By Jason McKeown

At one stage last season, Graham Alexander was at pains to point out that Bradford City were not League One tourists. He was obviously correct in how serious his players were taking things, but it was undeniable that last season had an exciting, novelty feel to it, akin to going on a holiday.

As the saying goes: a change is as good as a rest, and there was something uplifting about swapping the League Two monotony for the freshness of League One, facing unfamiliar opponents and visiting grounds the Bantams had not ventured to for several years.

It will take a while longer for that rebirth feeling to completely go away, and for games against Huddersfield, Luton and Barnsley to feel routine, but there’s also little doubt that, another year on, City’s surroundings will start to feel more regular and normal. They are a year more streetwise and experienced at this level. No longer the new kid in the class. That will inevitably dull some of the exhilaration this season, compared to what was felt over 2025/26. With it, some of the fun will go too.

This coming league season feels more serious. More grown up. Less of an adventure into the unknown. And that will lead to slightly different pressures.

Defeats, when they inevitably happen, will probably hit harder. And perhaps the wins won’t seem as exciting compared to last season. It doesn’t mean this won’t be a brilliant campaign, but there will be less innocence, and results will carry greater weight. Any lingering touristy feel is certainly disappearing.

A year ago, it felt impossible to make any kind of meaningful prediction on how City would fare, meaning there was no clearly definable level of expectation. With a body of League One work now in the bank, that is less the case this season. The annual release of predicted league tables and bookmakers’ odds habitually rank City as play-off contenders. And if City fall short of that lofty aim, there will unavoidably be some sense of anticlimax.

If City had finished 11th last season, for example, it would have felt like a solid achievement. This year, such a placing would seem a disappointment. It still remains difficult to truly place an expectation level on City, but last season proved what they are capable of – and that’s a genie that will be very difficult to put back into the bottle.

There are reasons to fear that repeating or bettering the 2025/26 heroics will be challenging. City were good value for their fourth-place finish last season, but most of their very best work came right at the start – when the Bantams didn’t know the division, and the division didn’t know the Bantams.

City raced out of the traps with a series of eye-catching wins over August and September, picking up 23 points from their first 10 games. That would prove to be 29.9% of their overall points tally for the season. And the 18 goals they scored over those first 10 games accounted for 31% of their overall goal total.

Whilst they couldn’t maintain such high standards, City still made it to the end of 2025 with just three defeats. But from that point on their form notably declined, losing 12 of their last 26 games, including their play-off matches.

And their record against teams who finished in the top half of League One last season is a further example of how their newness to this level was initially a huge advantage, which then began to fade. They won seven, drew three, and lost just one of their first meetings against top-half finishers (the only defeat, a 3-0 thumping to Mansfield Town on New Year’s Day, after they rested several players). The second time they faced top half sides, their record was significantly worse – two wins (over Stockport and Wycombe), three draws and six defeats.

City won only three of their last 12 games overall (including the play-offs). They kept just one clean sheet over the final two months of the campaign (and that came against the relegation-bound and hapless Northampton).

Their achievement in reaching the top six was in spite of, rather than because of, their end of season form.

None of this should take away from just what an achievement it was to finish fourth in their first year at this level, but it does underline that the longer they were part of the scene, the more opposition sides paid them greater respect and worked out how to stop them.

City absolutely won’t have that surprise package element this time around. A year ago Wycombe, Luton, Huddersfield and Cardiff displayed some breathtaking naivety in how they lined up against City, failing to attend to their high press and their diagonal passing towards the rampaging wing-backs. But after Christmas, only Peterborough could be accused of lacking sufficient respect in not making suitable plans to curb City’s threats. Others knew how to stop them.

That trend will surely have been on the minds of the Bradford City brains trust this summer, as they plotted how to improve the team in the wake of the Bolton’s play-off defeat. By the end of last season, City weren’t scoring enough goals, and injuries to key players highlighted a lack of depth that would prove costly.

The summer rebuild – as we covered in more detail here and here on WOAP last week – has been about making City more potent attacking-wise. Adam Phillips adds competition to the wide forward areas, with a proven goal and assist record that, if continued at Valley Parade, will make a big difference. Jake Beesley arrives to try and solve the long-standing problem of a lack of goals from the central striker in Alexander’s 3-4-3. Even if he doesn’t score a hatful himself, Beesley’s greater physical presence offers the focal point for long passes that others who toiled up top last season struggled to provide.

