BfB

Things go well on the field for Bradford City with a 3-2 win over Wimbledon rendering the exit of Adam Wilson on Transfer Deadline Day 2025 something of an uninteresting footnote with the former Newcastle United and TNS winger long since reduced in the narrative of Bradford City.

Wilson arrived in August 2023 on a three-year deal and one could see where he might fit in Mark Hughes’ formation that relied on a row of speedy players behind Andy Cook, giving speed to the reliable but slow striker, but with Hughes departing two months, Wilson found himself in unfamiliar ground.

New manager Graham Alexander could not stand accused of not giving Wilson a chance but Wilson, other than an equalising goal which came between Hughes and Alexander against Wrexham in October 2023, did not suggest himself.

That Wrexham goal was a pivot moment for Wilson. From that moment, and with a new manager to arrive, he could begin to show the type of play which had attracted the club to him, but in retrospect the goal is his high watermark. It is the actualised Adam Wilson.

Harsh

Which sounds like a criticism of the then twenty-three, now twenty-five-year-old, but is not intended to be. Moving clubs, moving up in football, moving between managers are challenging situations and not ones which every footballer can excel in. Wilson spent much of last season on loan back at TNS in Wales showing the exact profile of potential which encouraged City to become interested.

There is an assumption in football that potential is actual and every played signed will be the best version of themselves. As transfer deadline day rambles on Alexander Isak leaves City’s League Cup third round opponents Newcastle United for Liverpool with the hope being that an already great player will somehow become better by virtue of his not being over twenty-six. I believe his replacement on Tyneside is one of the most exciting players to join any English club in years, but that too is a symptom of the overvaluing of potential.

Wilson represents some reality, and a common one, that potential can go unrealised.

Wasted

Which is not to accuse Wilson of wasting the promise he showed but for all the excitement that comes with a new recruit, the counter is that for many reasons potential is not realised. A squad needs a third reserve and some players are that, and while they aspire to more, they do not achieve it.

In the case of Wilson, City allow his exit with best wishes which seem sincere. Always though, there is a simmering resentment to the unrealised potential. The idea that someone – be it player, or coaching, or management – could have taken some approach which would have seen promise actualised. More of a run of games, more managerial backing, more of something.

Maybe a goal against Wrexham and a dozen or so games is the best that Adam Wilson – in that time and place – could have expected. Perhaps there are no depths to be plumbed, no ceiling to be smashed, just a footballer doing a job as best he could, for a while.

There is a story in football. A story of turn around, that no matter what situation someone is in when they arrive, they will be redirected and aimed upwards, and we will all watch that rise with wide-eyed joy. In the case of Adam Wilson, potential showed the shadow of a player that no one could make material, but perhaps as is often the case, that was always just shadow.