Great Expectations

The arrival of Stuart McCall as Bradford City's manager this summer has given rise to huge aspirations and expectations amongst City supporters. They have shown their total faith in Stuart by the purchase of a record number of season tickets (helped by the bargain price).
Stuart is a legend based on his two previous spells with the club that gave him his league debut in the early 1980s and his return in the late 1990s to help City's promotion to the Premier League. The legend status and popularity is based on his total commitment to the City cause and his never say die attitude.
His start as a manager has been patchy and there already seems to be criticism in the background. Whilst many perhaps expected City to stroll to promotion from Division 3 under Stuart, it is clear that City do need to do more than just turn up. Two defeats in two weeks by Hereford United and Wycombe Wanderers have shown that hard working, well organised teams without too much flair can win and out-think and outplay City without too much trouble.
It is still very early days in Stuart's managership and he must be given a chance to get the team playing to his pattern without a huge amount of resources being available. One hopes that whilst we are all desperate for some success, the fans will be patient and give Stuart a chance. There are some good players in the squad and some weaknesses but it is difficult to judge how much freedom or opportunity Stuart has or will have to change the squad in the short term. We must keep the faith.
Having watched City for nearly 50 years I think that my expectations are not as great as some other supporters. For about half of my time watching City, they have been in the two lower divisions of the Football League and I did not witness City playing in the old second division (now The Championship) until the 1985/86 season. The lower divisions seem to be our spiritual home despite the success of the late 1990s.
I desperately hope that Stuart will succeed and lead us forward to another period of relative success, but there is a real world out there and we need to be realistic and may need a season or two of mid table mediocrity before the next breakthrough - hopefully not?