign another striker. The game is about opinions and Stuart has been quoted in the past saying Chris Brandon can play off a sole triker. Given the fact we have abundance across midfield and Chris can't be to far off coming back and Stuart has extended loans of midfield players, it could tell us a bit about what he is thinking maybe?

Chris's last few games at Town under Gerry Murphy were off a sole striker, Booth I think. If my theory is true then we have 5 strikers including Chris that McCall is willing to play?

I believe we can get promoted with what we have got and save some needed funds to increase our fire power next year in league 1, I hope.

bantams party animal are u stupid or sumat cos it was spending money we dint have which got us into administration so why dont u fuc*ing think before u write something

what about Kaka, I hear Milan are willing to talk

star-back is security word!!

Bantam-in-Greece wrote:
I remember Jack Tordoff having promotion aspirations some years ago and Terry Dolan wanted 'the final piece of the jigsaw' - Andy Townsend. Tordoff didn't have the bottle to finance the move and the chance was blown. Don't do the same, JR/ML.

townsend and keith curle is what dolan asked for if memory serves me right unfortunaley tordoff refused and the promotion never happened

bishop was never gone to happen a good friend of mine (bury fan) said he was offered £2000 a week plus goalscoring bonus on top which we cant afford the fee they want is around the £350000 mark but i doubt they will get it as he could leave for nothing come summer also another striker stu was rumoured to be looking at carlton from carlisle as signed for darlo on loan till end of season also stu might decide to stick with what he as got and give jones a go up front when colbeck is fit and from what i have heard jones will be here till end of season

ricky wrote:

Bantam-in-Greece wrote: I remember Jack Tordoff having promotion aspirations some years ago and Terry Dolan wanted 'the final piece of the jigsaw' - Andy Townsend. Tordoff didn't have the bottle to finance the move and the chance was blown. Don't do the same, JR/ML.

townsend and keith curle is what dolan asked for if memory serves me right unfortunaley tordoff refused and the promotion never happened

Exactly what i thought, in these tough times why should we pay £99 for a season ticket, after all we are basement club with basement players. We will stay that way with these chairmen. Nothing ventured nothing gained....lets just roll over and not bother looking for better players like Bishop.The chairmen say they are looking for back to back promotions, how can you when they wont take a risk.
Dont get me wrong about the chairmen they have worked wonders but maybe its time to move over.

Carl Smith wrote:

ricky wrote:

Bantam-in-Greece wrote: I remember Jack Tordoff having promotion aspirations some years ago and Terry Dolan wanted 'the final piece of the jigsaw' - Andy Townsend. Tordoff didn't have the bottle to finance the move and the chance was blown. Don't do the same, JR/ML.

townsend and keith curle is what dolan asked for if memory serves me right unfortunaley tordoff refused and the promotion never happened

Exactly what i thought, in these tough times why should we pay £99 for a season ticket, after all we are basement club with basement players. We will stay that way with these chairmen. Nothing ventured nothing gained....lets just roll over and not bother looking for better players like Bishop.The chairmen say they are looking for back to back promotions, how can you when they wont take a risk. Dont get me wrong about the chairmen they have worked wonders but maybe its time to move over.

Carl are you joking? Time to move over because they cant afford or wont pay over the odds for a decent 4th division striker. How do you know they havent got another player lined up? What do you want them to do, spend money we dont have and end up in admin or bust. Get a grip mate. If you dont want to pay 99 quid for your season ticket go and pay twice as much at Farsley etc. You watch football for next to nothing, the team are third in the league and you ask them to move over because they wont pay nearly 400k for a striker. Unbeeelievable, they must wonder why they bother.

Well said J4CKO! Like chairmen grow on trees! Move over and replace them with who? Do you see a queue rich business men trying to gain control at VP? No of course not! Some people talk absolute tish! The chairmen are doing a good job and have the best interest of the club at heart! I do think however we need more firepower up front. Maybe we should try to tap young talent out of the blue square league?

i had no intention of having a dig at the chairmen, they have done great and would hate to think where we would have been without them.
I do believe this club has more money than you think, snd in anycase how would you know you could not afford the likes of Bishop until you try. 400k is a lot of money but its hardly going back to the dark days paying someone £40,000 a week.
Look at it this way if Bury can afford to pay him good money why cant Bradford.

