Jon Blakely's Canadian Chronicles
Thursday 23 May, 2002
City on the brink
Love him or hate him, This is where Mr Richmond has put Bradford City as we stand here today.
On the brink of extinction, make no bones about that.
5 first team players (84 games experience between them, 50 by 1 of those) and a Manager and Assistant Manager, who strangely went through this kind of thing with their last club, Chesterfield.
There is now without any doubt, Bradford City are in a much worse state than when Mr Richmond walked into Valley Parade, keys in hand all those years ago (He's said it so many times you'd think I'd remember the date, time, what I was wearing etc etc)
I wonder if all the people who have supported Mr Richmond to the hilt for the past two years (I think the fans generally split on him around the time Paul Jewell left City) are still feeling the same today. I feel betrayed. We were all asked to trust in him as he would never, under any circumstances, mortgage the future of this club. Today we have no club, or at least a bare bones of one.
I feel sorry for the kids who idolise some of those players no longer playing for their favorite club. I'm sure that somewhere in Bradford today a small boy or girl was kicking a ball around, wearing their favorite christmas present with the letters "W E T H E R A L L" on the back. Here's hoping that their support and feeling for the club is strong enough to stop them looking down the M62 (either way) and seeing either a team in white or a team in Red and thinking it is safer to support a club like that. It happens, you can't blame impressionable kids.
So once again we shall find out how no one person is bigger than the club and that the only one constant through all these situations are the fans, and Bradford City have some very good loyal ones at that. The term "long suffering" may not have been invented to describe Bradford City fans, but maybe, just maybe over the next few weeks we can describe ourselves as just that.
I am very very glad that Stuart McCall didn't have another year remaining on his contract, I would have hated it for him to have been sacked by the club that he loved and that (fans anyway) loved him.
We as contributors to this fantastic website, can no longer put a witty or constructive end to our postings. You know "We will survive" or "Until next time" or "See you next season" because at this moment in time none of the above are applicable.
To think people were openly thanking Mr Richmond for what he had done for this club. My oh My he has destroyed my (Family aside) one true love.