Jack Shepherd.

Had a read at the Bradford forum to see what they think of him and their team.
Usual mix of we should be aiming for play offs and be lucky/ happy with mid table and only got automatic because Walsall chucked it away. With loans ending and out of contracts looks like they have a lot of work to do.
Regarding JS most said they would like to keep him ( one optimist thought a £250 grand offer should do it ) a few thought they could do better than him and other players ( delusions of grandeur syndrome) . Some concerns that he makes mistakes can be a bit lipped and gets into trouble with refs unnecessarily ( all correctable by us )

 

Think Bradford fans are going to be a bit of a pain. They're long overdue a bit of success so fair play to them but some of the posts I've seen on X are a bit much.
The big crowds have definitely gone to their heads and they're starting to sound, dare I say it...... a bit Wednesday-ish.

 

Same on Facebook on league one banter, exactly the same as Birmingham were and continued to be through the season.

 

Stumbled over the line with an injury time own goal and mainly cos Walsall imploded. Hardly a footing to go all massive all of a sudden haha.
All about crowds a la that lot over at S6

 

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co...herd-praises-absolutely-superb-bradford-city/

 

I came here to get experience for myself and couldn’t be happier to be with a better club this season

Gotta be a miss quote surely?

 

He probably said it but not meaning Bradford are a better club than Barnsley - just mis -spoke.

Probably meant ‘I came here to get experience for myself, I couldn’t be happier and couldn’t have been with a better club this season’ - I don’t think he was being derogatory towards us, just complimentary to the club he most likely won’t be at next season.

I’d be playing him here and either activating that option or offering him a longer deal.

He’s proven he was worthy of a professional contract, he’s gone out on loan for a season to league two and topped all sorts of stats for the division in his position - he’d be exactly the kind of player, like DKD last year, we should be looking to bring in.

But he’s already here. That’s the bonus.

Hourihane won’t have seen much if anything of him though so ultimately it’s up to him.

 

Might just comparing Bradford with
Cheltenham who he was previously on loan with.

 

Might be wrong but that interview sounds to me like he’d love to stay at Bradford. No surprise really after a promotion like they just experienced. Reckon they’ll definitely try to buy him.

 

We had all this with Kyran Lofthouse, and when he came back it turned out he was still ****.

 

Think he'd rather play for Bradford next season.

 

Yeah whether hes been mis-quoted or not.
My idea from that, is he wants to stay there now, if possible.

 

If he did want to go I wouldn’t blame him. We’re a club that’s getting worse year on year with a novice in charge & a sporting director who doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing. Loads of people I speak to keep telling me they aren’t renewing. It certainly seems like they’re on the rise & we’re on the decline.

I don’t think they can afford him but I certainly wouldn’t hold it against him if he did ask to leave.

 

He'd be daft to not want to stay at a club on the up, with recent success and far bigger crowds with a better atmosphere to play in.

 

Why?

 

Nope. The first sentence (i came here to get EXPERIENCE for myself, being the operative words) The rest is basically a thanks.

 

They have bigger crowds than most in league 1…. Why can’t they afford him?

 

Since 2009 (that’s 16 years and 31 transfer windows) they have spent less than £1,000,000 on new signings, in terms of a transfer fee. I believe they paid just short of £200,000 for a lad I forget the name of, a few years ago now, which was their highest layout in two decades. Their highest fee received was just short of a couple of million for Nakhi Wells, over a decade ago.

Under their owners, they operate almost exclusively on free transfers supplemented by loans players. In and out.

I think they ordinarily lose around a million a year, despite that lack of ambition in the market and despite their higher than most average attendances, which have been helped over the years by cheaper than most prices of tickets.

Even if we were completely stupid and decided to sell him, and for just half a million pounds, it wouldn’t be to City. Unless of course, the last 20 years as evidence is to be ignored and they’re about to embark on a brand new strategy.

 

YT above has put it better than I can.

They get good crowds but they sell tickets a lot cheaper than us & I imagine our budgets won’t be that different.

We would want a huge fee for a young centre back with loads of promise & (to me) it makes no sense for them to spend such a huge chunk of their budget on one player when they could get (for example) Matty Pearson on a free & use the rest of the money on strengthening other areas.

 

Time for the club to state it's intentions. he belongs to us so it's a freebie, if we say your ours and were taking you back then he's got to honour his contract. plus realistically if he wants to advance his career and he does well here for 12 months he could follow Anderson, Kitchen etc to a big money move...especially if were in the play off's or promoted.