| Bradford Park Avenue 1 |
| Bradford City 1 |
| (Avenue win 3-2 on pens) |
By Jason McKeown
It looks like he’s ending it where it all began. On Wednesday evening, Jake Young was the only prominent name in a Bradford City team beaten on penalties at the Horsfall Stadium in the annual wool city derby friendly. Young was consigned to playing with the kids, just days after another local media article made clear he is heading towards the exit door.
383 days earlier, Young had made his first ever public appearance in Bradford City colours on this same Bradford Park Avenue astroturf stage. That came as part of the Bantams’ opening pre-season friendly of 2022/23, where Young was one of a host of new signings meeting their public for the first time. A strong City squad delivered a comfortable 2-0 win. So much freshness, so much opportunity.
All looked so good for the 21-year-old then. “Jake is a player we are really excited to be bringing to Valley Parade,” beamed Mark Hughes on unveiling the forward on a three-year deal. “I am just looking forward to getting started and helping take this club back to where it belongs,” chipped in Young.
A year on, Young was back in the spotlight here. But for very different reasons. Instead of hello, this seems to be goodbye.
Young is unwanted by Hughes. He has been unwanted for some time. No league minutes since last September. No City start since the Football League Trophy thumping at Burton last October. Shipped out on loan to Barrow in January. Back this summer, but still well out of Hughes’ plans. It’s no secret Young has been told he can move on. Offers have come in that the club were more than prepared to accept.
In the meantime, Young is left out in the cold.
There was no place for Young on City’s trip to Spain last week. Whilst the rest of the team bonded under the Spanish sun, Young was dodging rain storms back in West Yorkshire. And now this, the humbling experience of being included in a team of youth players for a friendly, whilst all the senior players put their feet up.
It must be so difficult, in ways that few of us can imagine. In what other walk of life do you go into your workplace knowing your employer is desperate to get rid of you? Where you’re isolated, treated differently to others, and offered such bleak prospects.
Football can be so brutal. And Young is currently experiencing just how tough it can be. He needs real mental courage right now. He must feel lonely at times. The fact he has turned down offers from other clubs suggests he retains self-belief. Good for him. No matter how hard the club might be pushing him out, Young deserves the right to make the best decision for his career.
Still, it’s all sad to see. Because whatever triggered this path of separation between player and club, there seems to be no way back for Young at Bradford City. He’s contracted until 2025 – making this push to get him away look like a piece of very questionable transfer business in the first place.
From a bumper City crowd that had been lured to the Horsfall on the slightly false pretence that we were going to be watching a first team friendly, support for Young was evident. There was a moment in the first half where Young was able to run at the Bradford Park Avenue defence and beat a couple of players. As he charged into the box, everyone was willing for him to smash the ball into the net and prove his point to the watching Mark Hughes.
But this is sport, and reality is never far away. Young held onto possession too long, ran down a blind alley, lost the ball. He looked crestfallen. And in the rest of the half that followed, Young barely touched the ball.
There really are no fairytale stories in July pre-season friendlies.
Young was withdrawn at half time. A likely agreement beforehand that he would only play 45 minutes. He stood watching the second half from the sidelines, with plenty of City supporters queuing up to shake his hand and get selfies. Words of encouragement offered no doubt. But everyone knows where this is heading. This is probably the last we will see of Young.
That’s football.
Young might use this difficult period as the motivation to go on and accomplish bigger and better things. To live up to the raw potential that saw him plucked from Guiseley by Sheffield United four years ago. Or, it may prove decisive on his career, where his confidence never quite recovers from the knocks he’s taking.
Perhaps, he was never really good enough to play for a club as big as Bradford City. That there are good reasons why he couldn’t establish himself at Bramall Lane, and was a bit part player in Forest Green’s 2021/22 title charge. Or maybe the ability is there, but the attitude not quite right. Rumours of a fallout with Hughes can be found if you dig hard enough. Certainly, there is something about the way Hughes has handled Young that is inconsistent with his approach to other senior players.
Young is not the first player to go through something like this at a football club, and he won’t be the last. It’s a cautionary tale for the young charges who lined up with Young in this friendly. This is the toughest of industries to crack, and the odds are completely stacked against you.
Here, Bantams fledglings tried hard to impress a watching Hughes and stake a claim for a future first team opportunity. But in a friendly game that was largely dull and forgettable, it was difficult to get a true yardstick of just how well anyone was measuring up.
Was this a good Bradford Park Avenue side? Relegated from the National League North last season, Park Avenue manager Mark Bower is in the process of rebuilding, and his line up included plenty of trialists. They’re two divisions above the Bury AFC side that the Bradford City first team thrashed a couple of weeks ago. So useful opponents to a point. And a chance for Hughes to learn more about his fledglings.
