The white board in Colin Todd's office is plastered with names.

Others will be added, many wiped off over the next few weeks.

The dungeon, as Todd has christened his private corner of Valley Parade, is going to be a hive of activity.

It is only four days since City's season finished but the rebuilding for the next one is already underway.

Having culled his playing squad on Monday, Todd needs new faces and at least six or seven of them. Virtually every position needs to be strengthened.

Regardless of the budget he is working to, Todd would have made changes anyway. After two years in mid-table, the dressing room needs a shake-up if City are to achieve the top-six aim that he will set in August when the first ball is kicked in anger.

The vastly-experienced Bantams boss has been here before. At Middlesbrough he plonked a load on the transfer list and started again and that was after they had lost in the play-offs.

But it will require the wheeler-dealer skills he showed during administration two years ago to assemble a squad he believes can make the step up.

There may be quality remaining but not enough of it to sustain a challenge, especially if someone like Dean Windass or, heaven forbid, David Wetherall got injured.

Todd, to recall the words of Alan Hansen, does not believe City can win it with youngsters.

Hansen's blast at Manchester United, of course, famously came back to bite him on the bottom.

But Todd, while confident the young guard will have a bigger part to play next time, insists they should not be placed under such a weight of expectation. Young players need to be handled with care.

The emergence of the "kids" will be the abiding memory of another middling campaign. When the season began, the names Joe Brown and Joe Colbeck were barely heard of outside their own homes; the likes of Tom Penford, Craig Bentham and John Swift were stuck on the periphery.

The fact that four of them were on the pitch when the final whistle sounded against Nottingham Forest and Penford only missed out through injury showed how far they had come.

Penford had not even been allocated a shirt number in August. But when the chance came after Christmas, he seized it and showed a silky touch and willingness to attack that breathed new life into an under-performing midfield.

Colbeck looks like an old-fashioned right winger taking on the full back for fun. On the evidence of the closing months, he has clearly usurped Ben Muirhead in the pecking order.

The much-maligned LDV Vans Trophy was the making of Brown not to mention a priceless diving header against Blackpool in stoppage time.

And Bentham and Swift, who like Penford seem to have been around for ages, both demonstrated that hard work on the training ground and great patience does get its rewards when they emerged for the season's run-in.

The impressive finish only one defeat in the last nine games showed how well the young guns were firing.

But once again it was the big artillery that proved the crucial weapons. And once again the skipper was magnificent. It seems almost unthinkable that only a couple of years ago Wetherall spent 90 per cent of his time stuck on the sidelines nursing one injury after another.

The only player to appear in every league game, he set a high standard that never wavered. It was no wonder that the defence so often performed above the call of duty.

Bower, alongside him, looks a Wetherall in the making. Even the mid-season shift to left back did not faze him and it was a very rare occasion when he looked genuinely troubled by an opposing winger. His positional change was caused by the arrival of Damion Stewart, surely the most improved player over the season.

Todd had warned that the Jamaican was "very raw" but had something about him. On his debut against Barnsley, playing out of position at right back, it seemed the only thing different about him was a pair of left feet. Stewart was put out of his misery after less than half an hour of total torture.

Yet two months later he was back again, as Todd dabbled with using three centre halves, and looked a natural.

He nailed down a regular place and finished his debut term in English football with a three-year deal in the Championship with QPR. It was some turn-around.

His Reggae Boy pal Donovan Ricketts saw his stock rise just as quickly. The jury was still out when the big fella began his run as first-choice keeper but he won his way into Bantams hearts not just with his performances but the eccentricities.

Yet behind all the forward rolls, diving headers, nutmegs and step-overs he is as good as they come at this level. It was no surprise, therefore, that only three sides conceded less goals in League One. So defensively, at least, City were a play-off outfit.

Going forward was a different story, despite another 20-goal effort from Windass.

He might play the clown but any of City's rivals would love to have the 37-year-old in their own ranks. Why else would a Premiership club, let alone Barnsley, try to lure him away?

Windass scored two hat-tricks, including one on his birthday when he was coming back from a five-game exile for abusing a referee in the Valley Parade car park. All in a day's work Once again, though, there was little back-up. The fact that Wetherall was joint second top-scorer 14 behind says it all.

Danny Cadamarteri, tipped to take the division by storm by Julian Rhodes, looked good in parts. But he has never scored many goals throughout his career and managed just two in the league.

Once again he under-achieved and news of the failed drugs test just points towards more potential problems next term.

Andy Cooke, like Cadamarteri, failed to trouble the scorers for all his honest endeavour while veteran journeyman Steve Claridge appropriately left all his best work for the road. None of his five City goals happened at Valley Parade.

The midfield, too, was a major let-down. Chief culprit was Bobby Petta, the Dutchman who rarely lived up to his past reputation with Celtic and Ipswich.

Fellow wide men Muirhead and Owen Morrison flattered to deceive just as much and Steve Schumacher showed little of the promise from his exciting first season. He has much to prove in the final year of his contract.

Compare the final table to Boxing Day and City only lost five times in the second half of the season. Only champions Southend and play-off bound Barnsley did better.

But that masks a league-highest haul of 19 draws the real reason they signed off once again in 11th spot.

City never ventured higher than sixth or lower than 16th. Difficult to beat but they found it just as hard to win.