2002-2003 Preview
August 2002
Player By Player
Big players
David Wetherall
The Bantams have a new skipper and his name is Player X. Years ago when BfB heard that City has signed a mystery central defender and that Player X was Leeds man David Wetherall we lead with the article Player X, Player Why? We could not believe that City would sign such an average player when Dean Richards was available.
Well perhaps we should have signed Richards but from his 31st minute goal line clearance against Boro on the opening day of the Premiership to his bringing back in of the sacked squad David Wetherall has proved BfB wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
This season he is skipper, taking over from Stuart McCall. I cannot think of anyone else who I would feel more comfortable with taking the armband off the legend.
Last season's result can be split into the games were Wetherall was fit, we did well in those, and the games where he was injured and we tended to be poor at the back. Simple really. Wetherall is the best defender in the football league on the field and as with McCall, he gives so much to those around him that his presence on the field makes average players good and good players better.
If we have David Wetherall fit for the whole season, and that is a big if, then we will do well. He has taken over McCall's mantel as the man who is irreplaceable.
Tom Kearney and Claus Jorgensen
Stuart McCall is the man who is irreplaceable. This is his replacement.
You could feel sorry for Tom Kearney really. He went from Widnes for Everton reserves to being the heir apparent to a Bradford legend. No sooner has he arrived then he was being fit for the midfield role McCall had made his own. Those are big shoes to fill.
What impresses about Kearney is his levelheaded desire to fill them. He hears the comparisons but has no fear of taking the number four shirt that has been vacated. He is compared to McCall by McCall himself. Paul Gascoigne says he cannot believe that Everton let him go yet the young man stays calm.
Kearney's contract is up at the end of this season. We should be holding a pen under his nose from the first we can. He looks like a find, if he puts in a season that his character and his displays towards the end of last term suggest then we will be a find for someone else.
Jim Jefferies never saw Claus Jorgensen play before signing him. Typical Jim. He did not seem too keen on playing him either. You did wonder why Claus Jorgensen was even at Valley Parade. Nicky Law, to his credit, knew why.
Jorgensen is a rare breed. The midfield with options. He passing I not outstanding, but his ability to beat men with the ball is. Like Gascoigne vintage 1990 he poises problems for the opposition because of the breadth of options at his disposal.
Nicky Law is going to have trouble finding a place for Jorgensen in the side but if he plays like the Jorgi who tormented Portsmouth at Valley Parade last season then the Dane will claim the inside midfield role with Tom Kearney as his minder. If both play well then City have a young engine room with a lot of talent and a team with that cannot be underestimated.
Mark Bower
Mark Bower is on a roll. Three months away from being a free transfer he became the rock of a back four that looked like pebbles. His emergence was nothing short of a Bantam miracle. Now he needs to build.
He needs a season next to David Wetherall, learning from the intelligent defender the tricks of the trade. He needs to remember what Andy O'Brien used to do to man mark, he needs to have a word with Wayne Jacobs about unerring positional sense. He needs to learn because then he will get better. If he keeps what he had at the end of last season and gets better he will be some player.
Need to do well
Michael Standing
The boy needs a game. Five years into his professional career he has yet to really kick a ball in anger. Little is expected of him, Tom Kearney stole his thunder, but the fact that Gareth Barry was signed by Villa to keep Standing company suggests that he is capable of something.
Standing needs a chance to play and show why he once cost £500,000 without kicking a ball. Nicky Law needs to give him a chance sooner rather than later to build the guy's confidence, which is reported to be at rock bottom after a few years living with John Gregory.
Should he get a chance then who knows what he can do?
Danny Cadamarteri
I'll confess that I like Danny Cadamarteri. I can leave the whole beating up the ex-girlfriend side of things but I'll take the running in channels and the buzzing play off a big man. I'd like to see Cadders get more goals and this season I think he will. Pace, which Cadders has in abundance, will stretch out games and give relief to City's back four.
Cadamarteri is City's new Sean McCarthy. Like the Welshman all he needs is to find the right groove and he will be scoring for fun. If he can do it this year then all the better.
Andy Gray and Paul Evans
City's two trialists have proved more than most by joining the Bantams during the summer with no guarantee of a contract or even that there would be a club to play for. Both look good and have earned a chance at Valley Parade. We shall see.
Jamie Lawrence
"I'm an inside midfielder really". Not laughing at the back. Jamie fancies himself as the John Barnes of the Bantams moving off the wing and brining his busy playing style to inside midfield. It's an interesting concept and one that could work really well or fail in a huge way. Still this season if he does try inside midfield he needs to do it well cause football has very few 34 year old wingers.
Lewis Emanuel
Lewis started off his career in the City first team superbly but injury and reported off the field shenanigans cost him form and momentum. Now he stands at a crossroads. His talent can take him one way, youthful exuberance can take him the other and like so many other players before him he needs to decide early to take the right path.
Need to do better
Peter Atherton
You have to feel a bit sorry for Peter Atherton. It's not his fault he is always injured and its not his fault that City gave him a stupidly high contract but few would deny that when the accounts were read out and City's stark financial state became apparent any money paid to Peter Atherton seemed to have been thrown into a deep black hole.
Basically Peter Atherton owes Bradford City at least one decent season, this one if possible.
Juanjo
Juanjo was the make or break player for Jim Jefferies job. He broke. JJ had waxed lyrical about the young Spanish winger and when he finally captured his man he left him on the bench. Basically Juanjo has talent but lack application. He needs to knuckle down. Nicky Law needs to make it clear to he of the pointed collars that if he does not do it this year it's a free transfer to Kilmarnock next summer and sitting next to the potato shaped Scot.
Andy Tod
The waste of it all. Andy Tod cost £250,000 at a time when City had no money and his return was woeful. Not good enough for a striker, not good enough for a defender the only way for Tod to turn around his career now is to get a lot better quickly. If he does then his name may ring out at Valley Parade once more. Lets not hold our breath.
Ashley Ward
It is not that Ashley Ward is not a good player or that he does not get his fair share of goals but rather it's the attitude that seems to ooze off him. He gets his £18,000 a week because we were stupid enough to pay him it. He is not going to charge around to earn it like Benito Carbone used to do. He will play his usual game, he will not play if he has a slight knock, he will do as he always does and pick up his cheque. Ashley Ward can stay at City and get paid but if he wants to stay, be paid and be liked he needs to start putting in an extra ten or twenty percent in every game. City fans can stand anything except players not giving their all. Ashley Ward does not.
Andy Myers and Robert Molenaar
Both put in decent displays last term but both were signed to play in the Premiership on Premiership wages and should be doing more than getting by in the First Division. Hopefully a Bower/Wetherall partnership can keep the pair cooling their heels.
Ticking over
Wayne Jacobs
Jakes had a good season last year, he will have a good one this year and hopefully can guide Lewis Emanuel (both on and off the field). Expect Wayne Jacobs to make a great manager one day.
Gary Walsh
If Gary Walsh could steer clear of injury again there is no reason why he could not reproduce the form of 1998-99 that saw his safe hands take City to promotion but Walsh and injury seem to go together and one can only hope that he can put in enough to make sure we never get another Neville Southall situation.
Andy Lee
Young lad coming through the ranks. Should get a few run outs on the left wing and hope for more in 2003-4.
Aidan Davison
Looks like staying as bench sitter to Gary Walsh. Hopefully will come good if needed.