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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kortney Hause and Bradford City agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Bradford City have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say George Lapslie is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bradford City know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 4 on 84 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Borna Sosa was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jacob Stewart after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad17 Apr 2028
6 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.
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.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bradford City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 offer from Wigan Athletic for Andy Cook was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Everton is saying, and nobody at Bradford City is enjoying the guessing.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Max Power was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I watch every Bradford City game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Petrolul Ploiești runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Jacob Stewart to a room that had heard them before.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Bradford City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gullit Peña 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.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Bradford City can tell you which week it ends in.
“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 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jacob Stewart after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
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.
“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.
“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.
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.
“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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 115 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Darius Olaru falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marius Briceag was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I watch every Petrolul Ploiești game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Universitatea Craiova runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Petrolul Ploiești know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Petrolul Ploiești, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. De Lucca scored in the 85th minute, Exeter City had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Bradford City took the lot.
Two goals and a mark of 8.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Minute 87, against Leyton Orient, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Tommy Leigh and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I did not go to Petrolul Ploiești to sit and watch. I want to come back to Bradford City and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Jacob Stewart, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.