By Jason McKeown

Look back on any recent Bradford City season and the foundations that defined it can be traced back to the summer transfer window. The campaigns that ended in success were usually built on smart recruitment and clear planning. The ones that fell short rarely escaped the consequences of mistakes made before the season had properly got going.

It’s one of the quirks of modern football, and the transfer window, that clubs can find themselves locked onto a particular path before a competitive ball has even been kicked. By the time weaknesses become apparent, January is often too far away to provide anything more than a partial fix.

That is why Tuesday’s transfer deadline carries such significance for Bradford City. Once the window closes, the squad is largely set. The major decisions have been made. What follows over the next nine months, including inevitable setbacks like Saturday’s defeat at Plymouth, will put those decisions, and the thinking behind them, to the test.

With the expectation of some late moves before 11pm on Tuesday, there have been enough positive signs to suggest City’s recruitment work is heading in the right direction.

City have so far made nine new signings this window, with many new faces quickly hitting the ground running and offering strong early indications of being upgrades on those whose places they’ve taken. The Bantams have made a solid start to the campaign, although defeat at Plymouth has inevitably dampened the mood. Overall, they’ve shown a clear identity and purpose that belies the fact many of these players have only just started playing together.

There is a long, long way to go, but there have been enough encouraging early signs to justify optimism.

Should that initial optimism be maintained, this will be the third successive summer in which City can claim to have recruited well. It is surely no coincidence that each has featured the same key figures shaping the strategy.

There is evidently a shared understanding of where the squad needs strengthening and the type of player capable of improving it. That synchronisation between manager Graham Alexander, head of recruitment Stephen Gent, head of football operations David Sharpe, chief executive Ryan Sparks and chairman Stefan Rupp proved mightily effective in the summers of 2024 and 2025. The early evidence suggests it may be paying off again in 2026.

It’s worth comparing this joined-up approach with the last Bradford City season that didn’t go to plan, where again the roots of failure can be seen in the summer transfer window that led into it. In 2023, Mark Hughes was still the City manager after the bitter disappointment of the play-off defeat to Carlisle. For 2023/24, Hughes wanted to switch formation from his 4-2-3-1 set-up to 3-5-2. Yet the recruitment required to support that change appeared disjointed, particularly in attack. Pre-season injuries contributed to Hughes beginning the campaign with a 3-4-3, but without the players needed to make it work. A poor start followed and ultimately cost him his job.

Hughes, Gent and the club’s other decision-makers did not appear to be working from the same plan. To an extent, it doesn’t matter who was right or wrong. The important point is that the vision was fragmented, and the consequences were obvious.

What City have built since looks very different: a joined-up football operation in which each key figure is working towards the same objectives.

City have clearly leaned on personal relationships in recent years, with several arrivals having previously worked with Alexander, Sharpe or Gent. It made sense. Their characters could be vouched for, and their strengths and weaknesses were understood before contracts were signed.

But no recruitment strategy can depend on familiar names forever. The longer the key recruitment figures remain at City, the fewer recent relationships they will have with potentially suitable targets elsewhere.

That’s why data is evidently at the heart of what City are trying to build, and perhaps this summer even more so. Take the signing of Callum Connolly. After Max Power and Jenson Metcalfe’s exits, City needed to rebuild their midfield. They certainly weren’t the only League One club who went into this window with central midfielders high on their shopping list, but the answer they’ve found probably wasn’t on many others’ radars.

This is where analytical thinking must have played a part. Connolly spent his last four seasons playing as a centre back and evidently doing it well. But when City studied who could offer them the positional, pressing and passing numbers they want from that position, Connolly must have scored highly. And that will have led to an unconventional route to fixing the Power problem.

It’s still early days, but there have been enough glimpses to understand why City were attracted to the move.

This approach is likely to have influenced much of the other business. Jon McCracken’s data from Dundee last season is impressive. Adam Phillips’ end product is well-known, while Macaulay Gillesphey has a strong track record. Henry Cartwright, George Pratt and Reece Welch arrived with less established reputations, but each seemingly ticked the boxes City’s recruitment team were looking for.

Unlike the previous two summer windows, when the likes of Antoni Sarcevic, Ibou Touray, Max Power, Nick Powell, Stephen Humphrys and Will Swan arrived with existing connections to key City figures, this year’s recruitment has no obvious trace of being built around previous relationships.

That doesn’t mean contacts have become irrelevant. It does suggest City are becoming less dependent on them.

Then there’s Jake Beesley, who follows a similar pattern of clearly offering exactly what City want from a centre forward in this set up – in terms of track record and data. While Beesley is still waiting for his first goal, there have already been signs of the attributes that persuaded City to pursue him so persistently. He appears to offer what they were missing, but the pursuit of the 29-year-old also tells us something about a less successful element of City’s recruitment.

January.

On BBC Radio Leeds’ Bradford City podcast, Paul Hudson recently provided an interesting “hot take” that if Beesley had been signed in January, the Bantams would have got promoted last season. It’s certainly a good debate. And though it’s questionable if City would have got past Final Boss Bolton Wanderers, even with Beesley leading the line, we can probably all agree they would have stood a better chance.

City wanted Beesley in January, but Burton rejected their approach. They instead turned to Paul Mullin, Kayden Jackson and Ethan Wheatley. Jackson was the only one to make a meaningful impression, with the others never truly earning Alexander’s trust.

January will understandably be remembered as an underwhelming window. But the subsequent arrival of Beesley offers a different perspective. City failed to land their preferred target, yet resisted the temptation to bind themselves to an unsuitable alternative.

Jackson was the only January arrival contracted beyond the end of the season. That allowed City to move on quickly from the deals that did not work, begin the summer with a cleaner slate and return for the striker they had wanted all along in Beesley.

Whether that patience proves wise will ultimately depend on what happens next. If City’s flying start fades and Beesley’s influence diminishes, January will continue to look like a missed opportunity. But if this squad sustains its early promise, keeping their powder dry may come to look less like indecision and more like discipline.

As Tuesday’s deadline approaches, City appear to be tidying the edges of the squad rather than searching desperately for major pieces. Saturday’s defeat understandably throws that thinking into question, but it’s unlikely the club will panic to one defeat and change tact.

Additional wing-back depth is the clearest requirement, with 20-year-old Cypriot Harry Mills, released by Brighton this summer, expected to sign. The rumours around 35-year-old Sam Clucas training with the club, or 20-year-old QPR Kieran Morgan joining on loan, suggest further cover in midfield is on the cards.

George Pratt’s loan move from Blackburn has already given Alexander six recognised centre-backs for the three positions, with Touray required primarily at left wing-back during Tyreik Wright’s absence.

There could also be departures. Stephen Humphrys appears to be out of favour, while Joe Wright may be too far from the first-team picture for a player of his standing. Any exit could bring the need for a replacement, but with City facing Cambridge during the final hours of the window, the club will surely want to avoid a frantic late scramble.

Whatever happens in the final hours, the most important work was completed long before the deadline. The new arrivals were given time to settle, the team began the season with a clear identity and Alexander has not been forced to spend August filling obvious holes.

If the early potential of this side is realised, the summer of 2026 will be remembered as a third successive window in which Bradford City recruited with intelligence and purpose.

More significantly, it will offer further evidence that the club’s improved transfer business is not the product of one manager, one executive or one inspired signing. It comes from a group of decision-makers working from the same plan.

City’s path for the season has largely been set. Whether it proves to be the right one will depend not on the decisions made over the next few days, but on those already taken over the past few months.

Categories: Opinion

Tags: BCAFC