Marked for Jayden Wareham
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
Josh Andrews breaks a bone — 29 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match20 Feb 2027
There were 89 minutes on the clock and Wycombe Wanderers had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Bradford City did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Will Smallbone pops up at the right end — 7.72
7.72, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Bradford City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephy Mavididi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match20 Feb 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Will Smallbone’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Bradford City.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Tommy Leigh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Bradford City are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Josh Andrews out for 37 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bradford City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephy Mavididi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Bradford City asked and Chelsea said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match13 Feb 2027
AFC Wimbledon left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match9 Feb 2027
Bolton Wanderers left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Bradford City pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Feb 2027
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad8 Feb 2027
44 days out for Josh Andrews after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bradford City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Everything agreed with AZ, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Sullay Kaikai has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Bradford City have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leicester City have kept their man, and Bradford City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Loan watch8 Feb 2027
“I did not go to Cheltenham Town to sit and watch. I want to come back to Bradford City and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 26 matches say the rest.
The terraces8 Feb 2027
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match6 Feb 2027
Cardiff City left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Will Smallbone was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
Josh Andrews breaks a bone — 80 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market4 Jan 2027
Lee Evans puts it in writing
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bradford City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match2 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match4 Jan 2027
Half the programme played, position 20, 23 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Market4 Jan 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bradford City, another week without a signature from Jayden Wareham.
In brief
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Squad
Tommy Leigh in a row with a teammate
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Player ratings
The afternoon belonged to Bobby Pointon
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match27 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bradford City, another week without a signature from Jayden Wareham.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Max Power in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bradford City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
7 new faces, and Bradford City are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Kortney Hause
7.47, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Bradford City had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Josh Andrews
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Jacob Stewart chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Josh Neufville is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match24 Oct 2026
A 2‑0 win over AFC Wimbledon, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jenson Metcalfe and Bradford City agree another 4 years.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Bradford City, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Jacob Stewart kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Bradford City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jayden Luker is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market26 Oct 2026
Clarke Oduor is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bradford City has been clear about where Clarke Oduor stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match16 Sep 2026
Cambridge United are out and Bradford City go through, 2‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match19 Sep 2026
Luton Town left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.14, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I watch every Bradford City game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cheltenham Town runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
De Lucca does not fit this one
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Leyton Orient next, and one man in the Bradford City dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
George Lapslie has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Bradford City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Will Swan
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
Tyreik Wright hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bradford City can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Bradford City close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
No thanks: Anísio Cabral rejects the move
Bradford City had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Benfica, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Bradford City ran out of time with Rotherham United. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Bradford City asked and KV Kortrijk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bradford City, another week without a signature from Jayden Wareham.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Bradford City are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Josh Andrews, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nick Powell is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Nick Powell has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Bradford City asked and Liverpool said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bradford City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andy Cook commits to Bradford City for another 1 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The formation has left Jayden Wareham behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Bradford City will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Lewie Coyle is in the works
Bradford City have made the call to Hull City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Jorthy Mokio is in the works
Bradford City have made the call to Ajax. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bradford City, another week without a signature from Jayden Wareham.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Max Power's contract
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The captaincy goes to Matthew Pennington. It is not a job that wins matches, but a dressing room always notices who is given it.