Bradford City season tickets – less than one week to go

25 May
The following article was originally written by Jason McKeown for the excellent How Do magazine, but there was a fear it read a bit too much like an advert for the club and so I don’t think it was used. If you’ve yet to buy your 2012/13 season ticket (deadline for discount offer is 31 May) here’s hoping this article might help to persuade you.

Perhaps it was the time you made the mistake of buying a new shirt from Topman for a big night out, only to find your mate is wearing exactly the same product. Or maybe it was realising that what seemed to be unique bars in your University town were in fact part of a chain popping up all over the country. Whenever it first dawned upon you, there’s little denying that we reluctantly belong to an identikit culture of giant supermarkets and entertainment complexes – where increasingly the only differences between places are its name and the regional accent.

Sport, although not to everyone’s taste, provides towns and cities with a level of character and true exclusivity that is increasingly missing from other parts of our lives. And although professional sport in Bradford has, on the surface, been on the decline over the past few years – witness Rugby League’s Bradford Bulls fall from World Champions to near bankruptcy recently, while football’s Bradford City have over the past decade slumped from the Premier League to the bottom of the Football League – it retains a deep significance and popularity in people’s lives.

Take Good Friday, last month. At 3pm some 10,000 Bradfordians flocked to Valley Parade to watch Bradford City’s crucial League Two match vs Southend United. A few hours later there was another public gathering, twice the size – Bradford Bulls’ quest to avoid going out of business had attracted 20,000 people to watch their derby against Leeds Rhinos. No where else in Bradford that day – a Bank Holiday, where most of us were off work – was there any other type of event that brought together so many.

The Bulls’ bumper attendance may have been due to extraordinary circumstances. But both of Bradford’s professional sports teams have maintained 10,000+ crowds in recent years, despite uninspiring performances on their respective fields. For the Bantams, this is largely due to an innovative and commendable season ticket initiative which makes watching the team a very affordable activity. In a city racked by poverty in places, and for which the main reason the Joseph Rowntree Foundation states Bradford hasn’t been hit harder by the UK economic slump is because “it had yet to recover from previous downturns”, the football club – part of our local identity – is affordable to all.

Indeed it’s when comparing City’s prices to those that fans of its League Two opponents pay, where the value is truly illustrated. For the season just gone, City fans paid as little as £150 for an adult ticket – only Accrington Stanley (£285) wasn’t more than double that price, and Swindon topped the list with £399 season tickets. Critics argue that making prices so cheap has lead to a substandard product on the field. Indeed in the five years of running such deals, the club has failed to come close to its stated objective of promotion to a higher level (something which Swindon and their £399 season tickets achieved). It does mean the entertainment is not always as high as it could be, and season ticket renewals have tailed off year-on-year; but there should still be collective pride felt in knowing that Bradford City Football Club is an inclusive activity for its community.

The Bulls have followed City’s lead in making season tickets more affordable over the past two seasons. And even if it means both outfits continue to be less successful than, say, their West Yorkshire counterparts in Leeds and Huddersfield, it still provides a more worthy answer to the question of what the point of such organisations are, and their value to local people. Glory comes and goes, and both City and the Bulls will experience their days in the sun again for sure. But while the rest of the country has, over the last 20 years, elevated live sport to a luxury past time that only the affluent can afford, Bradford has two sporting clubs that are for the people and affordable to the people. If only more places would identikit that.

For the next season, City have gone even further in making sure it’s cheap to attend games – providing you’re prepared to make an initial commitment before 31 May. A £199 season ticket for those who want to go every other week (23 home games in total, means it works out at £8.65 per match). Plus a halfway offer of purchasing a Flexicard for £50, which enables you to attend matches at only £10 a go, instead of the usual (still expensive) £20. Plan to go to more than 5 City games next season but less than 15, and the Flexicard is a solid investment.

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Andrew Davies arrives – great news, but a mixed message

24 May

By Jason McKeown

Following rumours swirling around Twitter last night, Bradford City has today announced the shock signing of Andrew Davies on a 12-month contract. The 27-year-old, who spent the majority of last season on loan at the Bantams and was hugely impressive, was widely expected to join a club higher up the football pyramid – particularly in view of his reported £15,000 a week salary he was earning as a Stoke City player.

City were apparently contributing £3,000 a week towards those wages while he was on loan last season, making Davies – depending on if rumours of Tommy Doherty’s contract were conservative rather than an exaggeration – the highest earning player at the club during the past five years of life in League Two. We can only speculate on the terms of Davies’ new contract, but the fact it is only for a year would suggest he is going to be well paid – relative to his team mates – with the club not committing his expenditure beyond an attempt at promotion next season.

