For Bradford City fans, it was painful to watch the Bantams play last season. There were bright spots but these were more than buried by a plethora of dull performances.
These dull performances took the gloss off what could have been a good, consolidatory season for the Valley Parade outfit. Instead, it was a season that quickly turned into a struggle through the mire of a relegation battle.
Thought they fought a hard, often tedious, rearguard action against relegation, it was exactly that which became their fate. They were relegated from League One to League Two and Gary Bowyer now has a job to do.
He’s started that with some astute purchases in the current transfer window. He’s brought in players like highly-rated Leeds United centre-back Paudie O’Connor as well as strikers James Vaughan and Clayton Donaldson. With Bowyer at the helm, and with these purchases, many observers are pitching City as favourites to bounce back as champions.
However, news from Sky Sports Transfer Centre (31 July, 08:53) will likely gladden City fans’ hearts even more. In this post, Sky Sports confirm breaking news that Sheffield United have broken their transfer record for the FOURTH time this window to bring in Swansea City striker Oli McBurnie.
The value of this transfer, say Sky Sports, is an initial £17million deal that will rise to £20million when certain clauses are activated. The interest to Bradford City fans is that McBurnie, who left Valley Parade in mid-July 2015 for £250,000, left the Bantams with a 15% sell-on fee attached to him.
What this means is that the Bantams will receive a guaranteed £2.55million of that fee, which could rise to an eventual payment of £3million should all additional clauses set by Swansea be surpassed by McBurnie.
That sort of money, swelling the coffer at Valley Parade, would buy the Bantams additional ammunition to shoot themselves clear of League Two and back to where their fans think that they belong.
