BfB

If something happens at Valley Parade at the moment then it is done by Peter Taylor and the calling off of Saturday’s friendly match with Guiseley which was to be part of the payment for James Hanson has been played squared at the manager’s door.

With a summer of fascinating articles detailing grass and the growth of grass City came back to pre-season training with the news that Taylor had decided not to relocate the Bantams from Apperley Bridge to Weetwood. Following on from that – and very clearly laid at his door – comes the Guiseley news.

It seems that Taylor wanted the game played earlier in the day to allow the players to be in bed earlier keeping pre-season plans in place for the next day. Guiseley – who are counting the attendance from the game as a part of the payment for Hanson – objected to that time but the offer from City seems to be that another date needs to be their proposal or another date need be found before the end of the season, like it or lump it.

It is far from harmonious. Guiseley believe that changing the date of the friendly will hit them in the pocket and they are no doubt right. Even at seven in the evening one could expect Bantams fans to not fight traffic on the way to the North of the City, later in the season wedged between League matches the idea of playing another local side is also less appealing and fewer would go, hitting the bottom line.

Quiet why when a player signs for one club from another someone comes up with the idea that the supporters should pay part of the transfer fee is anyone’s guess. One thinks back to the transfer of Graeme Tomlinson to Manchester United where – to thank the Red Devils for taking our good young striker – I was offered the chance to pay £10 towards the fee which was in essence giving Man U money to give City to take our player.

City seldom make friends in the local football community but this action seems to almost pathologically antagonistic and perhaps that is why Taylor is given the credit for the decision rather than the club presenting a united front. Taylor does things his way – the recent talk from Valley Parade alludes to – and we don’t stop him.

So Taylor decides that his players should not be playing on the 13th of July and so they are not and that decision hits Guiseley in the pocket and probably does very little for the reputation of the Bantams but the club – which is to say the chairmen and executives – are possessed of a faith in the manager that sees them leave him to his own devices rightly or wrongly.

Perhaps someone should have told Peter Taylor that they wanted Bradford City to be the sort of team who help out the other local sides but the manager – at the moment – is calling the shots at the Bantams and while that seems to have hit Guiseley I’m not upset at this new order at Valley Parade.