Peter Taylor, for example, was only awarded a one year contract in 2010 on the basis City could not afford his wages beyond that, unless he delivered a promotion. It would not be much of an assumption to make in stating that a similar strategy has been taken towards signing up Davies.

While there is no doubt this is great news and a huge boost to next season’s prospects, it does throw up some questions about the funding of the club next season. At the start of this week we read rallying calls from the two Chairmen regarding the so-far low take up of season tickets; with strong messages about how the playing budget for next season will be dependent on the final outcome of sales. Yet City have now gone and committed themselves to making what is surely a very expensive signing.

On City’s website today, an advert for season tickets has appeared with the words “Andrew has signed for next season, have you?” It was becoming clear that the club felt it needed a hook – such as a stellar signing – to boost sales, and Davies certainly fits that bill. But one just hopes that the two Chairmen have not gambled on Davies’ arrival leading to the raising of the money which they forecast is needed from supporters, via season tickets, by committing to an expensive signing prematurely.

Because if manager Phil Parkinson’s budget really is going to be dictated by season ticket sales – and let’s be frank about this, just days ago the two Chairmen were stating this was the case, with Mark Lawn quoted “In essence the playing budget is in the fans’ hands” – there has to be some fears that the manager has just used a substantial part of what he will end up with on just one player, which would present further problems down the line.

Good player as Davies is, on his own he will not make the difference between promotion or enduring another season in League Two, especially if his wages mean Parkinson has a minuscule budget left with which to build the rest of the squad. Remember the problems we had when Chris Brandon, apparently on £1,900 a week, took up too much of the overall playing budget for the 2009/10 season?

There are whispers of new investment coming into the club this summer, though we’ve heard that before. Perhaps the Chairmen are going to splash their own cash to make up for shortfalls in revenue. I hope that it’s one of those two, because if it’s down to us supporters to fund next season’s playing budget and take up for season tickets does not significantly improve, we may find that the maths don’t add up on Davies’ very welcome, permanent arrival.

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The Midweek Player Focus – close season special #1: Luke O’Brien (08/09)

24 May
The Width of a Post’s regular feature ‘The Midweek Player Focus’ has taken a close season break. But to keep us going through the summer, we are going to run a spin off weekly feature looking back at past official Player of the Season winners (in a reverse chronological order). These victors often offered an interesting snapshot of the mood at the time, and where the club headed next. It’s also good to recall those players that we were highly appreciate of, for their efforts in claret and amber.
To kick us off, Jason McKeown goes back to the last winner who is not at the club anymore. The 2008-09 season, and the emergence of Luke O’Brien.  

The home grown hero has romantic appeal in football. Think of Eastender Mark Noble helping West Ham to promotion this season, Whinston’s Steven Gerrard sometimes single-handedly winning his club matches, or – if you like, and it’s not to my personal liking – a suspended John Terry donning his kit and shin pads to lift the European cup for Chelsea last week. So when local lad Luke O’Brien burst on the Valley Parade scene during the 2008/09 season, the feel good factor in the stands was high.

Here was a promising full back breaking into a team that he, alongside the rest of us, had grown up supporting. When City were battling against the odds to avoid relegation from the Premier League at the turn of the millennium, O’Brien was a regular fan watching on from the Kop and cheering the same goals as the rest of us. He was the embodiment of the passion we felt for City, performing on our pitch; and how warmly he was initially welcomed into the fold.

In fact O’Brien won the official Player of the Season award in what was a classic case of judging the success of players by how much they exceed their individual expectation bar. No one particularly expected O’Brien to break into the first team – never mind the 37 appearances he made during his first proper season – and the encouraging performances he delivered were a welcome contrast to the disappointment felt towards many of his team mates.

I don’t think you could honestly say O’Brien was the best City player that season – he certainly wasn’t the most effective. But he was the most consistently good; and when the chips were down come March and we badly needed more senior players to justify their relatively high salaries, the majority were found wanting. Not O’Brien of course. He never gave up and he let no one down. He knew what it meant to us, and we could credibly believe that he shared our pain of missing out on promotion. And for those reasons, you could well understand why he was crowned Player of the Season.

Yet exceeding expectations means that bar is eventually going to rise, and the three subsequent seasons of O’Brien’s City career, before he left the club last January, were all about the full back attempting to reach those new standards and facing criticism from some, who perceived he had failed to do so.

