Phil Parkinson can be sure of landslide win with any Valley Parade public vote

Common sense is too often trampled by the wayside in the land where keyboard warriors roam.

But one particularly outlandish suggestion this week, however unwittingly, did raise a topical discussion point.

This critic's comment that Phil Parkinson had taken City as far as he could did prove about as popular as a Liberal Democrat on the doorstep in the General Election.

When I last checked, he was on course for a record negative score – if such figures are recorded somewhere in the deepest recesses of our database.

Breaking minus 150 in "thumbs down" from other readers is probably a source of personal pride. That's a level of disagreement and disdain that will take some beating.

City, in case you've forgotten, have just finished in their highest league position since dropping out of the second tier in 2004.

They also made it to the last eight of the FA Cup, dumping two Premier League sides along the way – one of them being the newly-crowned champions of England on their own manor.

But according to one disgruntled online "supporter", Parkinson had come up short because the team finished just outside the play-offs. Tough crowd, eh.

Whether his reasoning was sincere or, more likely, merely looking to wind up – in which case it succeeded splendidly – the response was a reminder of how much the manager means to the Valley Parade faithful. Well, 99.9 per cent of them anyway.

Each of his four seasons has seen an improvement on the one before, not withstanding a couple of memorable cup runs. That hardly equates to a boss who has run his course.

In the afterglow of that monumental victory at Stamford Bridge, Parkinson was asked by a tabloid reporter if he had now got a job for life with the Bantams.

He looked slightly embarrassed at the question and quickly turned it round into a discussion of how satisfied he was at helping to establish the club at the next division up from when he'd taken over.

"We'll keep on building and I'm enjoying every minute of it," he said. "We've always looked to keep improving slowly.

"We haven't got the finances to compete with the bigger clubs, even at our level. But we're building a good structure and that's what we want to continue to do."

Steady progress has been the mantra from the moment Parkinson first walked in on August Bank Holiday Monday 2011 to a club that had only one win from their opening five League Two games and looked to be drifting aimlessly.

It's a policy that suggests team matters are in the safest of hands – ones that are trusted by those who pay to follow City week in, week out.

When Parkinson addressed a group of the national press in the Chelsea press box, he had no idea about the possible implications of that victory.

Of course, it sent shockwaves through the football world – it is arguably the biggest upset the FA Cup has ever seen.

But it also pricked the attention of Gianni Paladini in his hunt for a club to buy and, having been rebuffed in his attempt to land Birmingham, private contact with the City board soon followed.

The result of that interest should soon be heard – the Italian has the rest of May to pursue his "exclusive" period to get the deal done.

Paladini, by all accounts, has been very impressed with Parkinson's work. As a football man, how could he not be?

There should be no desire for change. But new owners bring new ideas and, inevitably, that tends to mean new men – if not straight away, then generally fairly soon down the line.

How often have you heard the phrase "but the current manager's not his own man ..." when a different face appears at the top?

Parkinson will be well aware of that and will, no doubt, seek guarantees that he retains the full confidence of those up top should there be a buy-out in the coming weeks. It's inevitable speculation that other names will be bandied about.

He currently has one more year to go on the contract he penned on the day that Bradford came out in force to salute their double Wembley heroes in Centenary Square.

No contact has been made about a new deal so far but there had been a hint from Mark Lawn and Julian Rhodes that they were considering opening talks before the summer was out.

How would that be affected by a shift in the Valley Parade landscape? Would Paladini be as willing to get the gaffer's representative around the table so soon into their new relationship?

That is one of the great imponderables as we stand.

John Hendrie yesterday urged any new owner to "let the manager manage" and maintain the faith in the job that Parkinson is doing.

Extra finance would be hugely welcomed, obviously, to break through that glass ceiling that the present owners admit exists should City make it back to the Championship.

But Parkinson would naturally also want the assurance and the trust that he will not be told how to spend it.

He can be sure of having the public vote right behind him – you don't need the internet thumbs going all 'Emperor Nero' to prove that.