J4CKO wrote:

Carl Smith wrote:

ricky wrote:

Bantam-in-Greece wrote: I remember Jack Tordoff having promotion aspirations some years ago and Terry Dolan wanted 'the final piece of the jigsaw' - Andy Townsend. Tordoff didn't have the bottle to finance the move and the chance was blown. Don't do the same, JR/ML.

townsend and keith curle is what dolan asked for if memory serves me right unfortunaley tordoff refused and the promotion never happened

Exactly what i thought, in these tough times why should we pay £99 for a season ticket, after all we are basement club with basement players. We will stay that way with these chairmen. Nothing ventured nothing gained....lets just roll over and not bother looking for better players like Bishop.The chairmen say they are looking for back to back promotions, how can you when they wont take a risk. Dont get me wrong about the chairmen they have worked wonders but maybe its time to move over.

Carl are you joking? Time to move over because they cant afford or wont pay over the odds for a decent 4th division striker. How do you know they havent got another player lined up? What do you want them to do, spend money we dont have and end up in admin or bust. Get a grip mate. If you dont want to pay 99 quid for your season ticket go and pay twice as much at Farsley etc. You watch football for next to nothing, the team are third in the league and you ask them to move over because they wont pay nearly 400k for a striker. Unbeeelievable, they must wonder why they bother.

hold on a minute carl i never said anything about getting rid of either lawn or rhodes on the contary the have got city in their blood and what both have done and especially rhodes i for one will be grateful the point i made was we on the verge of getting promotion to then the first divison now the premier and tordoff said he would spend some if dolan wanted any new players but he didnt once dolan asked him to spend the money on townsend and curle

lawn and rhodes have both said there is money to spend but tell me when the last time a team in our laeague as paid the 350000 bury are asking and more to the point what if bishop doesnt move in january we get promoted and he may then come on a free you never know

Some people haven't got a clue...Jacko is right knowone knows what is been planned. The Chairman and management are improving everything to do with this club day by day, until it hits a halt why even suggest they step a side, lay off the drugs carl

I can remember very similar conversations going on when McCall didnt want to spend 60k on Shaw from Halifax!! McGodwas right again.

Anyhow just watching Chelski 1-0 down at Southend, its a good job some people dont support Chelski during this crisis

as much as i agree with your point about willy topp being a waste of money it was 35k not 400k theres a bit of difference. i just think people like you think weve got more money than we have

i thought your first point was very naive and i dont think where not prepared to spend money the thing is its not there in the first place.

my point is valid about adminstration but if thats the place u want to be just carry on being naive

Reckless wrote:
Ahhhhh the hallowed pages of the T & A ...... I missed them so much - NOT haha. Back down under - enjoying the summer and thawing out after shivverin like a sh!tin dog in the Kop at the Shrewsbury match 3rd Jan.... Going back to that.... great performance plenty of skill, nearly wet myself when Baz turned and hit the post, thought he'd scored.... but the highlight? That Town fan getting kicked out at half time during the pretend penalty shoot out, gave the TL Dallas the two fingers and subsequently marched out hahahhahahahha. PMSL. Must say though 10660 miles for no goals hurt a little haha. Plus I got my City top and ironically the Bradford & Bingley lettering has peeled off already! So there ya go :-) Up the bantams

I was only thinking the other day whether you were back home or not. It seems an age since you were last on here.

Having seen the boys, what is your opinion of the team, players etc?

What do you intend doing about the shirt? I think we need to start a petition or something regarding the lettering peeling off. It happens far too often and isn't funny any more. Perhaps Mr Baldwin would like to comment on this issue.

If you ask me (not that anyone has), the aim is for us to get promoted as cheaply as possible. I would have been surprised and disappointed if we had paid any more than about £20-£25k for a transfer this month. Looking at the last two seasons, Stu has assembled the squad so far in a very astute and cost-efficient way, so why woudl he suddenly change strategy now?

Any money we save can be spent for a push in to the championship this time next year?

