David Sharpe discusses Bradford City's transfer window

Speaking exclusively to the T&A, Sharpe discussed the ins and outs from the summer market – including his thinking behind the exits of Jake Young, Alex Gilliead and Matty Platt and the injury scenario with Callum Johnson.

HOW DO YOU FEEL THE WINDOW WENT FOR CITY?

“There are always areas where you want to strengthen heading into the summer and I think we’ve done that.

“We already had a strong enough squad. It just needed certain additions to it and competition in certain areas.

“We believe we’ve got that now.

“People may look at not having cover for Richie Smallwood now that Kevin McDonald’s gone.

“However, the manager was adamant we had that in the building with other players like Alex Pattison.

“We didn’t want to bring in players that are just sat on the bench or not even making the squad. You want to get your money on the pitch.

“That’s where decisions were made with the likes of Kevin. The manager made it clear he wasn’t in his plans.

“Even if Richie was to get injured or be suspended, he wouldn’t play Kevin. He would play others ahead of him.

“That wasn’t an easy decision because Kevin had a very good career and was obviously an experienced professional.

“But we didn’t want somebody on a wage of his level who’s not even going to make the bench. It wouldn’t work well for either party.”

WHY DID THE CLUB LET ALEX GILLIEAD GO?

“It was probably the most difficult one because he’d been at the club for so long. He was always available and very rarely injured.

“However, we couldn’t justify keeping a player again on a decent wage when he wasn’t making the match-day squad.

“We have some quality number eights or 10s now who are ahead of Alex. Midfielder-wise he was really down the pecking order.

“His only gametime would have probably come as a right wing-back cover for Brad Halliday. But we didn’t want to keep someone on his wage around just in case Brad got injured.

“That’s why we brought in a cheaper loan to cover us there.

“I’m a big believer in trying to get your money on the pitch and I just hate players sat on decent wages not even making the squad.

Deciding Alex Gilliead should move on was City's hardest call (Image: Max Lomas)

“It’s frustrating because you haven’t got unlimited amounts of money in our league and can’t carry big squads.

“The main thing is trying to get value for money and getting that on the pitch.”

DOES THE SQUAD HAVE ENOUGH STRENGTH IN DEPTH?

“Each window gives you another opportunity, particularly in the summer when you’ve got out-of-contract players.

“Next summer we’ve got a few coming out of deals and it will shape up differently again. But overall, I’m really positive.

“The Grimsby manager Dave Artell made reference to it before we played them, saying our squad was one of the strongest in the league.

“We feel we’ve got good competition in every area. But it’s about doing the business on the pitch now and so far it’s been a good start.

“When squads are tweaked, they normally go on to have successful seasons rather than if you’ve made wholesale changes.

“If you look at the top three last season, squads were just tweaked rather than changing seven or eight of the starting 11.

“That was something we looked at. You look at the better clubs this season and I believe they’ll be the ones who’ve got the same manager as last season and more or less a similar squad.

“We all make changes because Leagues Two and One are usually one or two-year deals. There’s always going to be opportunities to change or players wanting to move on at the end of their contracts.

“But, on the whole, we’ve got a fairly settled team from last season. Tyreik Wright was obviously on loan.

“Every window you want to move beyond certain players and we felt we have moved beyond Alex Gilliead. That means you’re in a good place.

“Not taking anything away from him, it’s just the way we play now is different and the number eights and 10s have to be very creative. That was why that decision was made.”

WHAT ABOUT OTHER CLUBS DOING MORE BUSINESS?

“Look at the teams that have made better starts like Doncaster and Chesterfield, who have got a settled team, settled way of playing and have kept the same manager.

“The ones that have made wholesale changes will take time.

“Even MK, who have recruited really strongly but it’s almost a whole new starting 11.

“It might take them a while to get going, although I do think they’ll be up and around it at the end.

“It does take time to bed in new faces when there’s that many.

Matty Platt's deal is far and above what he was on at City (Image: Thomas Gadd)

“Compare that with us and the team that played Carlisle only had three new players – Cheick Diabate, Neill Byrne and Olly Sanderson.

“They’ve got used to the way the manager wants to play because they’ve got players around them who’ve played in that style for many a month and it’s easy to adapt.”

WERE THERE TARGETS THAT GOT AWAY?

“You always feel there are ones you miss out on who go to higher leagues or whatever. But that happens to any club.

“We did try to keep Matt Platt but you can’t bow down to player’s demands.

“Matt’s got a deal for himself that’s far and above what he was on at Bradford.

