By Jason McKeown
As Bradford City’s season heads to a low key conclusion, attention is starting to turn to the annual retained list. In total, the Bantams have 12 players, who have played first team football, that are out of contract in the summer. So there’s some big decisions facing Graham Alexander and the club’s new head of football, David Sharpe.
Over the weekend at WOAP, we’re recording our next podcast where we will discuss the fate of the 12 players. And more importantly, we want to know what you think!
Please use the link below to vote for which players deserve to have the agony of being a Bradford City player prolonged into next season, and who should be set free to find a happier home this summer.
The Bradford City 2023/24 retained list WOAP reader poll
Please also feel free to leave a comment in the usual way, and we will go through some of your contributions over the podcast – as well as revealing the results!
Categories: Opinion
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One of the first indicators of a teams ambition for the following season is the retained list and whoever is offered a new contract. I recall when one Hughes’s first gambits was to offer Angol a contract it set the tone for his tenure here.
If the bulk of the players ooc are given/offered new contracts then expect players of similar calibre next season. And more of the same.
should also do a poll of the contracted players we need to try to ship out
To be fair, our “deadwood” isnt as bad as past seasons. The likes of Smith and Oliver will soon find new homes. Same with Smallwood and Kmac if we choose to get rid
It becomes more difficult while we don’t know what the tactics are the manager or philosophy the HoF will look to use.
With our best defence available we haven’t conceded many goals at all this year and actually have been pretty unlucky with injuries. So arguably not a lot needs to change in defence but is that actually because we’ve played with 8 defensive minded players?
When we’ve missed a couple our defence has fallen apart despite having 8 of those players on the pitch. I therefore think the defence we have in the building is good enough (dependent on tactics/philosophy) and the focus is concentrating on how we get more goals on the pitch.
I’ve done your survey but do feel that sometimes it can be much harder than a yes/no answer. I mean using Walker as an example hes a brilliant player with a brilliant attitude but very injury prone. If he left we would really struggle to get someone if the same or better quality in to replace him, but if he’s amongst the highest earners can we afford to be paying that to someone we might only get half a season out of? Now if he would accept a lower basic contract with a bonus for every game he played then it would be a no brainer.
The one that I would be really disappointed to lose would be Bobby Pointon, to me it’s players like him that we should be building the squad around, young hungry players with potential sell on value and players who create things are good to watch.
Out of the rest I would probably offer new contracts to Halliday, Platt and Stubbs but also probably wouldn’t be massively overly bothered if any of them didn’t sign and left. And I would happily get shut of a few more of the players under contract too if possible.
I guess at the minute just feels like there’s a culture of failure around the club so would welcome a lot of new players to try change that mentality especially if we were lucky enough to find players with the same mentality of Stephen derby/Gary Jones.
Agreed. After a season like this you can’t be too gutted if any choose to leave, barring Bobby of course.
In addition to releasing the bulk of those players out of contract we also need to be looking to move on quite a few of those on contract, who are not likely to be on the manager’s plans.
A much smaller squad than this season thereby allowing some of our up and coming academy players to be utilised when needed.
Whilst the intention of the poll is to canvas opinion I do find it incredibly disrespectful to head the “keep” option as ‘prolonging the agony’. Yes we have an opinion but some of the players mentioned I am scratching my head to what agony they would be prolonging by staying or have I have I read it in the wrong context?.
Hi. It isn’t meant to be disrespectful. The opposite actually. We are conscious that this is people’s livelihoods and using terms like ‘release’ aren’t nice. So we thought we’d go more tongue in cheek and do it the other way around, ie joke that by staying they’re prolonging the agony. No offence is meant though.
Jason
Nevertheless, it does strike me as disrespectful; arrogant and very de-motivating for the remaining games of the season – despite there being not much to play for now.
This review would be better placed at the end of the season to reflect on how the players have done individually and collectively. Doing it now sends the wrong vibes, imo…
i’d vote fir 11 Brad Hallidays. What a fantastic work ethic, and contribution week in, week out. Smallwood as Club Captain should be taking notes and learning.
and talking of prolonging the agony, my 15 year old son & I renewed our season tickets last night . I gave him the choice, and there was no hesitation. I’m now off to find a medal shop to get a bespoke Long Suffering Stoic Medal made for him.