There are some people on here clearly sharing one brain cell between them. City's chairmen 'time to move over'! 'If they didn't waste money, we might be able to afford someone like Bishop'! 'Tordoff didn't have the bottle to finance the move. Don't do the same JR/ML'! etc

The facts are that Bishop is a proven goalscorer in THIS league and possibly would be able to get goals at a higher level. Indeed, he himself, has refused to sign Bury's contract offer because, 'he want's to play at a higher level'. Championship clubs are supposedly interested, so I ask 'bantams party animal' again why would he join City? We are not in the Championship (we are in the same league as Bury) and are less likely to be able to offer salaries that they can.

As for 'carl smith', I think he is deluded. "We have more money than we think". Where do you get that nugget from? The fact is, you are suggesting we can afford to give £350,000 plus another £208,000min (salary) on this one player. Have you actually worked out how much money the club earn from the ticket sales? It is probably only around double what you are proposing to spend on one player!

As for, "Look at it this way if Bury can afford to pay him good money why cant Bradford", my answer to that one is simple. They don't have to pay the wages of Boulding, Lee, McLaren, Bowser, Law, Thorne et al. These will all be earning a decent crust at City and our overall wage bill will be a lot higher than Bury's. They have offered one player a massive deal to keep him, but I expect they will still be miles behind City in terms of their wage bill!

One final point I would like to add. Lawn/Rhodes are coming in for some stick over this story. Can I point out, again, that this was McCall's decision not our Chairmen's. Mark Lawn has said funds are available for McCall to spend and it is his decision who, if anyone, he moves for. We don't know how much money McCall has to spend. He may have been given enough to buy Bishop (though I doubt it) but has simply decided he doesn't want to.

Get off our Chairmen's backs as this story has nothing to do with them. McCall had said they made an enquiry about his contract but HE DECIDED not to take it further.

It isn't just about your chairmen making funds available, as can be clearly seen by Mark Hughes at Man City!

To reinforce my comments regarding salaries aginst what we can afford, I have done some rough calculations based on 'reported sales' and the ration of salaries to gate receipts. I am not saying this is accurate, but should give some of our more deluded supporters a better understanding.

We claim we sold 2400 (U11) tickets this season. Income £0

We said we had sold around 2100 (Jnr) tickets. Income £144,900

We also said we sold apprx 6700 (Adt) tickets. Income £924,600

Match day tickets are approx 1500 x £20 x 23 games. Income £690,000

Total money from gate receipts £1,759,500. We will then only spend a maximum of 65% of this income on salaries (as the rest will be needed for other expenditure). This means we only have around £1,143,675 to spend on our annual wage budget (that equates to around £22,000 a week). For the record, we currently have a first team squad of 25 players, plus 4 on loan. This doesn't even include the youth players' salaries. That £22,000 isn't going to go very far is it?

One final point regarding Bury's ability to offer such a large deal to Bishop. Do they have to pay riddiculous repayments to Gordon Gibbs' pension fund too (in renting the ground)?

Nuff said!

Waynus wrote:
To reinforce my comments regarding salaries aginst what we can afford, I have done some rough calculations based on 'reported sales' and the ration of salaries to gate receipts. I am not saying this is accurate, but should give some of our more deluded supporters a better understanding. We claim we sold 2400 (U11) tickets this season. Income £0 We said we had sold around 2100 (Jnr) tickets. Income £144,900 We also said we sold apprx 6700 (Adt) tickets. Income £924,600 Match day tickets are approx 1500 x £20 x 23 games. Income £690,000 Total money from gate receipts £1,759,500. We will then only spend a maximum of 65% of this income on salaries (as the rest will be needed for other expenditure). This means we only have around £1,143,675 to spend on our annual wage budget (that equates to around £22,000 a week). For the record, we currently have a first team squad of 25 players, plus 4 on loan. This doesn't even include the youth players' salaries. That £22,000 isn't going to go very far is it? One final point regarding Bury's ability to offer such a large deal to Bishop. Do they have to pay riddiculous repayments to Gordon Gibbs' pension fund too (in renting the ground)? Nuff said!

dont think i could have put it better myself heard on the grapevine our top earner is thorne on £1800 a week plus goal bonuses lee is on £1000 along with mclaren

Guy guys the club also make money on half time food and drink plus the club make more money on match days through the banquet suites and i had my xmas party at city and there was lots of full function rooms full of customers so money comes in from there too. I know we have to pay that idiot from flamingo land a large amount for rent on the ground but still make profits from these things.

