Bradford City Season Preview: younger squad

Bradford City have become League One’s perennial bridesmaids. They have enjoyed two impressive campaigns under Phil Parkinson then latterly Stuart McCall, but both ended in play-off heartache at the hands of Millwall. How do Bantams fams reflect on the last two years? The Football Lab speaks to Katie Whyatt from Width of a Post ahead of the new season.

Pretty content, all things considered. No one really expected them to be anywhere near the play offs last season – given the disruption of the summer, with Parkinson leaving, the way they assembled a squad of really steely characters who played quality football was so impressive, and went beyond pretty much every conceivable expectation. The outcome – a play off final – was as impressive as the manner in which they did it.

It may be understandable that left-back James Meredith has signed for a Championship club. However, are fans disappointed that centre-back Rory McArdle has gone to a direct League One rival?

I think McArdle leaving was the most testing one, for the fans. The owners have a remit of the type of players they want to bring in – young, quick, attacking – and initially, when City lost Meredith, Mark Marshall and Rory McArdle in succession, I think people became very suspicious of that brief. I think now, with City having signed Dominic Poleon, Jake Reeves and Shay McCartan – it almost feels like everyone’s more receptive to that strategy, because they can see it more clearly. McArdle had a bit of a ‘comfort blanket’ quality about him, so to let him go without necessarily knowing what the alternative was going to look like – that jarred for a lot of people. Some fans didn’t want to give a lengthy contract to an ageing McArdle but some pointed out that you know what you’re getting with him – my friend used the words ‘proven commodity’. They’re both valid points, but I think the main thing is that we’ll just miss him. He was just great, end of – then he scored the winning goal in the play off semis and everyone was, like, of course.

New signing Matt Kilgallon has extended his contract for another year. Given his injury problems, do you expect Romain Vincelot to partner Nat Knight-Percival in a lot of games?

I don’t think McCall will go into this season with reservations about Killgallon’s injury history – although Vincelot as a centre half was almost a lucky accident last time out. McArdle was injured for the opener, Vincelot went in at centre half – and this will bring my Bradford accent out, but he was a proper ball-playing centre half, to the point you couldn’t really leave him out the team for the first half of the season. There’s a lot to consider – for instance, McCall went for a back three a couple of times last season, and Vincelot often went into the defence when they tried that. I think McCall’s initial vision was to use Vincelot to sculpt his midfield, and maybe he’ll revert to that idea more often this season – with Reeves in there, and Nicky Law, the midfield could be really strong unit again. I think McCall will be thinking in terms of the wider team set-up, more than Killgallon sustaining the injury he did last year.

Josh Cullen’s loan from West Ham has expired. Can new signing from AFC Wimbledon, Jake Reeves, control midfields in his absence?

Cullen leaves a big hole to fill, and for that reason Jake Reeves is the one I’m most curious about this summer. From what I’ve read, he sounds like a Josh Cullen-Billy Clarke combo: he can run a midfield, but he can also find those pockets of space and be quite wily in the box, how Clarke was at his best. I’ve only seen Reeves once in City colours – I saw him at the Park Avenue friendly last week and it felt at times like he was one or two steps ahead of everyone else, like other players found him quite hard to read – there was maybe a bit of the Billy Knott about him, not always making the right choice but definitely bringing ambition. But you can’t judge a player on one game – it wasn’t a great team performance – and Wimbledon fans were raving about him.

Billy Clarke and Mark Marshall have left for Charlton. Will you miss their creativity?

Erm… Potentially yes and potentially no. Marshall became a real star last season – being two-footed is always desirable, but he manipulated the ball so well in tight areas and was a pleasure to watch at times, as he was so nippy and inventive. Clarke was a player of real intelligence and when he was on it, he was, again, so impressive: Oldham at home early on in the season, and the Fleetwood play off first leg, saw him combine craft and guile to deliver some really accomplished performances. Nicky Law and James Meredith became really natural allies for Clarke and he was always one of my favourite ones to watch because he was so clever – but his downfall was that he couldn’t always pull it together.

