GRAHAM Alexander hopes City’s surge to the League Two finish line will make them a more enticing prospect for summer targets.

The Bantams finished their season by rattling off five straight wins – their best form in the league since 2021.

The last play-off place just eluded them but Alexander believes that eye-catching late run can help in the market for new signings as well as convince the current squad what they could be capable of.

“I’ll be honest, that was our aim after Harrogate,” said the City boss. “We had to restore belief in ourselves and the supporters’ belief in us as individuals and as a group of people.

“I feel the players have achieved those things and the fans are excited about the potential of this team.

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“I think that’s great because it wasn’t the case five or six weeks ago. On that side of it, we’ve restored a feelgood factor around the club after a really difficult season on the whole.

“I’m excited about next season thinking we can improve with a little bit of recruitment over the summer to make this team better.

“We didn’t want to finish 17th or 18th and then have good players thinking, ‘why would I want to come to you?’

“They can see the potential here but also the players we want to keep.

“We want them to believe now we’ve got something to go for next season. There’s no negative to winning games of football, on the mental side, physical side and certainly in our everyday life.

“We’ve given everyone some hope, some excitement and some optimism going forward. That’s a good place to be.”

With no play-off involvement, City will have longer to get ready for next season – and a head-start on those still playing.

The club have identified some potential names but held off to an extent while they remained in with an outside chance of reaching the top seven.

Alexander added: “We spoke a couple of weeks ago about certain players but then as we got closer to the end of the season, we were getting tighter to the play-offs.

“We decided to park all of that for a little bit to see if we could get over the line.

“There’s obviously clarity now in where we are and what we’re doing.

“Some of those players that we’ve been talking about are obviously involved with their clubs.

“We have to wait for their season to finish and then we’ll try and get the work done as early as possible. But it takes as long as it takes.

“We’re not going to rush into things that we don’t think will improve us because there’s no point.”

One-on-one talks are taking place today with the squad as players find out whether they will feature in Alexander’s future plans. The retained list is expected to be released in the next 48 hours.