BfB

Bradford City 1999-2025

Bradford City
England
Big Football

So Much Empty

Michael has not written anything here. Give him a poke.

Thanks for reading.

In The Last Year

2 months ago Thursday 1st May 2025 Joy / Joy / Joy Bradford City's success in League Two in 2024/2025 does not come from being better than other clubs in the division, but from a series of difficult contests which have revealed the character, and sometimes lack of character, of the participants. This, though, is a good thing, and it being hard to recognise suggests a wider problem in football and society.
4 months ago Thursday 6th March 2025 On / Wax / Off Because of an injury to Andy Cook Bradford City and manager Graeme Alexander have happened on a way of playing which has seen the club break performance records, the legacy of which will be that the club as an entity will finally have to assess the realities of how the modern game is played.
6 months ago Monday 6th January 2025 Cosplay / Grimsby / Whachcta Bradford City beat Grimsby Town in a game which both teams seemed to tacitly agree should be played without using certain tools the managers had available.
6 months ago Sunday 15th December 2024 Physics / Control / Football Watching Bradford City vs Swindon Town was an illustration as to why football teams want to control matches, and how that need has grown over the years, while listening to the discussions about the game suggests that this element of control is underappreciated.

Over A Year Ago

1 year 5 months ago Sunday 4th February 2024 Arm / Trap / Stone There are three ways to win a football match, and a football manager has to have an understanding how a game will be won, and after his opening months as Bradford City manager Graham Alexander does not seem to have an idea how his team will win.
1 year 9 months ago Sunday 8th October 2023 Swindon / Flattened / Outside Having replaced Mark Hughes as Bradford City manager Kevin McDonald made few changes and enjoyed a similar result as Hughes had previously. This creates a problem for the club as it goes to look to change a system which is not failing, leaving the impression for those outside the club that it continues to make decisions with the same character as it has done over the previous half a decade.
1 year 9 months ago Tuesday 3rd October 2023 Shadow / Anima / Decisions There are two worlds at play in football. One is a reality of people working hard to make a club successful, while the other is a fantasy of results by whim, and the important thing for the people who run a football club is to know the difference between the two.
1 year 10 months ago Sunday 17th September 2023 Solutions / Shifting / Easy Conversations about solving problems at Valley Parade focus on the thing which can be changed, because making the change as an imposition of will is more important than the effectiveness of that change.
1 year 11 months ago Saturday 19th August 2023 Oppenheimer / Neal / Smallwood Richie Smallwood is criticised for playing the role which manager Mark Hughes gives him to play, and for playing it well, because a group of people who watch football do not like that there are roles within a football team which are not understood through the simplistic view of the game they want everyone to have.
1 year 11 months ago Monday 14th August 2023 Evolution / Ending / Gormenghast A change in the rules of football have added more time to each game, creating an imbalance in matches which push teams to conserve energy, stopping attacking play, and breaking the fundamental construct on which football is based. All this is observed in a 2-1 win for Bradford City over Colchester United which is the worst game of football I have seen in forty-nine years and fifty-one weeks.
1 year 11 months ago Thursday 3rd August 2023 Memes / 2023 / Football A preview of the 2023/2024 season in which Wrexham represent a memeification of League Two football, Stockport County offer an interesting alternative to structured play, and Bradford City have the role of understudy.
1 year 11 months ago Monday 31st July 2023 Gibb / Rhodes / Honourable Flamingo Land will sponsor Bradford City next season, recalling the exit of the theme park's owner Gordon Gibb from Valley Parade, the ramifications of that, and a time when clubs of the size of Bradford City had a financial interest in the industry of football.
2 years 1 month ago Monday 29th May 2023 Review / Opportunity / Eden The 2022/2023 season finished with City missing out on promotion that, probably, was never an opportunity but given the improvement within the squad it might be reasonable to expect that opportunity in the future.
2 years 2 months ago Monday 22nd May 2023 Defeat / Carlisle / Soul Defeat in the League Two play-offs for Mark Hughes' Bradford City is a sobering experience when contrasted with the soulessness which pervades football in May 2023.