These two additions may also encourage Alexander to continue where he ended last season in trying different formations from the 3-4-3, in an effort to make City more effective and less predictable. There really is an abundance of attacking talent to call on – with Phillips and Beesley joining Antoni Sarcvevic, Bobby Pointon, Kayden Jackson, Will Swan, Stephen Humphrys, Tyreik Wright, Nick Powell and George Lapslie as forward options. On paper it looks like an embarrassment of riches. Will we go two up top? It seems very possible.

For it to work City will need to be as good off the ball as they are on it, especially with the long-term trend of the Bantams being more effective with less possession compared to games where they have more than 50% of the ball. That is why central midfield has been such a talking point all summer. The departures of both Max Power and Jenson Metcalfe, plus the curious decision to ship off Tommy Leigh on a season-long loan, have left big holes to fill.

If Brazil’s disappointing World Cup showing taught us anything, it’s that a side packed with attacking talent can only succeed if there is a plan to win possession – and huge gaps aren’t left in the middle of the park. Alexander – who built a hugely successful playing career as a central midfielder – is not the sort of manager to overlook such a key part of the team. But the solutions City are putting forward are certainly curious.

Callum Connolly, who has spent the last four seasons applying himself very well as a central defender, has been recruited to play central midfield. Sarcevic is set to drop deeper to play alongside him (with Henry Cartwright competing for a place), in a slight tweak from the more collaborative midfield style of Power and Metcalfe, who equally shared out defensive and attacking responsibilities.

Sarcevic will be expected to be more of a number 8 than a number 6, offering City more presence in the final third but also leaving Connolly with greater defensive responsibility and ground to cover. It looked good against League Two Rochdale in the cup last week. But League One is another level.

This midfield approach could prove to be a stroke of genius from the club, or it could be a negligent move that badly hampers the season. With Ryan Sparks recently stating the club wants to sign another central midfielder, City aren’t necessarily living or dying with this approach. Still, for now, Connolly might just be the most important player at the club. We will watch his performances with especially keen interest.

The challenges replacing central midfield have in many ways soundtracked the summer. Alexander has spoken more than once about what a challenging close season it has been. It’s certainly in contrast to a year ago, where City looked really prepared in pre-season and because of it were able to hit the ground running.

Perhaps, with changes to playing budget rules under the Salary Cost Management Protocol (SCMP), some disruption was inevitable. And even if City look less ready this time around, they’re probably in decent company – if not still ahead of many. This has been a slightly odd close season in general for English football, with an unusual trend of clubs changing managers in pre-season and others struggling to sign players.

Indeed, the challenge posed by the rest of the League One looks tricky to fully judge. Oxford come down from the Championship with a transfer embargo that looks like it has undermined their hopes of going straight back up, before a ball is even kicked. Sheffield Wednesday have fresh owners but have a huge rebuilding job. Leicester have endured back-to-back relegations and retain many members of a squad that unforgivably downed tools last season. Stockport have swapped the terrific David Challinor for Jimmy McNulty at Rochdale, with previously high budgets seemingly scaled back. Plymouth and Stevenage have lost important players.

If the summer vibes at Valley Parade haven’t quite felt as universally strong compared to last season, there’s plenty of other EFL fanbases who would gladly swap their troubles for ours. And perhaps that’s why, outside of BD8 at least, there is plenty of expectation that City will once again figure in the promotion race.

Which leaves the question: what do we City supporters expect?

Myself, I think a bumpier ride can’t be ruled out. As we’ve already covered on WOAP recently, City’s playing budget is midtable. And though every year always unearths teams who confound financial expectations, it’s unfair to demand City overachieve.

But at the same time, it will be hard not to judge City’s campaign against what they accomplished last season.

And it’s not wildly optimistic to believe they can do something similar. They’ve improved their options at the back (though some right wing-back cover wouldn’t go amiss). They’ve added depth up front, which should reverse their declining goal output from the second half of last season. They can evolve their set-up and approach to become more difficult to stop again. So if they’ve pulled off something truly clever in midfield, they’ll be well equipped to give anyone a game.

Ultimately, we fall back on something not too dissimilar to the eve of last season: guarded optimism. The challenge is now better understood. And though City’s huge success last term robs them of the ability to surprise their opponents, and us supporters, this time around, there are other ways to deliver good times.

A more grown-up, grounded season lies ahead. But that doesn’t mean it can’t prove even more successful.

Categories: Opinion, Previews

Tags: 2026/27, BCAFC