David Wetherall is getting sick and tired of stories that he will be Bradford City's next big-name departure.

The injured centre-half has been persistently linked with Everton as a replacement for Richard Gough and the rumours are likely to run right through the summer.

But Wetherall has made it clear he knows nothing about it - and has no intentions of engineering a move out of Valley Parade.

Wetherall said: "As far as I'm concerned it's just the papers suggesting this and that, nothing more. It's one of those rumours that keeps being passed along and dragged up again and again.

"I didn't know what I'd done wrong last week but I saw one report on Wednesday saying I was worth £3m and then by Sunday I was only worth £600,000. So I must have had a bad few days at home with the missus!

"I've certainly not been approached by anybody and I'm not going in asking to leave. I'm not going to be writing out a transfer request just because we've gone down.

"It's fair to say that people are going to have to go after what the chairman has said about the wages. At the moment the wage bill here will be more than £5m.

"Obviously people are looking at me, putting two and two together and getting about 18. As I've said before it's going to be an interesting summer and nobody really knows what will happen.

"It's very much in the hands of the manager and chairman to decide. But I'm definitely not looking to get away."

Boss Jim Jefferies is desperate to hang on to Wetherall but knows that will not stop the transfer talk.

He said: "There's going to be a lot of speculation because we are down and players like David, Robert Molenaar and Eoin Jess will be linked.

"It would be great if we could keep them all but we don't know if that's possible because of what we have to do or the position of their contracts.

"But I think the players would like to stay because they have seen the way the squad has pulled together in the last couple of months."

Wetherall, sidelined since March 31 with his groin problem, has seen the shoots of recovery as City look to bounce straight back.

He added: "Even though there isn't much to play for because we're going down, there is still a great application and high performance level which is a good sign. I think there is a lot of cause for optimism if we can keep the vast majority of this side together.

"It would be very disappointing for everybody if, having finished quite strongly, the side was dismantled."

Chairman Geoffrey Richmond was back behind his desk yesterday after last week's stomach operation.