Given the slightly unusual nature of City’s first two pre-season fixtures, for football reasons you can understand why Hughes opted to play a youth team here. And deploy the first team in a behind closed doors encounter against League One Bolton the day before. The new season is only a couple of weeks away, and more challenging tests are needed right now
This annual game with Avenue is important for neighbourly relations. But many a Bradford City manager has clearly found this game an inconvenience. With a free hand, this would rarely be a game picked out as a worthwhile warm up fixture, when scientifically building up for a new season. Hughes has followed the path of some of his predecessors in sending the youth team to fulfil the derby obligations.
But still, it was a shame for the goodwill and relationship with City supporters. This was advertised as a first team friendly and many people would have bought tickets in advance expecting to get a first glimpse of the new signings. And to reacquaint with familiar faces. 2,300 people showed up and were slightly short-changed by City’s team selection. Disappointment hung in the air. At least it wasn’t raining.
A goal from each side just before and after the interval were the key moments of note. City took the lead when some good direct running from striker Harry Ibbitson saw the ball worked to the impressive Issac Robinson. The winger produced some excellent dribbling skills to beat men and find space for a shot, with his low effort smacking the inside of the post, rolling along the line and hitting the other post. It all left Dylan Youmbi with an open goal tap in.
Just after the break, an under-cooked City backpass saw Avenue’s Will Longbottom steal in to equalise. And despite plenty of huff and puff, that’s how it stayed. Chances were at a premium at both ends of the pitch, though Bantams keeper Heath Richardson made a couple of excellent saves. City’s youth produced some bright play at times, but were often betrayed by their decision making.
The game went to penalties, with Robinson and Gabe Wadsworth scoring for City, but Ibbitson, Noah Wadsworth and Richardson (keeper on keeper) failing to convert. Avenue’s penalties were’t great, but the three spot kicks they netted won them Tom Banks Memorial Trophy for 2023.
For City, the friendly programme steps up from here with Valley Parade encounters against Championship sides Hull City and Middlesbrough in the next seven days. Belatedly, the new signings will get their first public outing inside the city of Bradford.
It seems unlikely Jake Young will get to join them.
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widthofapost.com 
It is not inconceivable that Jake Young could sit it out and do a ‘Winston Bogarde’ if the right offers don’t come along. It looks as though his relationship with Hughes has terminally broken down and we can only speculate how and why. This case to me demonstrates two things: the dangers attached to giving untried players 3-year contacts; and how having too many players, as we did last season, can lead to some feeling they are not getting a fair chance. I hope Young can move on and prosper but he must feel hard done by that his bright prospects have suffered such a setback – unthinkable the last time he played at Cemetery Road!
Pete Wild at Barrow and Mark Hughes had Jake Young for half a season apiece. His efforts in training and on the field led them to pick him to start 7 league games total. Have they both got it badly wrong. Jake has the ball firmly in his court . The 2 loan offers he’s turned down were obviously not for him and hopefully something will turn up. Proffessional football is a cruel old game at times. Let’s all hope he can prove the doubters wrong.
I tend to agree the end is in sight for Young. However, he intends to leave on his own terms which he hopes doesn’t include another loanee role. He wants permanent severance from City. I believe if City are truly concerned about Jake Young’s welfare and City’s own reputation they will be accommodating. That means selling him at market value which is rapidly depreciating.
That is spot on Phil W. Black marks for Hughes and the Club regardless of Young’s ability.
Isolated, treated differently to others and quite possibly discriminatory conduct. And where is the duty of care? Irrespective of if he’s any good or not the treatment of Jake Young borders on constructive dismissal.
The deliberate push to get him away now does look like a piece of very questionable transfer business. Hughes and City emerge with little credit.
Not to be confused with Steven J!!!!
It’s not uncommon for words to be said between team mates/coaching staff on the training ground, during a game and even punch ups during the physical contact of training matches. All done in the heat of the moment and, generally, quickly forgotten.
However, this issue has festered, probably due to two obstinate parties and there are two sides to every dispute, of course.
Young, who showed some promise early doors, appears to have had every bit of confidence drained from him and looked a pale shadow of his former self against Avenue. However, if the consistent story I’m hearing is true, I can understand that MH can’t have his position undermined.
Even though he’s away from the senior squad, he’ll still be mixing with his former team mates and the situation must be casting a shadow over morale within the group.
His performance at Horsfall won’t have enhanced his chances of a quick move so, surely the time has come for the club to agree a settlement on his outstanding contract, as this conjecture and rumour is no good for either party and it’s time to draw a line under it.
I full agree with Steve J’s comments above. We don’t know what’s happened outside of the matches we’ve seen him in to put him on the outside track, and he clearly hasn’t been able to make his mark in his Barrow loan. And yet he scored as many goals for us as Scott Banks & Tyrek Wright, with only Andy Cook scoring more. Surely there is a potential there, for him and the right coaching to unlock?
For me, this erodes some confidence in Mark Hughes, both in coaching to get the best, and in his integrity in how he treats his players. He’s still a young lad, and i was really disturbed to see him left out of the Spain trip, when the 3 new young seniors were included. It’s all very well saying football is brutal and cruel, but in this day and age, I expect better from my club.
Hang in there Jake lad. When we’re 15th in January and Hughes has gone, you’ll get another chance