A Excellent honest articulate post.

And one I agree with wholeheartedly

Well if his pals got what they want in him being the coach, then they'll have to perform to keep it that way.

Sometimes you need to go "look, this is what you wanted, and it didn't work. Now stop asking!"
Alternatively, it might work and everybody wins.

There's no point in stubbornly creating a rebellious culture in the club. I'd risk a period like this if it has benefits in the end. Time will tell.

I use to think it was just football that had the problem of players having to much power. I now feel RL has a similar problem just not as large in terms of wages and lifestyle.

Professional sport has changed so much in the last decade and I feel some RL players want to live in the 80s and have the best of both worlds. They want the adulation that comes with being a local sports star but also want the easy comfortable lifestyle.

The Everton manager Roberto Martinez recently did an interview were he said modern footballers cannot be ruled with an iron fist any more, unless you are in a very unique position like Alex Ferguson. The way he works is by instilling an attitude of aspiration, he makes it very clear what is expected and when this is not met he makes it very clear how disappointed he is in the player. We all no that feeling as a kid when your parent tells you how disappointed they are in you, it cuts like a knife.

So on to FC and the sports news this morning and to hear Feka give an interview about how tough Radford is and that he is handy with his fists and I just feel nothing will change while we have a mentality of fear and not inspiration. This isn't a soft approach as you work on the principle that a player lets his team mates down and they quickly get left out of the culture you are trying to create. Remember RL contracts are short enough that you can let a player rot at a duel-reg club for the remainder of his contract.

I heard that and it sounded cringe worthy. Is that the message we are sending out now, our coach is a hard case and will rule by intimidation. I hope not.

Didn't sound great did it.

That's been the message from day one of his appointment. Doesn't seem to have borne fruit so far.

We won't know until at least half a season has passed and we see how the coach actually coaches. Which was my main point really.

And since Radford has already affiliated with not one but two duAl reg clubs let's hope that is a sign of his intentions.

Some people seem to have written Radford off on the basis of 4 pre season friendlies and the fact that he's a good boxer. I've no idea how he will go as a coach but I'm prepared to let him coach a SL season first and then decide.

Not writing him off, I would love him to succeed. He probably still has every chance. The problem with the fear approach though is that it has little effect on the seasoned professionals that have seen it all before and it just intimidates the younger players to the point where they are scared to death to play creatively and you just end up with them playing within themselves so they don't make mistakes.

That would presumably depend on how the 'stick' part of the approach is used. For example it might focus on preparation, lifestyle and attitude rather than mistakes on game day. In other words it's more to do with a player's overall attitude to his career and employment responsibilities rather than his stats in any given game. Once the potential talent has been identified and an employment contract has been agreed it's down to pure hard work and dedication, and a willingness to be the best that you can be. Come in to training worse for wear and not in the right shape to work and you get the stick. As you say some of our seasoned pros won't be worried because they have already bought into that regime - some of them becoming internationals as a result. If Radford can build in a winning attitude and mentality to the younger players then he will have progressed the club. Whether he can who knows at this stage ?

That is exactly how it should work. But everyone has bad days and when the pressure starts to bite after a few poor results that strong discipline can easily spill over into becoming negative and a blame culture.

Imagine being 10th in the league after 5 games. FC are 4 points up with 3 minutes left to play and one of the younger players makes a clean break up the field and is set to go the length of the field. He has a player screaming for the ball on his inside as he approaches the opposition full-back, but backs himself and tries to run over the full-back, loses the ball in the tackle and within a couple of tackles the opposition have gone up the field and scored under the posts. FC lose the game by 2 points, how does that play out with an under fire coach that rules with fear.

Like I say it depends how that 'ruling by fear' is actually applied which neither of us know. And the scenario you paint could just as easily happen whoever was coach we've all seen it before

Are you suggesting Radford cannot distinguish between a genuine error in the context of a game situation and someone who's attitude and commitment as a whole not been good enough?

Ruling by fear is just a media line, Radford's nothing like that in reality.

It's certainly got some people believing it.

I'm gonna be terrified sat in the West stand near the dugouts.

More people are disappointed with the message than concerned about it's accuracy. At best it's condescending.

Can't say I share that assessment of it. And clearly some think that there'll be fists flying at every training session

Heard we're signing Carvell tomorrow must be bad injurys for watts n green if true

No chance.

That appears to be the image that the club is actively trying to promote when a senior team member makes a point of mentioning how handy Radford is with his fists during an interview.

I think it's condescending because it seems that someone at the club has decided that the only concept of enforcing discipline that the fans will understand is that of fear, threats, and physical violence. It's been a theme since his appointment was announced.

Yep true heard the same this morning . Think it's more to do we need more size and experience after seeing what we have in the friendlys .

Wigan has been mentioned on here as a good model to example as a club to follow for pre-season and as a club.

This is their expcted team for Friday (Charnley injured)

Bowen
Burgess
Goulding
Sarginson
Thornley
Green
Smith
Taylor
Mcilorum
Flower
Clubb
Farrell
Oloughlin

Crosby
Pettybourne
Hughes
Powell

On paper this isn't an amazing squad, a team that is well organisged, well coached and works hard for each other.

I honestly don't think it is miles better than ours, but we seem to miles away from them on the field.

Seems unlikely - unless Bradford are in way worse shape than reports suggest.

Carvell would be an excellent signing, got size and power, we are now short on props and he is still as good as any other props in the league.

We should have signed him when he was available.