By Jason McKeown

There is an episode in The Simpsons were a troubled Lisa goes to a jazz club to watch a violinist play. The performer is terrible, and an unimpressed man on the table next to Lisa sighs, “Sounds like she’s hitting a baby with a cat.”

A sympathetic Lisa, trying to find good in her world, attempts to stick up for the musician and responds, “You have to listen to the notes she’s NOT playing.”

I’m reminded of that heartfelt, charitable spin from Lisa with the news Vadaine Oliver has departed Bradford City to join Shrewsbury Town on loan until the end of the season. Oliver moves to the League One strugglers after two and a half seasons at Valley Parade that have been less than exemplary. Just 17 starts, 47 sub appearances. Only seven goals in all competitions. Just two this season, and those were against a Mansfield reserve side and non-league Aldershot in the cups. One goal the campaign before – and that coming against Liverpool’s kids. Oliver hasn’t netted in the EFL since 1 January 2023 – more than two years ago.

And this all comes after he was a big signing in the summer of 2022, with a wage packet to match. There’s been plenty of rumours and in-the-knows making it clear Oliver is well compensated. Who knows what the truth is, but persuading Oliver to drop down to League Two – 12 months after he’d scored 20 goals in a season for League One Gillingham – wouldn’t have been easy and won’t have come cheap. All in all, it’s hard to make any case that Oliver has proved value for money. Pound for pound, possibly one of the worst signings of the last eight years – and there’s plenty of competition for that title.

But like Lisa Simpson’s overly generous outlook, maybe we should find something nice to say about Oliver’s time at Bradford City. Because as much as the 33-year-old failed to live up to expectations – and as little as he found the net in claret and amber – his presence at Valley Parade did have some benefits. As Lisa herself might argue if ever asked to jump to Oliver’s defence, “You have to look for the goals he DIDN’T score.”

Because as much as Oliver never sprung to life at Bradford City, he did fire up those around him. Specifically Andy Cook. It’s easy to forget now, after two and a half years where City’s prolific number 9 has been charging up the club’s all-time scorers list, but in the summer of 2022 Cook’s future at Valley Parade was in some doubt. The 2021/22 season – which began under Derek Adams and ended with Mark Hughes in charge – was okay from the player, but not exactly spectacular. 12 goals, and only two of them coming after January. As Hughes spent the end of the season assessing what was needed to build a promotion-winning side in the summer, Cook was demoted from the starting XI and watched on as Lee Angol led the line for the final three games of the season.

And so as Hughes and new head of recruitment Stephen Gent worked together that summer to build a new team, in arrived Oliver – and with it a big question mark appeared over Cook. There was a weird day where someone on social media claimed they’d just seen Cook inside the Barrow club shop, prompting a flurry of speculation. It turned out to be false, but enquiries to those close to the club came back with noises that Cook had a big decision to make about his future. It absolutely appeared to be a situation where if Cook requested to leave, the club wouldn’t put up much of a fight to stop him.

The suspicion Cook’s days were numbered was added to on the opening day of the season, where Oliver went straight into the starting line up for the visit of Doncaster Rovers. Cook only on the bench. Hughes’ strong preference for a 4-2-3-1 meant there was never going to be room for them both to start. And you don’t commit a huge sum of your budget persuading Oliver to drop down without intending to make him your main man, do you?

But this is where the goals that Oliver did not score began to have a positive effect. Because rather than scuttle off to Barrow or somewhere else to get game time, Cook treated the presence of Oliver as a wake up call. He had found things a bit too comfortable in 2021/22. Where even without firing on all cylinders, he was such a cut above every other forward that his place was rarely in doubt. He wasn’t fat…but he didn’t exactly look athletic either. He’d let things slide, and now he was paying the price. But he used this all of this as his motivation.

So even though Oliver continued in the next game away at Barrow, Cook came on as sub and found the back of the net late on. A few days later, Cook started in a home cup tie against Hull. He scored again. Twice in fact. It earned him a start ahead of Oliver for the Saturday home game against Newport. Oliver was brought back in for the following Tuesday night trip to Colchester, and again underwhelmed as they lost. In the match report of that game I wrote that Oliver “looks completely unsuited to what City are trying to do. This is a targetman asked to lead the line in a side who play it on the floor. In the 79 minutes of action before he was finally put out of his misery, Oliver had just 23 touches of the ball. It’s very early days and he will surely improve, but so far he looks a poor signing.”

(Narrator to audience: he didn’t improve.)

Cook was back up front the Saturday after, away to Hartlepool, and he scored another brace. And suddenly, there was no doubt who should be first choice striker for Hughes. After six games, Oliver and Cook had each started three times. City had failed to win any Oliver started (D1 L2) and won all of the games that Cook had played from the start. Oh, and Cook had five goals to his name – Oliver zero.

So the pattern was set. What followed was Cook in blistering form. Goal following goal. Into double figures by the end of September. Past his entire 2021/22 haul by mid-October. 16 before Christmas. 31 by the season’s end. City were pushing for promotion, and Cook was the main man.

During that period, we were given an insight into Cook’s mindset when he admitted to the Telegraph & Argus he had let himself get out of shape in 2021/22, “I should never have got the way I did. I can only blame myself for that. Last year we didn’t have as good a competition for places…If you’re underperforming and there’s nobody to take your place, then you’re (still) going to play.”