In 2008/09 O’Brien was a good full back who helped to support the marauding Omar Daley – without himself doing anything too spectacular. He was solid. In 2009/10, a new 4-3-3 formation – plus Daley out injured for nine months – meant greater responsibility fell upon his still young shoulders. O’Brien was now expected to get up and down the pitch, contributing as an attacking threat as much as his role of defending. In front of him, however, he no longer had any defensive cover (it turned out Daley being poor at tracking back was still more effective than having no one) and a succession of opposition managers targeted O’Brien as potential weak spot. When City didn’t have the ball, Luke would face both an opposition winger and full back. Small wonder he began to struggle.

Peter Taylor eventually entered the building, with Robbie Threlfall rocking up a matter of days later. And it seemed as though O’Brien’s days were numbered as he lost his place. By the end of that campaign, he was being asked to play as winger. It was an experiment with merit, and in my eyes O’Brien became a better player for it. He was suddenly far more confident of taking on his man and beating them, even if his final ball required plenty of work.

Almost exactly two years to the day of his league debut in 2008, O’Brien was reinstalled at left back in the early part of the 2010/11 season. And from here came, in my opinion, his finest displays in claret and amber. City still often played 4-3-3, with O’Brien expected to get forward; and he would do so with relish while also showing a greater resistance to being bullied by the opposition when it was time to defend. In a campaign of no official Player of the Season, O’Brien came second behind David Syers.

Yet still, he was no longer the home grown poster boy hero, with a split amongst the crowd over whether he was good enough. And in time, and with wearisome predictability, the string to his bow which initially triggered his popularity – his local roots – was used against him. “Some people only rate him because he’s from around here”, they said. It’s a curious thing to me in that – during my time supporting City, at least – every youngster who has come through the ranks was eventually ridiculed by some of our support.

Sadly O’Brien – who was clearly not rated at all by Phil Parkinson – was released last January. He headed to League One and Exeter, as far in England from his local roots as you could be. Just two appearances for the relegated Devon club later, last month O’Brien was quickly released. He now searches for another club, but – despite City needing a left back – the attacking nature of O’Brien and fact he crosses the halfway line means he does not appear to fit in with Parkinson’s ideals for this position.

Where he goes next will be interesting. Like Threlfall – also released by City during the second half of the season – he could find another League Two club. But with a young family to think about, Luke will probably be less willing to move South again. So if a fairly local League Two club side doesn’t snap him up, could part-time, non-league football await?

You would like to think not, because I personally believe O’Brien was one of the major success stories for City over the past four years. That he did not fit into Parkinson’s plans is a shame given the development and hard work that the club invested into him, but that does not make Luke a bad player.

Since O’Brien’s emergence, nine players have come through the youth ranks and made their first team debut and, so far, none have made more than six appearances for the Bantams. O’Brien might not have quite fulfilled the romantic notion of home grown hero, but he could be the closest we come to seeing one for some time.

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The Width of a Post 2011/12 section

23 May

For easy reference, The Width of a Post’s 2011/12 match reports, Midweek Player Focus and season review articles are now available in a new section on the site.

Click on the 2011/12 season image on the right hand column of the site, or click on the link below.

The 2011/12 season

Pretty rubbish, wasn’t it?

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2011/12 review: three managers, one season

23 May
Our final Width of a Post 2011/12 season review ‘essay’ sees Mark Scully look back at how the Bantams went through three managers.

With the Bradford City players away catching some sun before Parkinson gets them back for pre season training, ahead of what is hoped will be a far better season than the one that has just finished, I thought a reflection on the previous campaign from a managerial perspective was in order.

Throughout the course of the 2011/2012 season three managers took charge of the famous claret and amber. First up was Jacko; I was enthusiastic in the summer when he landed the job permanently following his interim spell towards the end of the previous campaign. The noises coming out of the corridors of power at Valley Parade were nothing put positive. The youth development squad with Archie Christie was set up and – between him and Jackson – signings were coming in and looking impressive. On the face of it, a successful season ahead was on the horizon.

Unfortunately though, as we are all aware, the Jackson era was hardly a vintage success. A poor start to the season meant both he and the players were under immediate pressure. Following what appeared to be a routine board meeting towards the end of August, Jackson resigned. Whatever happened in that meeting still remains cloudy, but it appears that the board felt (and rightly so) that the squad wasn’t good enough and it needed strengthening. Whether Jacko felt he wasn’t the right man to do that or if he felt undermined I’m not sure, but it was a statistic that City didn’t want as they became the first club of the season to start the search of a new manager.