Halliday, Platt, Stubbs, Pointon and Walker.
These are three divisions as good as anyone in the division. Walker is too good to let go – we’re not that great, we can let him go elsewhere.
I’m one of the few who like Smallwood, but it’s arguable whether him and Gilly works for a promotion chasing midfield, so I’d reluctantly let him go.
Even when fit, Walker rarely plays the full ninety minutes.
No doubting his ability and commitment but, it could be argued he’s a luxury we might not be able to afford, if we go for a leaner squad.
He’ll be one of our higher paid players so, unless he’s willing to accept a reduced contract, I’d be tempted to say “goodbye”. A tough decision.
The retained list is always an emotive subject; those who’s glass is half empty will demand a mass clear out, whilst those with a more optimistic outlook will suggest that the squad needs nothing more than a tweak. Maybe somewhere in between is about right. In a way you could argue that it’s a pointless exercise, it’s all well and good asking for wholesale redundancy’s but that only works if the replacements are of a higher calibre. And we don’t know that they are. Asking for a massive clear out is easy, building a new squad from scratch is much harder.
As an example, when James Hanson was coming to the end of his time as a City player, he divided opinion as to whether he was worth another contract. When he did leave I thought we did extremely well, James got a great move to Sheffield United and we got Charlie Wyke as his replacement. However had we let Hanson go at the end of that season and his replacement turned out to be Theo Robinson, there would have been an uproar from everyone. Even the ones who wanted rid of Hanson.
The two centre midfield players in the current squad who divide opinion are Ritchie Smallwood and Alex Gilliead, and these are the two players that I would like to talk about. I would offer new contracts to both of them, as they are both good enough in my opinion, to be part of a promotion winning side. Smallwood already has a few promotions under his belt so he has the pedigree, and although he has struggled to convince most of us of his qualities, including me, I feel that if he was told that his job description was to harass and disrupt and win the ball back, we would see a better version of the player that he is. Part of the Smallwood conundrum was and is the high expectations that we expect, nay demand, of a player who drops down a couple of leagues, who has a few promotions to his name and is named as team captain. There is no doubt that he has not had the best season, but neither has anyone. Part of this problem could be finding the right midfield partner. I have seen Smallwood and Giliead as midfield partners far too many times to know that they are incompatible and should never play together again as a pair. I do wish that we could have persuaded Elliot Watt to have signed a new contract as he could have been a good partner for Smallwood, so someone of that ilk would be at the top of my wish list. Smallwood is not the quarterback that we all hoped he was, I grant you that, but paired with someone who is, would free him up to do the things that he is good at. One thing to also bare in mind with Smallwood is his fitness record, he very rarely misses a game through being injured. We already have a few players who miss large chunks of the season through being unavailable because of injuries, so Smallwood’s replacement would have to tick that box.
Moving on to Gilliead. Having said that I think that his partnership with Smallwood has been tried so many times and has failed, I would pencil him in as one of of our wing/full backs. Over the years he has stood in as a full back when asked, and he has done a good job in my opinion. However this season when asked to fill in as a wingback he was excellent. There is no one in the squad who can touch him him fitness wise , so the role really suits someone with his athleticism. And like Smallwood he very rarely gets injured, and if you need him to play in a different role for the last ten minutes of a game, he can do that. He is versatile. He can defend, he is tall so wins his share of contested high balls, and he offers so much more offensively than your average League 2 fullback.
unfortunately with Steven Gents recruitment drive of offering substandard players 2 and 3 year contracts. It leaves City less movement in the transfer market and therefore we will have to release more of the players whose contracts are expiring this summer. None of the players who are under contract such as Smith, Taylor or McDonald will move therefore Jamie Walker, Stubbs etc will have to go. I would offer contracts to Pointon, Platt and Halliday only. It doesn’t mean they will sign either with the club leaving it until the last minute to offer contracts to players. With City’s lowly position you cannot offer contracts to the majority of the out of contract players because the result thereof will be repeated league position next year.
if Smallwood and Cook left (obviously Cook won’t) I feel we would get something better for our money. The top earners should at least be mobile!