The squad’s identity pretty much lived in the midfield, last season – Law, Cullen, Marshall – and with James Meredith. Three of the big four I’ve mentioned there – the four they really couldn’t afford to lose last season – have gone, and, as exciting as their replacements are, the bottom (and unexciting, straight-batted) line is you’re only going to be able to tell if they’re big misses halfway into the season. McCall is ultimately a really astute coach and I wonder if that will be a more telling factor than just the players he has to work with.

Shay McCartan found excellent form for Accrington Stanley at the end of last season. An exciting signing?

Yeah, definitely. I’ve only seen him once in the flesh but he did look sharp. I think McCall has some really exciting strikers to work with this season, especially when you factor in Charlie Wyke and Alex Jones. You consider the tactical nous McCall has, too, and it will make for a really unpredictable forward line.

Forwards Paul Taylor and Dominic Poleon arrive after mixed seasons in League One. Is it debateable as to whether they will be top six quality?

Maybe? I think ‘top six quality’ is almost a funny thing to try and wrangle with at City because so much of it comes down to coaching. Charlie Wyke and Alex Jones felt like big statement signings – I think they were both their clubs’ top scorers at the time. Last summer, City went for players who had been the standout performers of middling teams – Nat Knight-Percival from Shrewsbury, Tim Dieng from Oldham – and people raised eyebrows about that approach, but it worked.

No one expected Mark Marshall to make a real contribution last season but he finished as the Player of the Year in a side with any number of contenders, thanks largely to Stuart McCall’s playing style and man-management. With someone whose strengths lie in his coaching, like McCall, you have to maybe suspend that idea of a conventional top six player. McCall can really take players on and, fundamentally, I trust Greg Abbott as a scout.

The average age of players leaving is 28, while that of players signed is 22. Has this quest for high sell-on values and financial sustainability weakened your squad in the short-term?

I think there’s something a bit misplaced in putting ‘high sell-on values’ and ‘financial sustainability’ at the centre of the vision – to put them there might almost suggest a lack of ambition, which is absolutely not the case, given the amount of money the board have put in over the last two windows. The owners used a phrase a while ago that was about “creating a young team that stays together for years” – whether that necessitates a step back in the short term is something we’ll only find out come August. But the important thing to remember is that Reeves has over 180 games under his belt, McCartan over 130, Alex Gilliead has plenty of experience – they’re not players without form and history. They’ve already cut their teeth in the lower leagues, and then the players City have retained – Law, Vincelot, Knight-Percival – are going to be really important in easing that carryover period. Trading off experience is always a risk but equally I think top six expectations are still probably valid.

What are your thoughts ahead of the League One season as a whole? Any potential dark horses for you?

I’m probably more ‘intrigued’, if that’s the right word. I think Pep Clotet at Oxford is going to be a really interesting arc – Michael Appleton had had the success he’d had there, then left for the assistant’s job at Leicester. Clotet has the managerial experience from abroad but the interesting thing for me, having covered Leeds last season, is how Garry Monk and Clotet will fare at their respective clubs now they’ve been split up. I thought Monk was good for Leeds and he always spoke well when he was there – Boro are not a League One club, obviously, but they’re part of that little story, I guess, now. Mark Cullen stood out for Blackpool during those play off games, so I’m wondering what he’ll be like in League One – City play Blackpool on the opening day, conveniently. Everyone is backing Blackburn to have a really strong season and I think it’s difficult to disagree – and I hope they do, given the stuff they’ve had to put up with.

Where will you finish?

I think last season I told you I’d be happy with a mid-table finish and confidence they were heading in the right direction, or something along those lines – so I’m clearly not the best person to ask about this sort of thing! In order to make sure I have all bases covered, I’m going, League One winners, League Cup winners, FA Cup winners, Checkatrade Trophy winners, and then UEFA will be so startled by City’s progress that they’ll boot Juventus out the Champions League final, City will take their place, win that, then football will decide it has seen all there is to see, professional competition will cease and we will all go back to doing other things with our lives. Failing that, I think they’ve got top six potential and we know how good McCall is, as a coach and manager – I think play offs should definitely be the target.

The Football Lab’s Verdict

McCartan and Reeves arrive at Bradford with the quality to light up the division. With stalwarts leaving Valley Parade though, the leadership of Vincelot and Law will be essential to their promotion prospects. 5th