Following the sudden departure of Jackson, his No.2 Colin Cooper took over the reins for a short period. Personally if Cooper had of landed the job permanently I wouldn’t of been too disappointed, sometimes it’s too easy to go for the same merry-go-round managers that get sacked from various clubs rather than taking a chance on a new up and coming manager. We’ve had the most success in many years by going down that route when Paul Jewell took us on the unbelievable journey to the Premier League, and many other clubs have had success following a similar managerial route.

During Cooper’s only game in charge he guided the side to a brilliant 4-2 win over Barnet, arguably one of the best performances witness by the City fans all season! As it turned out, Parkinson arrived shortly afterwards and, after that, Cooper left to re-join his home town club Middlesbrough in their coaching set up.

Finally, our third gaffer and our current one – Parky. I’m sure I’m not the only one saying that hopefully he will be in the role for a long time coming, because that would mean the good times are heading back to Valley Parade. Granted, it hasn’t been the best in terms of results under Parkinson’s tenure thus far; but it was a very difficult campaign that he had to oversee. Parky signed numerous players some struggled whilst others did well, as he essentially built a brand new side during the course of the season.

The home form from November onwards was impressive – only Crawley took all three points away after Rotherham beat us back in the dark winter months of 2011. The much needed clear out is well and truly underway, and I’m sure his recruitment drive is in full swing. Going forward into the next season, I do firmly believe that as a club we do have the right man in charge. Given the opportunity over this summer to bring in the right type of player, both mentally and ability wise, we will have a decent chance of doing well – being the biggest club in the league by a mile needs a certain type of player to enable to handle the pressure that comes with the ‘big team’ tag.

Once the squad is finalised, I’m confident that it will stack up against the other teams considered to be in line for a successful 2012/2013 season. I might even stick a few pound on us being successful – here’s hoping!

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The season ticket panic begins

21 May

By Jason McKeown

With two weeks to go until the 2012/13 cheap season ticket deadline, the signs do not look good. This morning the Telegraph & Argus has reported that just 3,000 season tickets have been sold, with the two Chairmen rolled out to give a “rallying cry” for people to buy theirs. Human nature when it comes to paying any bill dictates that a lot of people will be waiting until the last minute (31st May) to purchase, but even allowing for this late rush it seems inevitable the club is going to fall short of whatever target it has in mind.

This will be the sixth year in a row of the club offering season tickets at rock bottom prices – relative to the rest of UK professional football – but what has always hampered this superb initiative is poor marketing and PR. From the cringe-worthy ‘Santa Dave’ campaign in 2010 to this year’s flyer full of quotes from players banging on about City getting into League One, there are either mixed messages about quality or too big a difference between what is being promoted and the reality of the product.

Mark Lawn has stated: “For those people who want to see a competitive squad out on the pitch next season, Phil needs an appropriate budget. To be able to do this, as I’ve said it in the past and will stress again, season-ticket sales are critical in order to increase Phil’s budget to strengthen the squad. In essence the playing budget is in the fans’ hands. Julian Rhodes and myself both have confidence in Phil to put together a squad that’s fit to win the league or at least get a play-off position.”

The insinuation – that high sales will lead to success – fails miserably on the back of five years of stagnation in League Two. When season ticket sales have previously been at a high level which, next season, we unfortunately cannot hope to emulate, success on the field did not occur. Yet year on year we are urged to spend a wad of money buying a season ticket on the premise that – if we do our bit – the rewards will come. If this is really the incentive for us to buy a season ticket, then we have been repeatedly miss-sold – and it’s therefore no real surprise that sales have declined.

I’ve no axe to grind with any supporter who has not renewed for whatever reason at some point over the past five years. But it stands to me that if you target people to buy tickets who will judge its true value on the final league table – or in marketing terms, look to get consumers to buy a product that does not achieve what it is set out to do – you will see a drop off in future sales.

But equally, declaring only 3,000 season tickets have been sold so far for next season and that the final outcome will largely dictate next year’s budget will hardly fill floating buyers with much confidence. For sure, they can each do their own bit and invest their money – but if not enough other people do too, and we are left with a poor squad that cannot hope for much more than avoiding relegation again – these people will feel let down and be less likely to believe next season’s rhetoric.