2 years 2 months ago Monday 15th May 2023 Chaos / Hughes / Competent Following City's 1-0 win over Carlisle United in the first leg of the 2023 League Two play-offs Bradford City are benefiting from a policy of creating a stable environment in which Mark Hughes can create a team which attempts to stand to one side of the chaotic state of football.
4 years 2 months ago Monday 31st May 2021 Apprentice / Sparks / Adams As he appoints Derek Adams as manager - the third managerial appointment in his year running Bradford City - Ryan Sparks struggles with the perception that he is inauthentic while having hit upon the authentic solution to Bradford City's problems.
4 years 2 months ago Monday 10th May 2021 Season / Review / Value The 2020/21 Season for Bradford City was a continuation of a series of failures which have seen the club run out of options for ways to progress. Discussions over season ticket prices cause more problems and I suggest that the club allow fans to pay what they like to get into Valley Parade.
4 years 9 months ago Saturday 17th October 2020 Big / Picture / Reality Project Big Picture proposed to ratify an unfair system but rejecting that proposal leaves clubs like Bradford city with the realities of an unfair system, no support, and no willingness to commit to a more egalitarian future.
4 years 10 months ago Friday 11th September 2020 Preview / Absurd / Regret The 2020/2021 season begins after 2019/2020 was brought to a premature end owing to the COVID-19 pandemic with a level of uncertainty which is unmanageable seeing the club surviving in a financial system which is hostile.
4 years 11 months ago Tuesday 1st September 2020 Clarke / Post Hoc / Life The 2020/2021 season approaches with City having not made many new signings and being the subject of much comment which, I argue, will only make sense depending on if the season is a success or not.
4 years 11 months ago Friday 21st August 2020 Doyle / Vaughan / Wasteland James Vaughan, Eoin Doyle, and Billy Clarke are footballers who have signed new contracts at the end of their careers while Lee Cattermole has opted to retire rather than attempt to get back to fitness following the shutdown of football owing to COVID19 saving him from the expectations placed on footballers in the 2020/21 season.
6 years 5 months ago Wednesday 27th February 2019 Next / Questions / Knowledge When appointing a manager to replace David Hopkin Julian Rhodes needs more than someone to win six games before the end of the season. He needs someone who can bring the domain knowledge of how to create a successful football club.
7 years 3 months ago Sunday 13th May 2018 Manager / von Neumann / Advantage Should Edin Rahic and Stefan Rupp want to appoint a manager that gives them a disproportionate competative advantage then they need to select a manager who has an increased risk of failure.
7 years 3 months ago Thursday 10th May 2018 Come / Grayson / Go Simon Grayson had a few demands in order to stay manager of Bradford City and, as a result of them, it is a good idea that he is no longer manager of Bradford City.
8 years 10 months ago Wednesday 19th October 2016 Lazy / High / Low The home draw with Southend United showed Stuart McCall's belief in the abilities of some of his team to turn around games with single moments of ability which - when those moments are lacking - leave the team struggling to win matches.
8 years 11 months ago Sunday 18th September 2016 Drone / On Stuart McCall's Bradford City continue a run of single goal draws with a 1-1 against Bristol Rovers.
8 years 11 months ago Tuesday 30th August 2016 Boycott / Loans Premier League teams use the loan system to add value to their young players in a way that shapes the make up of squads in League One to ensure that young players at clubs like Bradford City are not given a chance and to hamper the profits of League One clubs.
8 years 11 months ago Sunday 28th August 2016 Inefficient / Attitude / Passing As a collective slap of self-congratulation was heard around Valley Parade watching the new Stuart McCall passing Bradford City impressed in a draw against Oldham Athletic it was worth looking at the game through the eyes of a travelling supporter and asking if the visitors performance was exactly the type of display of which Phil Parkinson's City teams were lauded for.
8 years 12 months ago Wednesday 24th August 2016 Nahki / Armstrong There is a cycle of rumours that take Nakhi Wells to Newcastle United and Adam Armstrong from The Magpies to Bradford City who are struggling to find a striker that fits within the Rahic Development Plan outline in the Summer and so have started looking at player who do not fit within that plan.
8 years 12 months ago Sunday 21st August 2016 Changes / Institutional / Retention Stuart McCall showed the change as a manager promised since his return after his Bradford City team showed some character to come back from a goal down to beat Coventry City at Valley Parade.
8 years 12 months ago Monday 15th August 2016 Soft / August Following the first win of the season Bradford City continue to look for a striker hoping that the opening month of the season will have focused the mind of players who have realised that they will not be getting much football.
