Apparently Elvis, Lord Lucan and Shergar have submitted early applications to Stuart

I know it's important to get the right man for the job but having a 3 man team to recommend a new coach??? I wonder if other league 1 or even championship clubs would do that.

You would expect something like that to happen at Barcelona or Real Madrid not little league 1 Bradford Bulls. Chalmers is back and was at training last night and told the players pretty much what we all know about the coach situation. I find it a bit baffling the process is gonna take so long

I totally agree. Nearly a month to find a new coach!!!

Any more news on any signings Roger?

No news on any signings

So he's back but not bothering to interview the coach himself?

Can't understand that.

Would have agreed Roger, but at best only two know what they are doing and what to look for (I hope!)

By name (after a quick look at Linkedin) - McFarlane & Bastian are the two who should be able to judge the candidates.

Duffy has not a clue and is well past the sell by date. In that post, we desperately need new blood with a professional attitude - that would be a breath of fresh air.

Unfortunately, he seems firmly stuck to the side of the pot, and the bleach isn't shifting him.

Perhaps Chalmers is introducing some sort of money saving technique of not employing a coach during the off season?

Sports coaching/management appears to have this "We must appoint a replacement ASAP" mentality. In any other line of work the process to seek a replacement usually takes a few weeks. That being said, it was clear as day at the last fans forum that Toovey was not staying on. The club really should have started that process at the end of the season, just in case GT jumped on a plane and didn't come back.

Agree on Bastian, but I find it completely flabbergasting this is being entrusted with Duffy, no playing experience of this level and has been in the background of every single one of the clubs failings! The emails going directly to him with applications (meaning he can potentially let through applicants of his desire) are ridiculous. This should be the owner doing this with Bastian backing him up as they will be working closely together. Goes to show how much of a shambles it actually ystill is when the owner is washing his hands of hiring a head coach

I don't understand what's going on, but I would guess that once applications are in, of those available, you could have Kermit and Miss Piggy on the panel, the winner will still be obvious

So why have this charade FA?

It's not just the owners. Chisholm was quoted this week as saying going unbeaten is the aim. Why do people never learn?



Duffy interviewing for the coach. Jesus Christ. "First question: What far too important job will you let me have? Second question: What are your feelings on free tickets for my pals?"

A month to find a coach when this was always a potential task since we were relegated. Think they might have had feelers out a bit earlier. Perhaps Chalmers is too busy looking for potential owners to be bothered looking for a new coach. Could explain why Toovey is not coming back. Jan2017: Chalmers' Hey Geoff, will you help us out with the Bulls as a favour?'. Toovey: 'Sure Andrew'. Nov 2017: Toovey 'Hey Andrew, do you want me back this year?'. AC 'No mate. I'm out of there as soon as I can find another mug, sorry I mean potential owner'.

Beats the hell out of me

After all that's happened of late,I would have expected firm control, expertise, experience and influence, as paramount in any further management of the Club...but we do seem to blunder on with a fair sprinkling of U turns on the way. Wish they would deliver reliable positivity and optimism in their judgement and announcements!

Captain hindsight here but they should really have sorted the coach out first before player recruitment.

Exactly.A month to find a coach who can coach us in Champ 1.Its laughable at best and embarrassing and cringeworthy at worst.Why do we always seem to make hard work of doing something on the face of it is pretty straightforward.

'Plausible deniability'?

It's common sense really isn't it? Every other sensible successful club does it this way.



Makes you wonder if the owners are actually up to the job. Last year the understandable excuse was that we had a matter of weeks to get the club up and running so things were a bit "seat of the pants". That was fair enough.

Now this time around relegation has been known about for months (despite the conspiracy theorist bollox). Other clubs manage coaching succession planning ok - why can't we do the same? Instead we seem to have done nothing for weeks on end and now are falling over ourselves to play catch up.

To those that say "we don't need a head coach in place yet" I ask you if that's the case how come at every other club the head coach is present at pre season training? Why are they bothering if they're "not needed"? Fact is they are seeing how their players react under stress, finding out who the leaders are and who is taking short cuts. This is all very important stuff to be aware of when building a team. You can't just leave it to the trainer anymore - that's the sort of thing that used to happen in the days of Alex Murphy and Dougie Laughton.

I can see him at the fans forum now "Er sorry folks I left the coaching appointment to 2 blokes without any qualifications so blame them."

I think he'd need Rimmer's minders to help him get out of the room alive.

I really did hope that we had hit rock bottom and was quite looking forwards to visiting some interesting away grounds next season, but this announcement that it's going to take another month to find a coach, even though it was obvious Toovey wasn't coming back, and that Chalmers is leaving it to Duffy to find them leaves me utterly dismayed. How that man has kept his job throughout more than a decade of disastrous decline is completely beyond me. Very much doubt I'll be traipsing up to Odsal next year, but might have a few away days at York, Newcastle, Wales etc.

Very much agree..makes one question both judgement and priority.

To be honest, I began to question the judgement of Chalmers when he came out with the statement claiming that he believed they had a squad good enough to avoid relegation and it was the legal proceedings that was the root cause of our failings. I think it was clear to just about anyone with a bit RL knowledge that we didn’t have a squad capable of overcoming what was a very big handicap.

I wonder if we have surpassed the 1k mark for season ticket sales? Seems a bit quiet on that front.

And this "Early Bird Deal" they've got going on for season tickets. Not much in the way of timescales or anything on that front.

Not even if you ask the club directly. Failure to communicate to the fans is one of this clubs worst failings under the current management. It's like they assume that the fans will show up regardless of what's said or what happens on or off the field.

The core of fans that stayed with the club through the first relegation and all the financial issues are being chipped away at and the club is either unable or unwilling to do anything about that fact.

Anyway, back to season tickets and early bird offers. I won't be buying a season ticket until after the new year. Mainly because I want to see if this iteration of the club will actually last that long. But if they do and when I go to buy my ticket, they've jumped up the price without telling anyone then I will not be buying one and will attend games only if I feel in the mood to do so rather than through some idea that "I'm not being loyal to the club" because I don't go to every game.

Jesus, it doesn't take long to get the usual moaners and groaners going does it? To my knowledge Chalmers hasn't done anything contrary to what he said would happen.

Said we were preparing for life in League one when a fair few said it would never happen... we are in League one

He said a decision on the coach would be announced when Toovey got back from Oz with an answer in November... that happened.

Said there would be a professional fitness team put in place to make sure the squad was as fit and prepared as possible... all seem to agree the team we have put in place are very well thought of.

Said we would have a hybrid team of full time/part time making sure we signed the best players we could afford... signed up Chissy, Ethan, Hallas and various other players, many who appear to have Bulls at their heart.

Things that still awaiting to deliver... new shirt (potentially next week?), online ticket sales, finalising squad, coach and assistant coach. I think if those were delivered are we not exactly where he said we would be?

Anyone would think taking some time to decide on a new coach would be the end of the world or something? It's certainly not rock bottom, its not a disaster (I've said on a post elsewhere that the first three weeks are purely fitness with some basic ball work, not something a head coach would be required for) and why the hell would it stop you from visiting a home game?