There are, to me at least, far more compelling reasons to buy a season ticket than to merely hope to be part of a promotion party. Football supporting is a way of life, and as we stand here just two weeks into the close season, the emptiness of a Saturday afternoon with no City to fret about has already fallen sharply into focus. A few more weeks of this, and we will be aching for football all over again and desperate to view the (occasionally) lush green grass of Valley Parade. We will be missing all that goes with the matches too – from the pre-match pint, the frustration of people moaning behind you, and to the adrenaline and excitement of a cracking home win. Football and City gives us a purpose, and a season ticket is the only way to truly satisfy that itch.

The Bantams apparently averaged 10,171 last season (down by 26% from the first year of cheap season ticket sales, in 2008/09). This is after four years of failed promises from the club when it came to buying a season ticket, yet still people have kept coming back. Logic surely dictates that these people are therefore not renewing because they “must” have a successful team. Something else keeps them going.

That’s not to say that we shouldn’t be targeting promotion next season – of course we should. Equally, there is a very significant correlation between season ticket sales and the budget that the manager has to work on, so it does matter how many of us renew. But if year on year we are going to measure ourselves against a target we have so far not even come close to achieving (League One football), then we are always going to feel bad about themselves.

It would be nice to get promoted next season, of course it would . But it would also be nice – and more realistic – to simply improve upon the last two desperate campaigns of 18th-placed finishes, and to be able to buy into a vision of how that might happen and where we would then go from there. Because if we accept and understand that season ticket sales are declining, to then promote the following year’s offer on the premise that a good take-up is more likely to lead to a successful promotion push means the club looks increasingly daft.

Ultimately, this Board is suffering from losing touch with supporters and failing to grasp the issues that are leading to growing disillusionment. It has made a poor attempt at trying to paint last season as a success by blaming the concepts and personnel they were promoting when they were urging us to buy last season’s season tickets.

I have bought my season ticket for next season. Not because I expect us to get promoted, but because I can’t imagine my life without this football club occupying my time. And because I can’t stand the thought of missing out on the next great moment we celebrate, or of witnessing the next set of excellent players who emerge and entertain us. When Valley Parade roars in triumph I want to be part of that roar, even if it’s not to roar at the biggest of triumphs.

Maybe somewhere in those random thoughts, there’s a more successful marketing campaign.

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Hoping for a better outcome as Parkinson gets to work on building a new squad

21 May

By Jason McKeown

This summer marks the 10th year anniversary of one of the most miserable sequence of events in the modern day history of Bradford City – and as much as we might like to believe those days are behind us, much of the present is still weighed heavily down by the past.

10 years ago the club was in ruins, on the brink of closing as debts of £36 million pushed the Bantams into administration. We ultimately survived, but the after effects included losing ownership of our ground – while the playing squad, which in 2002 saw mass departures, has struggled to regain stability ever since.

Since then, we keep partaking in an annual event each May which reaches its 10th anniversary this summer: the big clear out.

Once again, City are going for a large overhaul. Seven players released, another six told they can go. Should Phil Parkinson get his way on getting rid of all of the latter group, we would have just eight players contracted for next season. That figure will hopefully swell to 11, with three out of contract players mulling over new offers; but it all means that – just like the nine previous summers – the manager has a lot of recruitment business to attend to. A manager fairly new to the job always finds favour from some by taking this approach, and there is no doubt that the mantra of getting rid of under-achievers sounds like a good PR message to supporters.

However – and this is a generalisation to make – going down this route have hardly proven to be a successful strategy for the Bantams in the past. Each pre-season, we have welcomed a high number of new faces and had to accept the reality that the club is going to struggle to hit the ground running when the league matches begin, because there is time needed to gel. Each season, the summer transfer activity has led to a mixed bag, with some clever recruitment and some unsuccessful signings. Perhaps this year it will be different and Parkinson will build a squad capable of matching the club’s increased ambition, but the last nine years offer little confidence that this “tear it up and start again” strategy will be different and work this time around.

And when you look at what kind of signings Parkinson will need to make, the likelihood of people complaining of disappointing signings come September appears very likely. It has been pointed out that – if the City manager can persuade the out of contract Luke Oliver, Simon Ramsden and David Syers to stay – eight of the 11 players who started the final game of the season against Swindon will still be at the club. But that suggests Parkinson is going to either spend the summer signing players to take their place in the team, or have to find squad players to back them up.

