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David Wetherall's height is 6ft 3in (1.90 m)David Wetherall (born 14 March 1971) is an English former footballer who played as a central defender, finishing his playing career with Bradford City at the end of the 2007–08 season. Born in Sheffield, he supported Sheffield Wednesday as a child, and ...

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Whatever Happened To Bradford City?

More than 10 years have passed since Bradford City achieved what many thought to have been impossible, not only getting into the Premier League, but then surviving after a nail biting final day. Four years earlier the club was in the 3rd tier of English football, however, an extraordinary rise saw the club experience two quick promotions and along with big money signings (at the time) that prompted excitement and enthusiasm for supporters. Unfortunately, that was as good as it got; internal issues became a problem, next thing the club was relegated and facing imminent administration which in turn triggered a series of relegations that have found the club in the 4th tier of the English football ladder and struggling to climb back up it. The story of the wonderful highs and then crushing lows of Bradford City FC is an intriguing tale of how one minute you can be living the dream then a few years later travelling ‘down south’ on a Tuesday night to play Torquay’s finest.

It is fair to say that Bradford City have a reputation that stands above its current status of League 2 football. They have five league and cup honours next to their name but despite this they are the lowest-ranked of all former Premier League clubs since its formation in early 1992. The club had yo-yoed up and down the leagues for many years, and struggled to gain any continuity or solidarity. After the club missed out on promotion in the play-offs to Middlesbrough, two years later they were relegated down to the 3rd Division. Mid-table obscurity followed for three seasons, queue the entrance of Geoffrey Richmond as the new chairman.

He made the short trip from Scarborough FC, promising to get the club into the Premier League within five seasons; it may have not been on the Stalin scale of the ‘five year plans’ but it was a statement from an ambitious man who had clear visions on where he wanted and thought the club should be.

Play-off triumph

Under Chris Kamara, Bradford City had some momentum going into the 1995-96 play-offs but that was soon extinguished after Blackpool went to Valley Parade and won 2-0. It was a big blow to the team after all the effort that had gone into making it into the play-offs however Kamara stayed positive, ‘Don’t write us off. If he can get an early goal we will get back into it.’ And an early goal is exactly what Kammy got after Carl Shutt scored after six minutes, two more goals followed from Des Hamilton and then Mark Stallard which completed the remarkable turnaround and send them to Wembley for a final against Notts County.

The final was very much a Bradford day. Roughly 30,000 out of 39,972 were Bradford City fans and Paul Naulty, a regular at Bradford City games for 30+ years described the day; ‘On the way to the stadium free flags and scarves were being given out to supporters. With all the fans and the impetus we had it felt like it was going to be our day before the game even kicked off.’ Indeed promotion was secured with a 2-0 win over Notts County thanks to goals from Hamilton and Stallard. It was an important step for City as it put them one league closer to their ultimate goal and after the post-match celebrations, Richmond stated that ‘this is only the beginning.’ Avoiding relegation next term was a tough ask. The team found life in the 2nd Division tough and it was a long season which ended with them staying up on the final day of the season finishing two points clear in 21st. ‘The 1996-97 side were grafters, not a great side but worked well as a team and the momentum from the previous campaign kept us up.’ Paul also said ‘We then improved with the arrival of (Peter) Beagrie and (Robbie) Blake for example and confidence began to grow even more amongst players and fans.’ These were two players who were vital in the clubs promotion season, both scoring double figures from midfield, a fantastic effort in any league.

Bradford’s miracle workers

However on the 6th January 1998, Kamara was sacked after winning only four of the previous 21 games which saw the club slip down to 11th after a promising start. Kamara described the sacking as ‘one of the saddest days of my 24 year career.’ Richmond wanted the club to push for promotion this season after consolidating the season before and stated that although ‘Kamara has been brilliant for City’ he felt he had taken the club as far as he could. Former player and a coach at the club Paul Jewell took temporary charge until the end of the season. At 33 he was one of the youngest managers in the football league. The surprise was when Jewell was given the job on a permanent basis on the 8th of May 1998, it was expected that Richmond would turn to a bigger name and it was a huge gesture of faith towards Jewell.

Jewell had steered City to their highest finish for many years and with no previous experience in management it was a good effort. However, the pressure was on after it was announced that Jewell would receive a strong transfer budget which was confirmed when he broke the club's transfer record twice within the first week of the 1998–99 season. The first one being the acquisition of Lee Mills for £1m and then spending £1.3m on Arsenal forward Isaiah Rankin. In another popular move he brought back former Bradford City favourite Stuart McCall on a free transfer. Richmond had backed Jewell and wanted him to deliver his dream of Premiership football but the season did not start well with the club winning only one of their first seven games. Jewell however kept adding to his squad, additions like Dean Windass helped the club pick up form and led to them competing directly with Ipswich for the last automatic promotion place.