8 years 12 months ago Friday 12th August 2016 Strikers / Trajectory Stuart McCall's problems finding a striker are, in part, down the the changing trajectory of the career of a modern day footballer.
8 years 12 months ago Sunday 7th August 2016 Opening / Generative / Failings Bradford City's 0-0 draw with Port Vale on the opening day of the 2016/2017 season represented a failure of the players tasked with generating rather than converting chances.
8 years 12 months ago Thursday 4th August 2016 Club / Preview Edin Rahic made a splash with Bradford City fans over a pint and a flat cap on Wednesday night as he starts his first season as chairman of the club making slow but significant changes at Valley Parade.
8 years 12 months ago Wednesday 3rd August 2016 Preview / Players Bradford City have a solid platform with a lot of options in the back four, and some solid midfield players, but creating chances - more than converting them - will be the problem Stuart McCall faces in 2016/2017 unless either the squad is added to, or players improve performances drastically, or Tony McMahon goes back to the right wing.
8 years 12 months ago Tuesday 2nd August 2016 Unfamiliar / Preview The 2016/2017 season at Bradford City will not be defined by new team of Stuart McCall as manager and Edin Rahic as owner but by the old regime of Mark Lawn and Julian Rhodes who allowed former manager Phil Parkinson to have full control over the football side of Bradford City and create structures that - on his exit - were not retained.
8 years 13 months ago Wednesday 27th July 2016 Waring / Trophy Bradford City have been drawn to play Stoke City u23 in the Football League Trophy raising worries about the first steps of an intrusion of Premier League B Teams into the Football League although - considering how many Premier League loan players play in the Leagues - one might suggest that those first steps have already been taken.
8 years 13 months ago Saturday 23rd July 2016 Unbalanced / Vincelot Bradford City lost 4-1 to Burnley in a pre-season game on the day that Romain Vincelot joined from Coventry City for £80,000 to provide something seemingly much needed for the midfield.
8 years 13 months ago Thursday 21st July 2016 Wingers / Niedrigprozentig Mark Marshall could be key to Stuart McCall's team next season - or so the City boss says - but in putting such importance on wingers McCall goes against the tide of football.
8 years 13 months ago Wednesday 20th July 2016 Goalscorers / Conversions The summer signings of football clubs are increasingly a quest for the most overrated commodity in football: A twenty goal a year striker.
8 years 13 months ago Wednesday 20th July 2016 Respect / Response The Football League has some new guidelines for Referees to stop an imagined rising tide of "intolerable behaviour" by players which undermines their quest for respect by treating footballers like children.
8 years 13 months ago Friday 15th July 2016 Hiwula / Guesswork Bradford City have signed Jordy Hiwula on a season long loan from Huddersfield Town and he may be a good signing, or he may be a poor signing, but any judgement made on the day a player signs is guesswork and players govern how good or bad a signing with the work they put in during the season.
8 years 13 months ago Friday 15th July 2016 Mister / Definitely An experience of the summer of 2016 supporting Bradford City.
8 years 13 months ago Tuesday 12th July 2016 Dylan / George George Green will not be joining Bradford City and Dylan Mottley-Henry has joined Barnsley as Stuart McCall and Bradford City's attitude towards risk becomes clearer.
8 years 13 months ago Monday 11th July 2016 Timeline / Reboot Stuart McCall returns as Bradford City manager with an elongated training session at Guiseley which reminded one of what could have happened in 2007 had - as was the original thinking - McCall had been handed a healthy League One club.
9 years 1 month ago Wednesday 29th June 2016 Transfer / Improvement In the weeks of the most change there has been little change in Bradford City's squad with no transfers in June (to date) but this, more than anything, should give one heart that Stuart McCall is not repeating the mistake that he made in his first spell as City manager and that Roy Hodgson made as England manager.
9 years 2 months ago Tuesday 21st June 2016 Holes / Fit The seat is comfortable for McCall and business on assembling a squad begins immediately. One by one the current City squad are looked at for their ability to fit into what the manager wants.
9 years 2 months ago Monday 20th June 2016 Incommensurable / McCall Stuart McCall is back as manager of Bradford City with things he needs to have learnt since his last time in charge at Valley Parade such as the need for a stronger character in his team, the need for a stable environment and the capacity to corral the club in a single direction.