Take the centre of midfield, which for much of the 2011/12 season was generally considered to be our strongest area. With Ricky Ravenhill, Michael Flynn, Syers, Ritchie Jones and Lee Bullock to choose from – Parkinson was never going to be struggling for options. Just two of those five will definitely be at Valley Parade next summer and, even if Syers signs a deal, the focus for Parkinson for this part of his summer recruitment will surely be finding a back up to Ravenhill, Jones and Syers – rather than someone to take their place. In such circumstances, you wonder why he has chosen to let Bullock leave the building. Basically, Parkinson must find a player of Bullock’s ability, and be happy to join City to sit on the bench; or otherwise sign a first choice midfielder and break up a part of the team which – in the case of first choice Ravenhill and Jones – has spent much of the last few months developing the sort of understanding you would expect to be key next year.

Then there is the defence. As is stands City have just no contracted defenders who Parkinson wants to keep, but is hoping Simon Ramsden and Luke Oliver will sign up. The offer of a deal for Ramsden surprised me. As good a player as he has been for City, his injury record ever since joining three years ago has meant a greater reliance on having a strong back up right back than squad budgeting would appear to allow. In my view, Ramsden did not end the season in great form and is beginning to look like his injuries have taken their toll. If he is to be first choice right back next season I have some concerns; but even if he is to become back up – that injury record does not offer great assurance that he would be available when needed.

Last season the defence improved greatly under Parkinson, but we are almost having to start all over again from scratch with just Oliver penned in for a regular spot. That, as well as he performed, was the folly of entrusting Andrew Davies all season. One is left disappointed that Parkinson is so keen to get rid of Guy Branston after the impressive form he displayed at the end of last season. He was demonstrating that he can forge a good partnership with Oliver. It is unrealistic to expect Parkinson to sign someone as good as Davies to replace the Stoke defender in the backline, but can he sign someone better than Branston?

Up front we have a similar issue to midfield. A promising forward partnership has been developed between Nahki Wells and James Hanson, and they deserve to continue that next season without Parkinson looking to replace either of them. Indeed the manager has spoken recently of his determination to keep hold of them both, following rumours they may leave. Throw in Ross Hannah too, and City are looking for a 3rd or 4th choice striker rather than a headline act. Parkinson is said to be chasing Port Vale’s Marc Richards.

Add in the possibility of a new keeper being recruited to replace the potentially departing Matt Duke, and Parkinson goes into this summer needing not only to find the right players to fill three or four key positions in his first choice team, but needing squad players to act as cover and directly replace the fringe players he has told to find a new club.

And herein lies the dilemma, because Parkinson faces either signing a lot of players who he won’t expect to start in the first eleven, at least at first (which in time will lead people to arguing he has made poor signings) or risk destabilising the parts of the team he has already successfully built because the players he targets to sign will only join if they are promised regular football. After all, what striker – Richards or otherwise – is going to want to sign for the Bantams knowing they will be third choice to Hanson and Wells?

The answer, it would seem, is young players. Those discarded by bigger clubs, looking for an opportunity to at least be closer to first team action than they were. And here is where the cycle of the last 10 years continues. Because we’ve done this approach to death – from Luke Cornwall to Robert Wolleaston, from Steven Schumacher to Michael Symes, from Eddie Johnson to Nathan Joynes, from Simon Eastwood to Robbie Threlfall. We take on other clubs’ discarded youngsters with their supposed pedigree – and sometimes they work out well for a time, but eventually they move on with a handful of decent memories and little progress to their careers. Or overall progress for the club.

The player turnover at Valley Parade over the past decade has been incredible. By my calculations, approximately 210 different players have pulled on a Bradford City shirt for a competitive match since we exited administration for the first time. That’s an average of 21 debuts per season. It’s not an approach which has proved conducive to building a winning football team.

That is not Parkinson’s fault of course, and there is no doubt he needed to strengthen the squad for next season. But it’s worth pointing out that he has been in the job for almost a full season now, and that perhaps – in return for the money he has spent – we might reasonably expect to have more than just three of his signings still at the club and in next season’s plans. If we are to seriously suggest that Parkinson had no choice but to take a short-term route of spending money on players to keep City in League Two last season, with little thought on matters beyond that – because last summer Peter Jackson ripped up the playing squad and made a number of poor signings – then sadly you have to fear the high possibility of a repeat.

Perhaps the 12-14 signings Parkinson will probably have to make this summer will turn around the club’s fortunes, but – for a change, when looking at the last decade – I hope he is not targeting players with the insular view of merely being successful next season, but also proving successful over a longer period. It would be nice if this 10th anniversary of clearing the decks could also prove to be our last, at least for a while.

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