What if...?

What If Martin O'Neill had become City boss?

Back in 1987 when Trevor Cherry was sacked as City boss the board, headed by Stafford, whittled down the shortlist of replacements to one, former Nottingham Forest winger Martin O'Neill who takes up the story... "I applied for loads of jobs, Stockport County, Chesterfield, York City, but only once was asked for an interview, and that was at Bradford City. A list of eight people was drawn up at Bradford, I was on it, did very well at the interview and was the only one of the eight to be asked back. I believe that it's only an Irishman who could get down to the last one and still fail. What happened was that Terry Dolan, who was caretaker manager after Trevor Cherry was sacked, had been doing very well, and, anyway, he was given the post and I was left waiting for something else to come along, and nothing did." Martin O'Neill went on to non-league Wycombe Wanderers and then around a few clubs before making his name at Leicester City and joining boyhood idols Celtic taking the title to Park Head but... What If Martin O'Neill had become City boss?

What we would want to have happened

Martin takes charge of a talented group of players. He has a young Stuart McCall who becomes his backbone of the team just as Neil Lennon would in later years. John Hendrie provides the attacking thrust along with Bobby Campbell who is replaced next season by a young sprightly forward of Martin's choosing. The Irish gaffer's eye for a player, which would see him turn plaster Steve Guppy into an England international and make a footballer out of poser Robbie Savage, replaces the Bob Savages with quality and O'Neill is the toast of football when he takes unfashionable Bradford City in the First Division.

A young London based youngster named Jamie Lawrence catches O'Neill's eye and he brings him into the Bantams getting him out of a bad situation in his home town. A trip to his former club, Nottingham Forest, brings Martin's biggest transfer folly paying a Bantam's record of a staggering £1m for Neil Webb to partner Stuart McCall in the midfield. Greg Abbott soon wins his place back. Former Grattan warehouseman Ian Ormodroyd is converted to centreback and encouraged to put on some weight. He partners Terry Butcher in the 1990 World Cup Finals.

Martin establishes the Bantams as a Wimbledon styled team with the big name clubs scared to come to Valley Parade and their is much upset on the day that Brian Clough gracefully hands over to the exiting City boss who leaves Valley Parade with a club that would enjoy top flight status to this day.

What would have happened

Although the team would do well Martin would have struggled to cope with the haphazard organisation behind the scenes at City and when Stafford left to make way for Jack Tordoff O'Neill would have had enough and would walk away from Valley Parade just as he did at Norwich City.