9 years 2 months ago Friday 17th June 2016 Timing / Signing There are worries that Bradford City - new chairman, new manager, new era and all - are missing out on the prime signings in June. The statistics suggest that not only is this true, but that even with a new manager in place today those signings would have not been possible.
9 years 2 months ago Wednesday 15th June 2016 McCall / Recall Stuart McCall has agreed to return to Bradford City as manager in the knowledge that his reputation at the club is stained by his exit in 2010 following three seasons in League Two.
9 years 2 months ago Tuesday 14th June 2016 Interview / Empty The interviews have begun for the role of Bradford City manager and there are many very good reason to not know anything about the process of appointment.
9 years 2 months ago Sunday 12th June 2016 Tedious / Multiplication The Daily Star have made up a news story and they want you to read it, and to give them some attention, and perhaps it is time football supporters stopped putting their attention in the wrong places.
9 years 2 months ago Saturday 11th June 2016 Untruth / Misinformation In the past week Bradford City and Bolton Wanderers fans were lied to to such an extent that one stopped noticing it, and stopped finding it insulting and unnecessary. What would happen if a club decided to stop lying to fans?
9 years 2 months ago Friday 10th June 2016 Selection / Manager As Phil Parkinson departs Bradford City there is a consideration for what aspects of the former manager's approach one would like to see reproduced in the next manager.
9 years 2 months ago Thursday 9th June 2016 Gone / Parkinson Phil Parkinson leaves Bradford City for Bolton Wanderers leaving a lasting legacy of a team with iron will and a symbiosis between supporters and players that is rare.
9 years 2 months ago Wednesday 8th June 2016 Anatomy / Rumour Now the rumour over Phil Parkinson joining Bolton Wanderers has been ground out to nothing there is a question as to why and where that rumour started, who would have started it, and what does it say about us as football supporters that we reacted to it?
9 years 2 months ago Monday 6th June 2016 Wandering / Parkinson The speculation that Phil Parkinson is to join Bolton Wanderers would seem to be unfounded and the City manager will carry on being City manager because few other clubs would offer anyone the level of control that Parkinson has at Valley Parade.
9 years 2 months ago Friday 3rd June 2016 Neverend / Concerned Phil Parkinson spends the week updating City fans on the movements of players who have been offered contracts there is a remembrance of the days when football clubs closed down for the summer.
9 years 2 months ago Tuesday 31st May 2016 Retained / Leave Six players leave Valley Parade and six may follow as Bradford City release the retained list.
9 years 2 months ago Tuesday 31st May 2016 Player / Season While Reece Burke has been praised by most as Bradford City's Player of the Season the season is best characterised by Kyel Reid who, on his return, showed the benefit of character and defensive positioning as well has his edge of seat charges at a full back.
9 years 3 months ago Saturday 28th May 2016 Budgets / Transparency Bradford City were able to find out they were the fourth biggest spenders in League One because of the monthly Salary Cost Management Protocol document all clubs update and that is circulated by the Football League. That document ensures that no L1 club spends more that 55% of turnover on player salaries. This will have ramifications for Stefan Rupp and Edin Rahic in 2016/2017.
9 years 3 months ago Thursday 26th May 2016 Ultimate / Reasoning City are down to five contracted players leaving Parkinson with a near blank piece of paper for recruitment and raising some considerations about how the club's transfer policy ran for the last twelve to six months.
9 years 3 months ago Wednesday 25th May 2016 Burton / Bolton As Bradford City supporters are warmed by the words of Edin Rahic it is worth considering how little protection the Football League offers clubs and communities from new owners.
9 years 3 months ago Tuesday 24th May 2016 Welcome / Willkommen Edin Rahic installed himself as new Bradford City chairman and with one statement backing Phil Parkinson and praising supporters calmed the nerves around Bradford.
9 years 3 months ago Monday 23rd May 2016 Buy / Bye With Bradford City sold to Stefan Rupp and Edin Rahic there is much praise for outgoing joint-chairmen Mark Lawn and Julian Rhodes who are afforded credit - wrongly - for saving a club.
9 years 3 months ago Saturday 21st May 2016 End / End Having lost to Millwall in the play-offs Bradford City and Phil Parkinson look towards how the club can improve next season and how the failures of last Summer mutated the City team.

BfB

In 2025 BfB is exclusively written by Michael Wood. No Twitter because of all the Nazi stuff, but Bluesky is a thing. I stay out of discussion about the articles, but if you have a question or a query the best way to get it addressed is to send a mail to michael.wood@cabinpressure.co.uk.