By Jason McKeown
The strength on the field was probably best reflected by the strength in the stands. As Bradford City romped to a comfortable first home win of the season against Bromley last Saturday, further reasons for optimism could be gleaned from the many notable names who were weren’t in the matchday squad.
Alex Gilliead, Jake Young, Tyler Smith, Kevin McDonald – all nowhere near the team. Alongside them on the sidelines were the injured Vadaine Oliver and Callum Johnson. The newly signed Joe Adams was also in reserve, waiting to make his debut. And earlier in the week, Sam Stubbs and Adam Wilson had been loaned out.
This is Bradford City 2024/25, where the quality of the squad seems to be its highest in years. Players who in previous years would be unquestionably first choice have found themselves stuck on the bench or frozen out. Graham Alexander has some mighty selection headaches. In most – if not all – areas of the pitch, City look well stocked with quality as well as quantity. As well as those sat in the stands, Saturday’s encounter saw Jamie Walker, Bobby Pointon, Lewis Richards, Jack Shepherd, Clarke Oduor and Olly Sanderson operating as subs.
And that’s why the final week of the transfer window has been more about departures than further arrivals. The club ends the summer trading period with 24 players on the books who could be fairly described as senior players (Pointon surely qualifies for first team player status now). When everyone is fit, that would mean six senior players not even making the bench.
“I think it becomes counter-productive when you have too many players,” Alexander declared last January, over plans then to trim the size of the squad. “There is disenchantment with some and a lack of hope. That’s not a good environment or feeling to have around a squad that wants to win.” Seven months on, it’s unlikely Alexander has changed his philosophy. And so players who have slowly found themselves on the fringes have this week opted to move on elsewhere. Their prospects for first team football at Valley Parade looking bleak.
It can be sad to see, but it’s a sign of City’s progress that we’ve not witnessed a rebuilding of the squad that had become an annual event. Players are not leaving because they’ve underachieved or failed to deliver value. The standards are creeping up. The tide rising. The landscape shifting. Those who have departed have struggled to keep up with the pace of change.
That’s certainly the case with Alex Gilliead. It’s easy to like Gilly. To want to keep him around because his attitude and workrate can be so important – even in the reduced to the status of impact sub. He’ll always do a job. Always give you everything. He can play in several positions. And during the twists and turns of a typical football season, where injuries and loss of form occur, Gilliead would have surely played a crucial role somewhere. Slotting in for someone else, and giving City an all-action display that wins some crucial points.
But is it fair to keep such a talented, driven and honest player merely for insurance? And what impact would months of being sidelined have on Gillead’s attitude, form and confidence? He’s better than not even making the match day squad. If we can’t give him first team football, there’s plenty of other clubs who will. You have to let him go, even though there might be moments you’ll wish he was still around.
The benchmark of good squad progression for me was the mid-90s. Over the 1996/97 season, as City battled to avoid relegation from the second tier, Lee Duxbury was controversially sold to Oldham, with Nigel Pepper arriving from York City. It proved to be inspired business, with Pepper scoring five goals in 11 appearances – including two on the final day of the season, to keep the Bantams up.
Pepper was a regular the season after, as City established themselves a mid-table club. But when the summer after serious cash was spent to challenge for promotion, one Stuart McCall was brought back to Valley Parade. Suddenly Pepper was on the sidelines.
Midway through City’s successful 1998/99 campaign, Pepper was sold to Aberdeen for £300k. He was an excellent back up for McCall, but he was too good to not be playing first team football for someone. Even though City’s depth was weaker (the unloved Craig Ramage was inadvertently promoted to McCall deputy), selling Pepper was the right thing do to for the player.
In time, you’d like to think we can say the same about Gillead. He arrived for a third spell at Valley Parade in the Derek Adams summer of 2021. He didn’t have the greatest of starts, whilst playing as winger with little end product under the Scot. But as soon as Adams left, and Mark Trueman played Gillead as a defensive midfielder, his value to City grew. The incoming Mark Hughes liked what he saw, and Gillead has been a first team mainstay for much of the last two and a half seasons. He never let anyone down, but his limitations were obvious too. It’s a harsh thing to say, but ultimately it didn’t feel like City would succeed with Gillead one of the main players.
Just like Duxbury and Pepper experienced in the 90s, the squad and club have moved forwards and left him behind. When everyone is fit and in form, there’s just no place for Gillead. A useful sub maybe, but he’s too good to rot in our reserves. He deserves more than to be a bit-part player.
Much has been said on this site especially about McDonald. It’s been a very odd 12 months, where the veteran has gone from stella signing to the managerial future of Bradford City to nowhere near the team to not even allowed to travel to Austria with the squad during pre-season. He departs under the banner of mutual consent. Unemployed and looking for someone willing to say him up outside of the window. He needs to play regularly. That’s all you can wish for the guy who has endured so much and merits a happier final year or so to his career.
Stubbs and Wilson had both left before Saturday. It was a surprise that Stubbs has been nowhere near the team this season, when he looked likely to be a mainstay given the summer departures at the back. Stubb is undoubtedly a victim of a change of manager, going from a key player under Mark Hughes to seemingly unfancied by Alexander. He never showed his best form last season, but was starting to get back to his best before suffering a season-ending injury. Like Gillead, Stubbs is too good to languish on the sidelines. He deserves to play somewhere.
Wilson has also suffered from Alexander’s arrival and played just 97 minutes in total following the arrival of the City boss. He returns to TNS on loan with some justifiable frustration over his lack of opportunities.
