CITY could add a loan player to their squad in Austria – but not the one they have been tracking.
The Bantams, who head for Obertraun today, have made an offer to bring in another recruit and will look to fly him over to the training camp if the deal is done soon enough.
But the other player that they had hoped to take has hit a brick wall - because of his pre-season form.
“That one might not be happening now,” said Graham Alexander. “The lad has stayed with his parent club and apparently he’s done really well.
“They are still waiting on signing other players but, in the meantime, he’s played for the team, scored for them and done well.
“His club are looking at him now and thinking that they might keep him.
“They are only going to answer that question when they sign the other players they want. But they’ve given us the heads up that he has impressed.
“They couldn’t let him go even if he hadn’t because of the numbers but I think they are pre-empting that they are thinking about keeping him now. So, we’re looking again at other targets.”
City boss Alexander stressed that it was not for an “essential” part of the team but more for competition – which suggests the mystery man may be a midfielder.
“It’s not a position that we’re desperately in need of right now so we can be a little bit patient with it.
“But they’ve given us the heads up that it might not go through, so maybe you look at other targets. They’ve been really fair with us.
“I can understand. It’s what happens in pre-season.
“I think Bobby Pointon did the same last year. He got an opportunity to train with the first team, he impressed and then you take your chance – that’s how football works.
“We’ll see how that progresses but at the minute it’s on pause. Obviously, the lad won’t be travelling to Austria with us.”
The other move is for another position and Alexander is hopeful of beating off three other clubs to get his man.
He added: “It might happen while we’re in Austria and if it does we could potentially fly him out to be with us.
“That’s something we’ve tried to progress in the last few days.
“He’s someone we haven’t spoken to personally, but we have spoken to his club.
“It’s a different position and a different club but a good player that we identified at the end of last season.
“There was a contract issue with his parent club, so we were waiting for that to be resolved.
“It has been now so we’re trying to hopefully make that happen in the next few days or week or so.
“It would be good to get at least one of them on board, so fingers crossed that happens.”
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