“You then create an issue with other players expecting the same. There becomes a problem in the dressing room with people saying, ‘he’s got this, I want that’.

“It upsets the apple cart, so it’s something you have to be really strong on. We can’t just let players dictate to us what they want.”

WHAT ABOUT THE JAKE YOUNG SCENARIO?

“Jake more or less made it clear, or his agent did, that he was happy to stay at Bradford as long as he got a deal that made him one of the top earners at the club.

“He’d done nothing to justify that here. Our response was for him to prove it first that he was worth it.

“If you look over the course of his time at Bradford, he’d only made 16 appearances. His xG (expected goals) was 4.1, now Cooky is nearly at 4.0 this season and we’re only five games in.

“Yes, we’ll sit down when players do the business for us. But we’re not having players just dictate to us when they’ve done it for half a season elsewhere.

“Jake had done it for Swindon and I’ve seen plenty of players do it there. Harry McKirdy, for instance, moved on and hasn’t done anything since.

“Swindon have a style of play that suits their attacking players. Jake over-performed his xG by quite a lot there, I think it was just under 10 for his starts at Swindon and he scored 16 goals.

“That doesn’t last. At Barrow, when he went on loan, his xG was just over one.

“I hope he does the business at Stevenage but we can’t let players tell us what they want on the back of half a good season at another club when they haven’t done it for us.

“It was an easy decision in my opinion. It had to happen.

“You don’t want a player here that is unhappy because he felt his wage wasn’t justifying his ability.

“You don’t want players distracting others and bringing them down.

Jake Young's deadline-day departure was an easy decision (Image: Thomas Gadd)

“Ultimately, we believe and the manager believes that Andy Cook, Olly Sanderson and Calum Kavanagh were doing better than Jake Young in training and in games in pre-season.

“To keep a striker around who was possibly fourth choice and didn’t want to be here just didn’t make sense.

“We have to back our own judgement and hopefully that will come right come the end of the season.”

DOES CALLUM JOHNSON’S INJURY REFLECT BADLY ON CITY'S RECRUITMENT POLICY?

“It’s very unfortunate. Before we signed Callum, we did a lot of checks with Mansfield, with the physios and with Nigel Clough and they felt he was in a good place.

“This injury is not related to previous ones. We don’t have a crystal ball when we sign players and can’t predict what’s going to happen.

“We signed Brad Halliday, obviously before I was here, when he’d missed nearly a year with a cruciate injury.

“We wouldn’t have been in the room for Callum had he played a full season because he’d have got a League One move or stayed at Mansfield.

“There are always going to be risks with players and that’s why I wanted to make sure it was only a one-year deal.

“It would trigger another year if he played a certain amount of games to try and give him that goal of getting on the pitch.

“It’s just been such an unfortunate situation and I’m gutted for him. He’s been in a bad place and we’re all doing our best to try and support him and get him back.

“When we signed Callum at Mansfield, he hadn’t really had an injury before. He’d played 40 games a season for Portsmouth, Accy (Accrington), Ross County and Fleetwood.

“You’re thinking at his age now that he could get over them and I believe he will.

“We’ve got to the bottom of why it’s happened and now it’s about rehabbing him and getting him right. Like the manager said, we don’t want to rush him back for him to break down again.

“We’ve got cover on the right side of defence and we’ve got cover at wing-back.

“Obviously it’s not ideal but this squad is well-equipped to cope with injuries.

“These things sometime happen. Everyone is a genius saying we shouldn’t have signed him because of injury.

“But at the same time, you put yourself in a position to make these decisions and to do the right thing.

“Everybody could easily have been saying ‘what a brilliant signing’ and how well it’s worked out. But this is football and these are the risks you take.

“Cheick came in on Saturday having lost Aden Baldwin the week before at Grimsby and looked top drawer straight away.

City have high hopes for on-loan Fulham striker Olly Sanderson (Image: Thomas Gadd)

“It showed that the ones we’ve brought in are more than capable of doing a job for us.

“I think Neill Byrne is improving in the position every game playing in the middle of a three.

“Olly Sanderson made his first league start and him and Cooky seemed to get a good partnership going.

“He holds the ball up well, he tucks in and does his fair share of work. He’s physically well built.

“He got a goal in the Trophy and should have had another with the disallowed header.

“He had three decent chances on Saturday so he’s putting himself in the right positions for goals to come.

“We’ll get to January and there might be additions needed to top up.

“But between now and then we feel very sure about things.”