Stuart McCall is a fan favourite at Valley Parade from his time there as a player. His last managerial spell came to an end early February this year.
McCall was sacked by the Bantams after six straight defeats with a club statement saying that the sacking decision had “not been taken lightly,” this showing the esteem he is held in at the West Yorkshire club.
Commenting on the reasons for his sacking, City said that they believed the club were capable of playing to a better standard. The brief statement ended on a very positive note saying of McCall that he’d “of course, always be welcome back at Valley Parade.”
However, that generosity of spirit seemed not to apply earlier today when Telegraph and Argus reporter Simon Parker tweeted the following news.
Hearing that Stuart McCall is booked as the Sky studio guest at #bcafc tomorrow night … Wonder how that will go down with owners?
— Simon Parker (@ParkerTandA) April 11, 2018
Not very well if the rumours were to be believed.
Understand there is an effort from the #bcafc owners to stop Sky using Stuart McCall as studio guest tonight. Expect that he is still likely to be there …
— Simon Parker (@ParkerTandA) April 12, 2018
Understandably, Bantams fans were up in arms about the supposed ‘ban’ attempt by the owners of Bradford City – a quick search of ‘bcafc’ on Twitter will reveal the extent of this dissatisfaction.
However, the current state of play in this tangled web is made clearer by comments from Edin Rahic, in a Telegraph and Argus article by Simon Parker. Rahic vehemently denies placing any kind of ‘ban’ on the City legend being employed as a pundit by Sky Sports for the game against Shrewsbury Town.
Speaking with Parker via a telephone call from Germany, Rahic said it was Sky’s prerogative to select “guests they have” on games that are televised. He said that the club hadn’t been asked about McCall and went as far saying “I’ve no problem with Stuart but the question we had was from the safety point of view.”
Rahic’s main preoccupation seems to be with where the broadcasting giant would be placing McCall. Rahic hints that a reason behind this stance is that “We do not want to affront Simon (Grayson). If Stuart is next to the dug-out, is that the right position for such a game?”
With this apparently cleared up, City will hopefully now be able to switch their focus to what will be a hard game at Valley Parade. The 14th place Bantams are coming of a two-defeat run against Blackburn (2-0) and Blackpool (5-0) and will be playing a dangerous opponent in the 3rd place Shrews in a game where three points will be most welcome.