Eventually it all came down to a trip to Molineux, If City won they were in the Premier League. Wolves though had only lost once since Boxing Day and still had a chance of getting into the play-offs so it was by no means an easy game for City. It was an absorbing football match which had everything; goals, mistakes, penalties and near misses. Ultimately City triumphed, thanks to a 3-2 win courtesy of goals from Beagrie, Mills and Blake. Beagrie though, missed a penalty which would have made it 4-1 and when Wolves made it 3-2 it made for nervous viewing as Paul, who was there that day, described; ‘During the final few minutes I couldn’t watch, I went inside not knowing what had happened until someone came up to me and said ‘we had done it’. It was the first time I had ever got emotional over a game of football, the game had everything.’

Jewell’s ‘Dads Army’

Celebrations were short lived as the club made important steps to ensure they would be competitive in the Premier League, none more so than signing future club legend David Wetherall, who made the short trip to Bradford from local rivals Leeds United. He explained his move; ‘For me it was an easy decision, they had just got promoted to the Premier League and it was a chance for me to play regular football.’ Wetherall was signed for a club record fee of £1.4m and was the only ever-present of the 1999-2000 campaign by playing every minute for City in the Premier League.

Bradford City went into the first game of the campaign against Middlesbrough with not too many changes from their Division One team which prompted pundits, such as Rodney Marsh, giving them no chance. Wetherall told me ‘People wrote us off, Rodney Marsh saying he’ll “shave his head if they stay up.” Critics like that kept us motivated throughout the campaign.’ Critics even labelled Jewell’s team as the ‘Dads Army’ of the Premiership, pointing to the age of players signed by Jewell but this didn’t seem to affect the team as they recorded their first win against Middlesbrough on the opening day of the season.

Many look back on Bradford’s 1999/2000 season affectionately, not just because of their final day heroics but also the fact they were competitive in most games. Points against Tottenham, Chelsea and three at home to Arsenal, not to forget the 5-4 thriller against a star studded West Ham side and the 4-4 against Derby, it was an exhilarating few months that ended with huge partying on Sunday 14th May when the aforementioned Wetherall’s marvellous header secured three points against Liverpool. Relegation rivals Wimbledon lost out to Southampton meaning Bradford stayed up by three points in 17th place. Wetherall spoke of the success; ‘It was a team that achieved something; they spent a lot of money but with everything said about us it was a great achievement for the club’.

Big money, no results

A few days later though news started to filter through that Paul Jewell had handed in his resignation to chairman Geoffrey Richmond. This came as a shock coming so soon after the end of the season and different stories began to circulate; some saying Jewell had accepted another job to Richmond deeming 17th place was a failure. The reality was Paul Jewell had gone and his assistant Chris Hutchings was now in charge. Hutchings was backed and more big money signings came in, including: David Hopkin, Dan Petrescu and Benito Carbone. The summer of 2000 to many, was the start of the clubs rapid decline, Wetherall agreed. ‘The biggest mistake the club did was letting Paul (Jewell) go. The board wanted to change too much too soon whilst Paul wanted to evolve slowly. The board didn’t plan the contracts; most of the players were on very healthy Premiership salaries without relegation clauses.’ This was important as when the club was to be relegated, the wage bill was still very high and without the money from the Premier League it would always be hard to cope.

The club had a torrid time in the Premier League that season, finishing bottom, winning only five of their 38 fixtures. The club struggled to gain any kind of form and it showed by the change of manager mid season with Jim Jefferies replacing Chris Hutchings. Nevertheless Richmond was optimistic the following season, unveiling plans like: for every pound spent on season ticket sales from the 8th June till the start of the season one pound would go into manager Jim Jefferies’ player budget. What the club didn’t bank on though was the collapse of ITV Digital, after the club finished a disappointing mid table first season back in Division One Richmond announced that the club was set to lose upwards of £10m because of this. Richmond later said on this matter; ‘I couldn’t know we would have the ITV Digital situation that would take income away from every club.’ With the club having no hope of promotion the next season, Jim Jefferies resigned and the job was given to Nicky Law.

The club was in a desperate situation now so much so after the club called in the administrators they sacked 16 players, leaving current manager Nicky Law with only five senior players in his squad. The breakdown in Carbone’s transfer also cost the club as they had to pay him £800,000 to cancel his £40,000 a week contract instead of cashing in on him.

Talking of the administration, Wetherall said; ‘The club went through so many changes; players were leaving, administration, players weren’t being paid. It was a real test of togetherness. 11 years since then and the club are still suffering from it.’

City managed to pull through and once the clubs future was confirmed, Richmond walked. On his departure he said that it ‘would have been my wish to still be at the club’ but ultimately said he would go ‘for the good of the club’ as long as his presence split the fan base. Gordon Gibb took over the reins along with Julian Rhodes.