Beyond the Jake Young departure – a saga we cover elsewhere on WOAP – there were no other departures, which given the quality of those in reserve was perhaps a surprise. There were faint rumours of exits for Smith and Oliver, but both remain and will contribute to an almighty battle to play up front. Alexander has Andy Cook, Calum Kavanagh, Smith, Oliver and Sanderson to select from. That is a very, very strong hand.
It was quiet on the incomings, but Cheick Diabate’s arrival on a season long loan from Exeter (who have the option to recall him in January) looks decent. Diabate has emerged through the Exeter youth ranks and played 55 games in two seasons for the League One club. He will cover for the loaned out Sam Stubbs, and try to push for a spot in a defence that has so far performed better than pre-season fears, without looking flawless.
Jay Benn has also arrived on loan from Lincoln City to provide right back cover for Brad Halliday. Bradford-born and having begun his career at Halifax, Benn signed for Lincoln in 2022 but has never featured in the league for the Imps. He spent last season on loan at Solihull Moors in the National League.
And so that’s the window done. Back at the summer fans forum, Ryan Sparks said that the Bantams have “the best budget since we came to League Two and we will be competing to sign top players where we hadn’t been able to before”. Hmm… Well… Evidence of that is not easy to find. Big promises once more. Debatable they’ve been kept. If City don’t succeed this season, the lines of attack are obvious. The script will be easy to follow.
But even without any real marquee signings, this looks to be a very strong Bradford City squad. There are excellent options across the park. And we’re seeing very good players struggle just to get game time. This summer has been a quiet revolution at best. But in the main it all looks pretty smart.
The club is evolving. Getting better. And leaving some behind as the bar is raised. They’ve got a plan, and now they just need to stick to it.
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thats all well and good, however arguably the sum of the parts of those pushed out this week, Gillead, McDonald, young etc far outweigh your shepherds, odours, Sanderson and Richards.
richards as yet to impress since his signing, odour has had three good games in a year, Sanderson has looked lost and without a position in his two cameos, and where does shepherd fit given the arrival of Benn and diabete?
The 2 positions I’m concerned about are back up keeper and centre forward. Think we seem covered in most position’s, but we’ve stared well and just need to play our fringe players ie on Tuesday night to keep fitness levels up. All the best to our players who have left in this window and let’s see where we are come January.
Decent summation. One thing I’m not so sure of is Jason’s assessment that we have a “strong hand”, striker wise. Only Cook guarantees goals. Oliver has never got hoing. Kavanagh, I even said last season when some were getting carried away, that is shooting like Smith incidentally is often weak and straight at the keeper. He first touch is often poor and he keeps giving the ball away. Indeed Pointon has scored as many has him now i think fir us from midfield. Smith gets in good positions but has no confidence when finishing and again huts the keeperfar too often and has missedsome chancesthat have been easier to score. Sanderson we can’t really judge yet, he’s keen but I can’t remember him having a shot yet. So where is the “strong hand”? Indeed the derided and leaving Young has more goals then 3 of those strikers put together.
so I’m crossing everything that Cook doesn’t get injured. And also hoping that our attacking midfielders, an area where I think we are strong, can contribute enough goals to help the strikers.
sorry for the typo’s, I couldn’t find my readers. 🙂
The squad looks good, we were so unbalanced last year but now we have good or adequate cover in all areas (if you include emergency keeper loan market). I imagine with the goings we also have money available for the Jan window.
I think losing Young is a real shame and that he should have got a proper run playing as a Number 9 in this formation. My only conclusion is that Alexander (and others) decided has actually isn’t that good, that his spell at Swindon was a purple patch, and that playing him would expose that. The rumours about his attitude are without any evidence (though I’m sure he could have made more effort to be fit last January if he’d wanted…). I worry that if anything happens to Cook, we don’t have the goals on the bench. With Sanderson, Oliver, Smith the other choices, I’d have rather tried to make a player from Young (and after all, that’s what good coaches/managers do).
Apologies, meant to post this on the article actually about Young (rather than have him dominate the whole transfer window discussion!).
Sorry to pour cold water on all this but for all the comings and goings, I don’t feel that we’re much if any stronger than last season. We seem to to have such a large squad only Cook and possibly Pointon, on his day, are particularly exciting to watch. This afternoon’s match at Grimsby tends to bear this out. Early days, I know but my glass is half empty at the moment
I agree.
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Rupp promised more ‘investment’. A lot took him at his word and expected ‘marquee’ signings. In fact what seems to.have happened is that high waged players have gone and replaced with cheaper players of unknown quality.
I guessed this might happen.
So I don’t think we have a stronger squad than last season certainly as far as central defence is concerned.
Have a look at the latest signings. They have either hardly played any games at this level or in the case of strikers, the goal ratio is low or non existent.
I enjoy watching Walker and Wright when the latter is on it, but yep I think we’ve gone cheap over quality and don’t see any promised increase on budget on the players/squad available unless the recruitment team have been completely conned. But I’m getting the feeling already its the fans that have been again.
platt and young better than we’ve got big mistake no back up for cook hope Alexander got it right but doesn’t look good when r best players have gone
I’m a bit late to this discussion. But I just wanted to give a shout out to Alex Gilliead, who has been one of City’s best performers over the last couple of seasons. Seems a bit daft, on paper, to sell your best-performing players. Isn’t that the point, to have players who play well every week? I get the arguments for trying to switch up the midfield, but I always rated Gilliead for many reasons. He makes good decisions, without having amazing technical skills. He keeps the ball better than almost anyone, in our low possession football team. He can play in several positions. He gives energy and leadership to the team. He’s like two or three players in one. And for a minute there he looked like a future captain. Shame! Hope the new midfield proves me wrong.