And what was different in 2022/23? Big V of course. Cook added, “When Vadaine came in, it just made me want to work harder and try and make that spot mine. I wanted to be the main man. Everyone wants to play. I’m sure Vadaine’s come in and wants to be the main man as well.”

And that’s where the Oliver signing can be argued – with a huge, huge dollop of twisted spin that would make even Karoline Leavitt blush – as being successful. The notes the violinist in the Simpsons wasn’t playing. The goals Oliver wasn’t scoring. Oliver spurred Cook on to produce the best form of his life. To score 65 and assist 16 out of the 196 Bradford City goals managed between July 2022 and December 2024. And yeah, I know, the investment in Oliver is a pretty expensive motivational tool, but it is at least something.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t mask the fact that Oliver’s contribution in a Bradford City shirt has fallen well short of what was needed. He didn’t seem to adapt to his new surroundings, allowing himself to be quickly left in Cook’s shadow. And though opportunities became more limited, they weren’t completely sparse. Oliver had the chance to salvage the situation, but couldn’t take it. He had unknowingly raised the bar, and now he was failing reach the higher standards he was inspiring in others.

The technical, passing style of football Hughes preferred just didn’t suit Oliver. It wasn’t what he was used to under Steve Evans’ direct Gillingham, where he had been much more successful. But even under Graham Alexander – with a slightly more route one style and the greater opportunity for an opening, given the current City boss’ preference to play two up top – Oliver still didn’t compete for a first team spot as strongly as anyone would like.

For most of the past two and half years, the best status Oliver has achieved is bit-part player. The understudy to Cook, who came on for the final 15-20 minutes, after the main man had run himself into the ground and (invariably) scored one or two goals. Oliver was a useful sub in seeing games out, but the fact he only ever managed one goal from the bench – the stoppage time equaliser of a 2-2 home draw with Wimbledon in September 2022 – meant he wasn’t often seen as the answer when City weren’t winning and needed a goal.

It was especially unfortunate for Olivier that he got a bad injury in April 2023. His bit part role was missed at the end of that season as City lost out on automatic promotion and lost in the play offs, with Cook now having to play the full 90 of every game and, with it, dipping ever so slightly below his best (Cook scored in only three of the final eight games, which by his high standards was a fall off). In 2023/24, Cook started slowly and got injured himself. And at one point the situation was so desperate, young Aston Villa loanee winger Chisom Afoka was picked on his own up front.

Oliver would have had a real opportunity here to become the main man, but he was still injured on the sidelines. By the time he came back, Cook was fit again and had rediscovered some semblance of form. And so once more, bit-part player remained the best Oliver could hope for.

Oliver was reunited with Evans this time last year, when he was loaned to Stevenage. He failed to score a single goal in 14 appearances for Boro. Evans went back to Rotherham, and so at the end of last season Oliver went back to West Yorkshire. Still another year to go on a three-year deal that had proven to be such a foolish mistake by the club. It was clear City and Alexander wanted to offload Oliver last summer. But there were no takers. A lack of form for two years, and those high wages. Oliver was not an attractive proposition to take on.

So 2024/25 became just like 2022/23 for Oliver, only with even less game time. Cook was back to his best, Oliver little more than an occasionally useful sub and guy to start in the cups. Just 162 minutes of league action and one League Two start (away at Fleetwood, where he was very poor and hauled off at half time).

It said it all that, even when Cook suffered a serious ACL injury that ended his season, no one considered Oliver to be the answer. Finally though, another club has come knocking to give Oliver a home. At Shrewsbury, Oliver will be playing for a manager in Gareth Ainsworth who is known as direct. Good luck to him. Given that three-year deal finally comes to an end this summer, Oliver has played his last game for Bradford City. And ultimately no one – including the player himself – will be sad about that.

It is, without doubt, a spectacularly poor piece of recruitment from City. With 31 goals from 93 appearances over two years at Gillingham before Gent and Hughes swooped, maybe you could understand why Oliver was targeted. But was enough thought really paid to whether he would suit the style of football Hughes wanted to implement? Or the fact that, prior to joining Gillingham, Oliver had never scored more than seven league goals in a season for an EFL club? His record at Crewe, Mansfield, York, Notts County, Morecambe and Northampton had been extremely patchy. This was not a player with a long-term proven record. And at 30-years-old when he joined, dishing out a three-year deal was…interesting.  

Oliver is a throwback player during a period where lower league football – and the Bantams – have tried to be more modern. More like Pep. Firstly with Hughes’ possession-based approach, and more recently with Alexander’s high press strategy. Neither plan has suited Oliver. He is a targetman trapped in the wrong era, waiting for long ball football to become in vogue again.

Still though, he wasn’t a total let down. Oliver was signed because Bradford City needed a striker to score lots of goals. And that is exactly what happened after he arrived. So by that metric, you have say it all kind of worked out for the best.

Now let’s never speak of it again.

___________________________________

January window WOAP coverage

Crichlow is back hoping to buck the trend of returning Bradford City loanees

Reviewing Bradford City’s transfer window – part one, what’s happened so far

Reviewing Bradford City’s transfer window – part two, what still needs to happen

Categories: News, Opinion

Tags: BCAFC, Vadaine Oliver