City again struggled in the league although, in truth; many fans, players and board members were simple relieved that City managed to fulfil the fixtures when it looked for a long time that they wouldn’t. A 19th finish though was again a step in the wrong direction. Nicky Law was sacked in November 2003 with the club anchored in the First Division relegation zone, Bryan Robson was given the task of getting City out.

The task was too much for Robson though, he could only take 22 points from a final 27 games which saw the club finish 23rd and slip into English footballs 3rd tier. Some may argue this was City’s lowest point during the decline; the club had plunged into more financial trouble which resulted in Chairman Gordon Gibb resigning as chairman. Mid February, players agreed to defer percents of their wages if the club was to be placed in administration which on the 27th February it was. Robson claimed the administration had a ‘damaging effect on the dressing room.’ Wetherall also said on the situation; ‘Everyone realised we had to do what we could to ensure the clubs survival. It was not the intentions of the current board; they put a lot of hard work into making sure the club survived. Even now they have put a lot of dedication into the club.’

Down, down, deeper and down

City were now going through managers at the speed of Theo Walcott, whilst giving it as much thought as Wayne Rooney would give a math problem. Colin Todd was next in the firing line. More important issues arose though with the club in danger of extinction, administrators told City fans on the 14th May, that if they could raise £100,000 by the end of June it would guarantee the clubs survival. Sponsors chipped in and along with T & A Pro Celebrity All-Stars match, the money was raised to ensure Bradford City remained in business.

The Todd years were in truth a miserable time for the club, finishing 11th in both the 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 season he came under severe pressure as Paul describes; ‘Colin Todd was an uninspiring man, he played boring, ineffective football and when the results went against us he would blame everyone but himself. Only time I have ever boycotted a match at Valley Parade was when he was in charge.’ Dean Windass though, who scored 48 goals in his second stint at Valley Parade defended Todd. ‘I can’t believe people want to bring him down. He is the best manager in this league because of the respect the players have for him.’ Despite support from the players, Todd was let go on the 12th February. Wetherall was given the job in a caretaker-manager role with City in a terrible run of form.

‘The period before and when I took over the clubs form dipped. We were forced into selling our best players like; (Dean) Windass and (Jermaine) Johnson as we couldn’t afford to tie them down. The board asked me to have a spell in management and I was still playing at the time.’ When asked why club form had dipped Wetherall replied; ‘The squad simply wasn’t good enough, it wasn’t through lack of effort, the player’s application was excellent under me.’ This poor run saw the club, who were at the start of the decade in the Premier League, now gearing up for football in The Football Leagues lowest division as Wetherall could not prevent a third relegation in seven seasons.

Wetherall was relieved of his duties next season and back came former favourite Stuart McCall. McCall was given decent budgets and more than enough time to make an impact at City but unfortunately for him it never happened. Under McCall City never finished higher than 9th and as Paul told me, it was tough on the fans. ‘McCall had the best budgets the club had seen for years and often had the players but for one reason or another they couldn’t perform under him. City fans would never boo McCall as he is one of the best City midfielders ever but it came to the point where he had to go.’ It was also announced that mid way through the 2007/2008 season that Wetherall would stop playing and take up a coaching role. It was a huge testament to his loyalty to how he stuck by the club and compromised to ensure its survival.

Since City’s relegation to League 2 it has been an uneventful time for the club and its fans. Without been a 100% clear of its financial troubles they seem to be more stable than a few years earlier. On the club’s future, Wetherall, who has since left his post at Bradford to take up a role of youth development for the FA, said the club needs to look to the future. ‘I really enjoyed my coaching time at Bradford, it paved the way for getting the current role for the FA that I have now by coaching the youth team at Bradford. The club now is focusing on its development squad, in hope they can bring through younger players in the long term, something I feel the club should have done a few years back.’ Paul also added that he feels it’s the right way to go. ‘I can take 4th Division football after growing up watching City before in the lower leagues, something the younger fans aren’t used too. The best way to climb the leagues will be to find our own talent who are passionate about the club like the supporters.’

Looking up?

You could use many clichés to describe Bradford City in the last 15 years and maybe I would have as well but it turns out a recent development within the club saved me of that job. On the 25th August it was announced that current manager Peter Jackson had resigned stating that ‘He felt that to resign now would give the club that best possible chance for the rest of the season.’ A decision that has left many fans puzzled; four games in the League campaign and only one point is hardly a brilliant start but was his resignation really what a club striving for just a smidgen of stability needed? Looking at it from his point of view, if he didn’t think he was the man for the job then stepping down was a bold move as it gives the new man in charge time to settle in and mould the team into his style. So now it falls to current Chairmen; Julian Rhodes and Mark Lawn to find Peter Jackson’s successor and whoever they choose let’s hope he outlasts his first carton of milk and bring cheer to City’s long time dejected supporters.

By Daniel Howard

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