Jon Blakely's Canadian Chronicles
Friday 24 May, 2002
Never thought it'd be us!
No Richmond rants this time, anger has turned to shock now, so you can read on in peace my fellow Bantams fans.
You know I never ever thought the first club to go out of business since Aldershot would be Bradford City, my Bradford City!
There have been so many other clubs who have cried loudly about their cash crisis, other clubs have cried so loudly they have gone into administration.
Those clubs seem to be able to put a hat around and (although desperate) they gather enough cash, enough resolve to exit administration and move forward. Okay so a few back office and shop people are given severance packages and told to look for new jobs, that happens in all walks of life, but never has a club had to get rid of ALL of the people who actually actively do something for that club. Its like a bank sacking all of the branch staff, its like Sainsbury's closing all the registers.
I don't blame the administrators by the way, that's like blaming the Yanks for starting the 2nd World War, when all they did was come in and deal with the mess that was happening at the time.
But so many memories for this club, are they all in vein?
Being a ball-boy, being at 8 out of the 10 games we won in a row back in 83-84, the Fire, the people who gave their lives, the nearly season in 1987/88 with surely the best football we have seen at Valley Parade in recent years, Great victories against Everton and Tottenham in the cups, the Wembley Visit and victory, Chris Waddle and his wonder goal at Everton, Paul Jewell and his wonderful leadership of the Promotion Team, staying up in the Premiership by beating a team that was chasing a Champions League spot. Great Memories.
It looks like the league are going to force any new buyers to pay the players compensation in full or face playing in the Northern Premier League alongside Bradford Park Avenue.
So a world without Bradford City or a world where Bradford City have to rise again. I know which one I'd prefer.
I don't want my memories to be all in vein, and I don't to have to explain to my children that Daddy used to support a football team, but they're not around anymore.