We're too nice. Let's stop beating around the bush. Thanks John and best of luck.

Pointless sacking him, don't think things are that bad, but I definitely think it will be time to move on at the end of the year when his contracts up.

I think he's brought stability to the club,and done a decent job but frustratingly a theme of getting in good positions, then throwing it away.

Whoever does come in has good foundations to work with to take us to the next level though. It's not a recovery or rebuild job.

Hopefully we've got some sort of succession plan in place at the very least. I think Wood will stick with him until the end of his contract. We do need a change though. The end to last season showed that and I had deluded myself a bit that things would be better this season.

Yesterday showed that the players still think it's ok to "dial it in" so we can expect another inconsistent season where we finish about 4th or 5th. I'm sick of us putting in these below par performances and I expect Kear is too but he seems powerless to prevent them. I don't mind losing if we give 100% but that didn't happen yesterday.

Who would you have take over?

Depends who's on the market as a lot can change in 12 months. Danny Ward is the one I'd be doing everything I could to take over. Maybe someone like Leon who did very well at Workington, knows and loves the club.

It will be a big and difficult decision for Wood to make over the coming months.

Danny Ward is a good call. Ryan Sheridan? Danny Orr? Both served long apprenticeships.

I'd prefer a coach that has proved himself already (Ward) than an unproven coach (Orr). Pryce did ok at Workington but I'm not sure if he's the man I'd want at Bradford. I don't know much about him but read his book - hopefully he's grown up a bit.

We need some fresh ideas though, Kear has taken us as far as he can.

People may mock us for this thread but in the context of how we finished off 2021 it is perfectly reasonable. We've lost 5 of the last 6 competitive games, with several woeful and/or gutless performances among them. As people have said above, losing isn't the issue, its the now recurrent theme of looking like you can't be ar.sed! The fans were insulted for the last 4 games of last season, and it appears against Sheffield they were again.

He always seems to have a very short shelf life in coaching, first 6 months great then it slides quickly.

Can't see us sacking him. You need money before you can do that.

I don't see the point of sacking him now. We'd use any spare cash we have on paying him off, and there'd be nothing at all to freshen up the squad.

I still think we'll end up around 5th or 6th, which is honestly about where we are right now.

What I do think we should do is start making plans to replace him when his contract expires at the end of the season.

Who knows, perhaps Big Nigel is already working on that? Do we know that Kear would even want a new contract? He'll be 68 at the end of the season, his wife has been ill, maybe he'd prefer to retire anyway.

Nige is an experienced operator, and sensible enough to have that 'difficult' conversation. Hopefully he'll edge John towards retirement and everyone can go their separate ways with dignity and thanks

I think he deserves that after all he has done for us, and for the game, rather than being unceremoniously sacked by a club with delusions of (former) grandeur.

All he's done?

We came second in League 2, also rans in the Championship and it's been boring. On the 'we can't afford to sack him' point, the stadium was near empty on Sunday. It's a watershed.

I don't think many want him sacked now but I said a year ago he won't go past his contract and I still think that. Right man at the time he came in but we seemed to have levelled off at a level that isn't any good for long term ambitions.
Ward is a good call the more I think of it. What about Langers? Both would be great but probably can't afford that.
Not Leon as not proven.
Kear probably has 9 months left so could they sort out a reasonable way of bringing in someone now.

Think there's a watershed under the Coral stand judging by the state of the pitch at that end.

The crowd on Sunday may have been poor but did you see the weather? If ever a cub suffers due to the bad weather it's us. Sheffield never bring many fans and we've just come off a good win at Dewsbury. Can't blame Kear for the crowd yesterday unless those not there have some sort of clairvoyant and if so how do I access this?

I agree we're not going sack Kear. We'll finish where most of us expected and then hopefully we can bring in some fresh ideas.

Faxfan here , I come in peace not one of them who try’s the wind up as it just bites you in the later anyway. I alluded to it in some other post but kear seems to like the big forward which is fine , Halifax have a relatively small pack but they do big minutes , I’m not sure we have a forward over 17 stone , ultimately whatever option you choose I’ll discipline and handling errors tires your pack out set completion is paramount, we gave multiple penalties away last week and paid the price played the last 15 mins with 11 men . Seems Bradford we’re guilty of it this week , I must admit some of the Bradford players look unfit which I don’t understand, I thought they had a new nutrition and fitness guy .

