Jack Shepherd.

No.
https://www.efl.com/news/2025/april/27/see-who-made-the-efl-team-of-the-season-line-ups/

 

If you look when he started for us we kept alot of clean sheets

 

Agreed Andy. And as you say, would blow their entire budget. (Certainly season ticket sales imo. )

 

If we sell we need looking at. No transfer fee and average wages. It's like a gift horse, Lopata also not getting a mention and should be brought back. Nathan James also coming through, maybe one mature freebie with experience to guide the others alongside Robbo.

 

Agree T. Lopata has been getting great reviews as well. Kingpin of the defence apparently over the games he's played.
I'm not even sure Robbo will be an automatic choice tbh as we will go to a back 4 seemingly. (Should have started with that last season imo) . But will be a nice headache for Conor.

 

I wouldn’t care if none of the current defenders are here next season, including Roberts. Perhaps Conor knows, or knows of, a decent experienced CB Kingpin that would come and help bring on the likes of Shepherd and Lopata .

 

I think your spot on P a back 4 is the key .even if we play 4-5-1 and the back 4 hold. we need to stop shipping goals and build from there..

 

Unbelievable pick-up.

I remember speaking with Danny Wilson after Shep had had a pretty torrid game at Oakwell, his first bad game really. Danny was there with TalkSport and obviously knowing me, we had a little catch-up (the single nicest fella I've ever met in the game and that filled me with joy upon first meeting him, because you don't want your heroes to be awful). He said he'd seen Jack play against a few clubs in non-league, as he was doing a bit of scouting here and there for clubs. He recommended him to Wednesday he said. I asked him why them and not us, and he said: "you know what they're like here, it's all data and computers." He then spoke highly of Jack, saying he will make errors as he's raw, straight out of the 9th tier, but it's as clear as day that he's got something. Then told me about how it's great that the club surprised him, and found him, referenced his era when we made a habit of finding non-league talent.

It's things like that I take from having worked there. How else would I have had the chance to talk footy with the best manager we've had?

I once had Warnock ring me to say he wanted Khaled's number too. That was a laugh.

 

I’m slightly surprised no one’s giving any weight to what the player wants, and unsurprisingly, I’m aware if he had the choice, he want to sign for Bradford. And why wouldn’t he.

 

I emailed the club about him after seeing him play against dunston for Ponte - they said they’d send a member of the ‘rec’ team to watch him (whatever that is!). He signed a new deal with Ponte a few weeks later (I’m assuming to command a fee/ better fee) and we signed him a few months later

 

I used to enjoy calling him deedar. He's an absolute diamond of a lad.

You could see it in him, the awe of playing professional. It's some jump. Ponte Collieries to Barnsley FC. No academy pedigree. Proper culture shock. And he was so good, in those appearances if you take everything into consideration. He was still doing plumbing with his dad I believe, before he signed here.

Be interesting to see how it develops, as I'm sure he'll feel part of Bradford now. But I know they can't afford him, and being the lad that he is, I'd be amazed if he got the monk on and tried to engineer a way out.

 

You deserve a percentage of whatever we sell him for one day!

 

But he hasn't a choice. And if he's a regular for tarn. Bradford will be just a memory. Such is life in football. As YT says. Unlikely to get monk on. We plucked him out of a life in non league.
As for stating his preference. Source.?

 

Don’t you think he should put himself and his career first?

 

Haha! I emailed khaled and told him this kid stood out head and shoulders above the rest. I’d have kicked myself if another local club got him

 

He's going to be a first team regular next season at the club which owns him and pays his wages. I can't understand in what world that's not putting himself and his career first.

 

The game quickly moves on.

Theres probably a couple of Bradford’s first team on loan. There may well be another one or two attracting interest from higher up the leagues.

All of a sudden the team you were a part of can be quickly broken up. There’s not many teams in the lower leagues that are able to keep a team together for any significant length of time.

He’ll soon get over Bradford like Brownhill, Isted, Fletcher & many others soon got over Barnsley.

 

The thing is ,Bradford was a loan to give him game time and experience which has worked out well.Barnsley gave him a chance out of obscurity so now he needs to pay back that faith.