Bradford City have appointed Gary Bowyer as manager.
He has signed a contract until the end of the season, as announced by their official club website this morning.
The 47-year-old has a tough job on his hands to keep Bradford in League One. The Bantams are currently 23rd in the division and six points off safety with 11 games left.
Bowyer spent his playing days at Hereford United and Rotherham United. He retired in 1997 and starting his coaching career with Ilkeston Town before getting his first managerial role with Carshalton Athletic in 1998.
Bowyer spent two years with the non-league side before landing himself an academy coach role at Derby County. He spent seven years working for the Rams prior to switching to a similar role at Blackburn Rovers in 2004.
He was appointed first-team manager of Blackburn in May 2013 and spent just under two years in the dugout at Ewood Road. Bowyer was sacked in November 2015 but returned to management swiftly with Blackpool.
Bowyer impressed with the Seasiders under difficult circumstances and guided them to promotion to League One in 2017. He then kept them up in the third tier last season before leaving after just a single game in this campaign.
He has shown he can operate under difficult circumstances. Here is how the Bradford City fans have reacted on Twitter to his appointment today-
Hopefully we’ll finally get that new manager bounce that every other team seem to get
— James Storrie (@Mr_Stozza) March 4, 2019
Good luck to Gary Bowyer, I really hope he can pull off a miracle and keep us up. The short term contract is a little worrying as we don't want to be looking for another manager at the end of the season #bcafc
— Luke Mason (@LukeMason07) March 4, 2019
Very happy with this appointment. Has shown that he can work under testing circumstances already and that, if the inevitable happens and we go down, he can start the rebuild from League Two. #bcafc https://t.co/djzwExHM3J
— Josh Spruyt (@JoshSpruyt) March 4, 2019
https://twitter.com/BantamDan_/status/1102541432802357248
I'm happy with the appointment of Gary Bowyer. Here's hoping he can by some miracle keep us in league 1 #bcafc
— Phil BCAFC (@PhilBradbury87) March 4, 2019
https://twitter.com/bcafcalastair/status/1102534851335458822
Happy with that appointment, as good as we could have hoped for. I won't call him the saviour as i'm not sure we're savable this season, but surely give us a boost.
Disappointed but not surprised it's only a short term deal. #bcafc— Kendal Chris (@CMH1967) March 4, 2019
https://twitter.com/enidradish/status/1102533431488069632