By Jason McKeown

Confidence was high at Valley Parade during the summer of 2008. Bradford City had ended a challenging first season back in League Two in encouraging form. There was belief rookie boss Stuart McCall was now better equipped to succeed. Most crucially of all, joint-owner Mark Lawn had loaned the club an extra £1 million to bolster the playing squad.

And such was the high conviction that City could succeed, the other joint-owner, Julian Rhodes, made a bold public declaration. The aim, he said, was not merely to climb out of League Two, but to go straight through League One after. “Our realistic target is back-to-back promotions,” Rhodes told the Telegraph & Argus. “People might think Rhodes is off his rocker again but there’s absolutely no reason why we can’t get to the Championship very quickly and then be a force in that division.”

It would quickly prove to be overoptimism from Rhodes. City did not go up from League Two that season. Or the season after that. Or the season after that. In fact, it took another five years to get promoted, and even then back-to-back glory did not follow.

Nearly two decades on from Rhodes’ conviction that City could get to the Championship very quickly, they are still yet to get there.

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Last season, for the first time in almost a decade, you could visibly see it. The Championship. Not a distant pipe dream. Not a dot on the horizon. Not something you had to imagine. But there, right in front of us, almost within reach. Until a dull thud on the top of our head forced us to notice that glass ceiling above us.

But it’s still visible to the naked eye. Seemingly achievable with just a bit more stretching. And how strong is that glass on the ceiling anyway? Because glass easily breaks, if you apply the right amount of force.

We might be about to find out.

Ever since Bradford City’s relegation from the second tier in 2004, the Championship has felt like the club’s end goal. As Rhodes’ 2008 declaration shows, even when the Bantams have languished in League Two, sights were set on something higher than merely climbing back to the third tier.

The sizeable Valley Parade, redeveloped for far more glamorous occasions than entertaining Forest Green or Dagenham. The bustling fanbase, a welcome legacy of the Geoffrey Richmond era, nurtured by Rhodes and Lawn’s affordable season ticket prices, and blossoming further under Stefan Rupp and Ryan Sparks. The potential of Bradford as a city.

So much of Bradford City screams Championship. Although there’s one glaring weakness – their overall performance on the pitch. And so 22 years have passed since City’s last game in the second tier.

Potential unfulfilled.

And time is passing a little too quickly. I was 22 years old myself, and recently out of university, the year City went down from Division One (it wasn’t even called the Championship then). Marriage. A first proper job. A career. Two children. Almost half a lifetime watching City in the lower tiers. You will have your own life journey where City’s being in the bottom two tiers is one of the few constants. Many of the City fans who turn up to Valley Parade on matchdays weren’t even born.

City nearly got back to the Championship in the mid-2010s, before stuffing it all up. Dark days of Edin Rahic, Covid and Derek Adams followed. Resets led to repeats. New dawns never turned into light. And the dreams of Championship football seemed more foolhardy than ever.

Until it finally changed, and changed magnificently.

Even as recently as last August, the journey to the Championship felt long and fraught. But as City’s bright start to League One proved more than a flash in the pan, the destination was suddenly ahead. Bolton represented the proverbial glass ceiling, triumphing through a collection of small margins that added up to an arm’s length dismissal of City’s aspirations.

But the intentions haven’t gone away.

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There are still reasons to fear it’s beyond City. They remain a club who don’t own their own ground. The 25-year lease to rent Valley Parade was signed during that final season in the second tier. The deal expires in the next two years and – despite positive noises about buying back the ground – the club looks likely to renew it, which could prove just as problematic.

They don’t own their own training ground either, with a similar vague ambition stated to change their midweek workplace.

These rental commitments hinder City’s financial might, leaving them with a competitive yet mid-table budget. As we’ve recently discussed when talking about Graham Alexander, just to be able to see the bright lights of the Championship as closely as we did last season represents an overachievement.

But there are encouraging signs too. The Bradford City supporter base has shown impressive faith to stick with the club in such large numbers during desperate times. Recent success on the field has fuelled the highest average attendances for over a century. It’s become genuinely tough to get tickets for away games – an unprecedented situation, even compared to the heady Premier League days. The atmospheres on matchdays are incredible, with the feelgood vibes spreading throughout the city and leading to memorable moments like the Manningham Lane marches to the stadium.

It’s hard to remember a time when support for Bradford City felt this widespread, this passionate and this united. The club has had more notable periods of success than this, but the affection that abounds in the current day feels louder and more colourful.

Yet like Rhodes’ target in 2008, these upward curve moments give City an important weapon. Momentum is huge in football but especially at Valley Parade. When City can keep moving forwards and spark a confident, boisterous atmosphere amongst fans, they develop a powerful weapon that can help to level disparities in budgets with their rivals. In the 1980s, 1990s and 2010s, City had strong periods of on the field progressivism where success bred success.

Right now they’re in another bubble of impetus, and one of the biggest challenges they face is not letting that bubble burst.

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The current buoyant mood comes from success creating confidence, and confidence creating belief.

Stefan Rupp has largely answered many of his critics through greater financial commitment and engagement. Ryan Sparks has overseen a commercial transformation that now stretches across the Atlantic with American sponsors. Stephen Gent has repeatedly demonstrated an eye for recruitment. David Sharpe and Graham Alexander command enormous respect. The players themselves are loved. Collectively, they have restored belief. And it all fuels an overarching confidence that the resurgence of the past two seasons still has further to go.

Which brings us back to Julian Rhodes’ bold prediction in 2008. Seventeen years later, Bradford City are still waiting for the Championship to become reality. Yet for the first time in a very long time, it no longer feels like wishful thinking. Can we finally end the near quarter of a century in lower league wilderness? Can we take our place alongside clubs of similar size and stature, who aren’t quite big enough for the Premier League but are ideally set up to make the Championship their home?

This season, we might get an answer to those questions. Maybe not in breaking that glass ceiling, but in adding some cracks and proving our durability.

Everything about the last decade has shown that it’s really difficult just to get to this position, and a whole lot easier to retreat back to stinking out the place in League Two. And when we’ve come so far to catch a glimpse of what for us feels like our natural home, it’s tantalising to see how close we are to turning distant dreams into reality.

So we stand. We stare. We reach out. We can almost touch it. It’s there, right in front of us. And with the thrust of momentum behind us, we might just have enough force to smash through that glass.

Categories: Opinion

Tags: BCAFC