neil illingworth wrote:
Guy guys the club also make money on half time food and drink plus the club make more money on match days through the banquet suites and i had my xmas party at city and there was lots of full function rooms full of customers so money comes in from there too. I know we have to pay that idiot from flamingo land a large amount for rent on the ground but still make profits from these things.

city only make a small percentage from the catering revenue due to the company who run it paid city a fee so they could sell their food there a few seasons back and as far as i am aware that is still the case think that money is already used in some capacity therefore we only make a small amount on match days

ricky wrote:

neil illingworth wrote:
Guy guys the club also make money on half time food and drink plus the club make more money on match days through the banquet suites and i had my xmas party at city and there was lots of full function rooms full of customers so money comes in from there too. I know we have to pay that idiot from flamingo land a large amount for rent on the ground but still make profits from these things.

city only make a small percentage from the catering revenue due to the company who run it paid city a fee so they could sell their food there a few seasons back and as far as i am aware that is still the case think that money is already used in some capacity therefore we only make a small amount on match days

Yes Ricky, you are spot on. City get a revenue from the franchise, but don't get all the profit that we could do by leasing out the rooms for parties etc.

What Neil forgets is that the other income we get has to go towards office staff wages, coaching staff wages, gas, electricity, water. I could go on but I am sure you get the picture.

We don't even own the sports shop anymore and again we simply receive money from the franchise to Surridge. Come on Neil, surely you understand that.

we are certainly not capable of spending Bishop-type sums on players. we have only paid for one since premiership days and we know what happened there. Yes there is more money than just gate receipts obviously e.g. advertising, tv revenues (albeit pennies), league members money and prob others we don't know about. And yes we did sell of the catering, shop etc but think that money as just to keep us alive at the time. Plus they were and still are badly run. For example many people now bring in their own (and that includes beer) merely because the queues take forever. A simple solution would be to have a beer only queue at each kiosk as it only requires someone taking the top of a bottle. you could even make it an exact change counter. this way service will speed up no end.)

Overall though we must be prudent especially us. We've been lucky to have a club not only that we never got points reduction compared to some. Imagine if we were starting the season with no hope of promotion as some have. Would the crowds have been the same then?? Yes we ALL want success but please lets be grounded. Lawn and Rhodes are true fans unlike others (watch what happens to Chelsea soon)and they appear to want the best for the club and not like Richmond who was on the take at no financial risk to himself. i.e. he bought it for peanuts, used Rhodes money to get to the premiership and then left with approx 12 million between him, his wife and son. selling all our playing assetts, 25 year tickets cos he'd no intention of staying and bye bye. nice little earner. No rather have the current 2 boys thank you and fingers we get someone with a few million spare they wanna risk down the line.

Waynus, BD6 says...
9:58am Thu 15 Jan 09
There are some people on here clearly sharing one brain cell between them

AHEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I plead the fifth amendment your honour

dannbradfc wrote:
Waynus, BD6 says...
9:58am Thu 15 Jan 09
There are some people on here clearly sharing one brain cell between them

AHEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



I plead the fifth amendment your honour

Proving my point again.

Above, you admit we are not in a position to spend anywhere near the amount needed to capture Bishop. However, when I accuse those same people of not thinking about what they are writing, you AGAIN turn it back on me!!!

And you say you haven't got a problem with me. I will let others decide the truth.

If we are facing the 'Credit Crunch' then footballers should also face it. I guess wage reductions are likely to be the norm. Lets face it despite the EXCELLENT PRICING OF THE SEASON TICKET OFFER, a number of our fellow fans are going to be hit. The season ticket will cost money! Some may no longer be able to afford it. It may mean that footballers have to accept a significant % reduction in salary if the money does not come in.
So Bishop on a huge salary does not make sense. We may be able to get better players next season if other clubs in the division we are in, season ticket renewals collapse.

Carl Smith wrote:
i had no intention of having a dig at the chairmen, they have done great and would hate to think where we would have been without them. I do believe this club has more money than you think, snd in anycase how would you know you could not afford the likes of Bishop until you try. 400k is a lot of money but its hardly going back to the dark days paying someone £40,000 a week. Look at it this way if Bury can afford to pay him good money why cant Bradford.

