Liam Harris

Attacking Midfielder (L) - Bradford City U20
30 Jan 2036
Wednesday
Process

Marked for Liam Harris

462 Edition

The Bradford City Herald

4 Jun 2035
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Ryan Manning

127 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.

Boardroom

Bradford City spell it out for Interim Coach

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Boardroom

The Bradford City board call everybody in

Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.

Squad

Igor Atamanskiy: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bradford City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Markus Baumgartner has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bradford City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Boardroom

Markus Baumgartner signs for Milton Keynes Dons while still at Bradford City

The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Markus Baumgartner has agreed terms with Milton Keynes Dons for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Omari Benjamin

Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Ryan Manning 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.

Squad

Kacey Wooster signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kacey Wooster and Bradford City agree another 4 years.

In brief

Back issues
401 Edition

The Bradford City Herald

3 Apr 2034
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Bradford City

22 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.

Boardroom

Bradford City run out of patience with Interim Coach

The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Interim Coach clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Clarke Oduor

44 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.

The terraces

The mood at Bradford City has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Boardroom

A stranger takes charge at Bradford City

The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.

Boardroom

Interim Coach minds the shop at Bradford City

“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Omari Benjamin

Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Callum Bates’s goal not enough for Bradford City

Callum Bates scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to AFC Wimbledon, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Jenson Metcalfe

“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.

In brief