The day after attempts to wrestle control of Bradford City away from Mark Lawn and Julian Rhodes began City appointed a man called Archie Christie as Chief Scout and Head of Football Development.
If you have heard of Christie, well done, because the majority of City fans will read his credits as being Dagenham & Redbridge scout, of finding the odd player for them, of earning a bit of cash and will be only slightly impressed. Christie comes without the promise that he will be unearthing gems.
However his appointment does point to an increasing sense at Valley Parade that four years into the job of chairman for Mark Lawn and more for Julian Rhodes that the pair have started to work on augmenting the club off the field.
A new pitch – Peter Taylor took credit for that – came in last season and during this close season David Balwin was able to announce that the club had secured new facilities for training. Small steps for sure but more and more City are taking in the trappings of clubs that do well. Christie’s appointment is another step forward.
He may – or may not – do a wonderful job as head of the team of scouts he is assembling but perhaps more important is the fact that the club have addressed the need to make recruitment less about the contacts of the current manager and more about a long term process of finding players.
Stuart McCall brought in the likes of Nicky Law Jnr, Ben Starosta and Kyle Nix from Sheffield United, Peter Taylor brought in players from Wycombe Wanderers, Peter Jackson dragged in Jon Worthington. When Christie’s team is up and running then there will be a further source of talent.
This ties the future of the club less to the whim of managerial hiring and firing and more to the work of a team which – one hopes – will be permanently in place no matter who is picking the team. Christie’s go towards promising stability.
Which perhaps is why Steve Parkin’s approach is not being welcomed with open arms – an approach denied by Peter Hood of the Bradford Bulls. The after four years of frantic chasing success on the field Mark Lawn et al seem to have started doing things right.