Ronald McDonald by the look of it. Walker and Crossley can make an impact for short periods but once they're gassed we have zero go forward. Baldwinson and Evans didn't once get us over the advantage line. Out wide Wallace and England were getting slow ball and were hit hard. Too often we took the ball at walking pace and versus a defence that was moving up quickly (a revolutionary idea) we were never going to make any ground.

We'll improve after that and I've no doubt we'll grab the odd win versus the likes of Fax/York/Batley/Widnes but in the end we'll be inconsistent and turn in a load of rubbish too.

Think we have a problem where some players think they're better than they are and some are in a comfort zone

Ronald McDonald

I think all the teams you’ve mentioned will be closely matched this season, I will reserve judgment on Featherstone and Leigh until I watched the game tonight but they’ll probably be streets ahead of the rest , there’s so many variables with injuries, refereeing decisions, weather conditions it’s gonna be a long d season, a lot of the teams are evenly matched this year .

I can’t see kear going anywhere before the end of the season but we have certainly gone stale.

While not overreacting from a loss, the way we ended last year it’s clear we need a kick up the backside from somewhere. We are long overdue an exciting season of having a team we can get excited about. I’m not even talking about promotion favourites, just a team that makes you excited to get down and watch them.

Even in league 1 and gaining promotion i dont think we had a genuine buzz about the team.

I would suggest this is a very likely scenario. He won't get sacked unless we really do fall to pieces, however there needs to be a plan in place for next year.

I think both John and the club will have to tough it out the rest of the season as we have no other choice as it stands. The club can't afford to waste money on paying him off and bringing in someone else so its going to have to be done at the end of the year when his contract comes to a natural end.

Sadly its been the same story since day one. Whilst we are no Fev or Leigh, nobody can suggest he hasn't been backed in the market. We spent big in League 1 only to promoted by the back door, he's had arguably the 2nd/3rd biggest budget in the Championship for the last 3yrs but been seriously outperformed time and time again... even this year Big Nige has backed him with signings that won't come cheap and yet the squad looks woefully unfit and disinterested when its time to knuckle in.

Having watched a few training sessions in the past couple of years, the one thing that stood out to me is how little Kear actually gets involved. He is not the hands on kind of guy that I first expected and looks like he relies heavily on his assistants. Given we have taken the cheap options of Messrs Dunning and Beattie, is it any wonder we get performances like Sunday???

This is interesting.

Only one person bradford need to put in is Leon he certainly knows his stuff

The ‘fitness’ argument is interesting.

Having spent years in sport and formerly at a club who is now a fellow Champ club, I find the argument lazy.

In football, if you have to do more defending and work without the ball you tire quicker.
In rugby, it’s exactly the same if not worse due to the impacts on bodies.

Thackeray kicked us to death and we defended far more than we should’ve. We need to respect the ball, remain disciplined and build pressure.

Crossley and walker are never going to be size zero, but how can you say the team are unfit?

They lacked desire, not energy.

Couldn’t agree more re fitness and the above post.

Any team defending more than attacking looks tired, we didn’t look unfit v Dewsbury?

It’s seem an easy pop IMO when a team loses as they naturally look deflated, are likely to have had less ball etc

Interestingly Premier Sport were saying Leigh looked out on their feet after 10/15mins due to defending, are they unfit too?

When Kear took over the team was a shambles after getting relegated in 2017.
He has taken us from League 1 to Championship playoffs in 3 years(2020 excluded) every year he has improved our league position.
It's time for a change but Kear hasn't done a bad job.

So if we are fit enough the problem is that the players couldn't be bothered? Kear seems to think it's an attitude problem.

You can blame a lack of possession and field position as much as you like but that was down to our weak defence allowing Sheffield to make 10m per carry and us taking the ball at walking pace and running laterally. If you add a kicking game that is on the back foot because of the lack of go forward we end up surrendering field position. They could put in attacking kicks and we couldn't.

As for expecting Crossley and Walker to be size zero - nobody is expecting that. However both players have been slimmer in the past. No team competing in SL or seriously competing to get there has players in that shape. This isn't the 1980s. I happen to think we have more "go forward" with them on the field, Baldwinson and Fleming aren't as good going forward.

We have an opportunity to show better attitude next Monday. It's the perfect opportunity really as Leigh will be hurting. Refusing to allow ourselves to be embarrassed would be a good start. Get stuffed and we go into Barrow match with 1 win from 3 and we could after that very easily be 1 from 4. Kear could be on a sticky wicket soon.