The reason Bury can afford to pay him good money, is that they don't also have to pay a transfer fee on top of this, which is what any other club would have to do to sign him.

They also don't want to see him leave for nothing at the end of his contract. They will therefore offer him a lucrative contract, in the hope that he will stay, which would ensure they would have a proven goalscorer in League 2. This would also mean they will be able to command a higher fee for him, in the event of any future bids, due to being in contract.

Bantam-in-Greece wrote:
I remember Jack Tordoff having promotion aspirations some years ago and Terry Dolan wanted 'the final piece of the jigsaw' - Andy Townsend. Tordoff didn't have the bottle to finance the move and the chance was blown. Don't do the same, JR/ML.

The difference with Tordoff, is that he probably had the money to finance the likes of Townsend and Curle, some 20 years or so ago.

Rhodes and Lawn, because of the money they've already put in to the club, particularly the former, don't.

They've already pushed the boat out, in allowing us to sign the likes of McLaren, Brandon, Boulding etc, and for us to retain the services of Furman and Law on loan.

We've already got Thorne, Boulding, Conlon and O'Grady as our striking options. Let's see how the latter does by the end of his loan spell. If he doesn't cut the mustard, then all we have to do is bring in another striker on a 3 month loan, which is to be extended if we get in the play offs.

Waynus wrote:

Reckless wrote:
Ahhhhh the hallowed pages of the T & A ...... I missed them so much - NOT haha. Back down under - enjoying the summer and thawing out after shivverin like a sh!tin dog in the Kop at the Shrewsbury match 3rd Jan.... Going back to that.... great performance plenty of skill, nearly wet myself when Baz turned and hit the post, thought he'd scored.... but the highlight? That Town fan getting kicked out at half time during the pretend penalty shoot out, gave the TL Dallas the two fingers and subsequently marched out hahahhahahahha. PMSL. Must say though 10660 miles for no goals hurt a little haha. Plus I got my City top and ironically the Bradford & Bingley lettering has peeled off already! So there ya go :-) Up the bantams

I was only thinking the other day whether you were back home or not. It seems an age since you were last on here.

Having seen the boys, what is your opinion of the team, players etc?

What do you intend doing about the shirt? I think we need to start a petition or something regarding the lettering peeling off. It happens far too often and isn't funny any more. Perhaps Mr Baldwin would like to comment on this issue.

Actually Waynus (trying not to be biassed) I thought things were pretty even for the first ten minutes or so as we looked as edgy as an away side, but after that up until half time we played very well, and I enjoyed it. It's difficult putting names to faces when you don't see them every week but the lad down the right wing (Jones?) was flying and I thought was excellent, Baz was far better than people give him credit for, the Kop erupted for a second or two, if only his shot had actually gone in I reckon Town would have crumbled, our possession seemed good and the defence coped very well although they nearly fluked one which Evans managed to parry wide after a deflection. Evans doesn't get much of a mention on the pages but he was and is a refreshingly (for city) reliable number 1. Also there was one particular tackle from Omar that blew everyone away and got him huge browney points.... all in all I thoroughly enjoyed it regardless of no goals. Second half a bit frustrating but again some decent play and Town rarely gave our defence much to worry about. Is there a lack of confidence? Maybe, Stuart is still building though and I am glad I went. As for the shirt, a bit disappointed as being a typical bloke I didn't check it and it was Mrs Reckless that spotted the crap lettering within a nano second. Too late then, shop shut Sunday so no chance of swapping it before the home trip. I have to say the staff weren't too smiley in the City Shop either, but they probably get paid very little so I'll let that little gripe go. One thing though...... half time, NO PIES LEFT!!!! What? but it's only just half time? I was nearly first there, sold out- ridiculous. Sausage roll instead which wasn't as exciting as a pie.

David (Mr Baldwin),.... re the shirt..... I'll still wear it of course - but I might tap you up for another once we get a decent sponsor on line again..... here's hoping :-)

Up the Bantams ....... :-)

Blimey.... when I saw this headline I thought it was yet another scandal involving extra-curricular sexual shenannigins, and was keen to see what the rumour regarding McCall burying his bishop was all about. :O)