CITY have left the door open for Dylan Mottley-Henry.
The winger was released at the end of April after his short-term contract was up.
Mottley-Henry and loan trio Callum Cooke, Dylan Connolly and Jamie Devitt were the first players to be told they could not be kept on as the club tighten their belt through the enforced lockdown.
But Stuart McCall has made it clear that Mottley-Henry is very much in his thinking – and could be offered another chance when City are in the position again to start planning ahead.
He said: “At this moment in time, the club simply cannot afford to be giving contracts to anyone because there is no revenue coming in.
“But Dylan might be one that we revisit in the coming months. We certainly can’t be offering anything right now.
“I enjoyed working with the lads in the short period of time. Obviously, I didn’t get as much chance with Jamie because of his injury.
“Dylan Connolly was certainly a character. Cookie again had an injury that meant we had to pull him out the first couple of games but he was another good type.”
The 22-year-old, who made his City debut in 2015, left for Barnsley three years ago before returning at the end of January.
McCall stressed to the winger that the decision to let him go at the end of his three-month deal was purely a cost-saving measure the club had to make during the ongoing shutdown.
More players are expected to follow when their contracts expire in the summer.
McCall added: “There will be those decisions coming up shortly, depending on what the EFL decide about finishing the season.
“But Dylan, as I said to him, didn’t fall into the case of, ‘we’re letting you go because we want to’.
“I was quite happy with what I saw from him.
“Again, we don’t know budgets, when we’re getting back, the financial implications etc. But it certainly wasn’t a case of simply casting Dylan aside.
“He could still have played a part for us but obviously I don’t think there are going to be any more games.
“In the meantime, obviously now knowing he’s a free agent, it’s open for Dylan to look to see if there’s something else out there.
“But deep down, I think he might feel that he’s got unfinished business at Bradford having started here and gone away.”
Mottley-Henry featured in all six games under McCall but was subbed at half-time during City’s 2-0 loss at Salford, their last outing in March.
The City boss, though, was impressed with the player’s reaction to that display.
“Like a lot of us did, Dylan probably had his poorest game at Salford,” said McCall.
“But when we had the team meeting on the Monday, he’d already watched his clips the day before with his dad.
“That’s a good sign for me because who wants to watch a game when you know you’ve been poor?
“That showed me a bit of his mentality. He came to see me and apologised for his performance.
“Everyone, myself included, can go back and look at your good games.
“But it takes something to go and have a look at one when you know you’ve not performed well and try to see what you can improve on.
“I thought that was a tick in his character box. That left an impression on me.
“He’s certainly showed a really good attitude and that’s he willing to learn and improve.
“That’s what we want. He’s a conscientious kid.”
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