The Mark Hughes Dilemma – Part 4 – Your Bradford City Retained List 2022/23 & Wage Budget.

** BEFORE READING PLEASE NOTE – THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT THE CHALLENGES WITH DECIDING UPON A RETAINED LIST AND GIVING YOU A GUIDE SO YOU CAN USE IT WHEN YOU CONSIDER WHAT YOURS WOULD BE. IT IS NOT AS SOME PEOPLE HAVE WRONGLY ASSUMED, ABOUT EXPOSING THE PLAYERS WAGES AT BRADFORD CITY. NOBODY KNOWS ACTUAL WAGES, NOT EVEN THOSE PEOPLE WHO HAVE MISSED THE POINT OF THIS ARTICLE BY RUBBISHING THE WAGES IN THE TABLE FEATURED BELOW. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS EXERCISE IT WILL AVERAGE OUT IN SUCH A WAY THAT IT IS USEFUL FOR THE TASK. I HAVE CHOSEN SALARYSPORT.COM AS A SOURCE DUE TO THERE BEING LESS USE OF ROUNDING UP OR ROUNDING DOWN OF WAGES THAN OTHER SOURCES. YOU COULD ACHIEVE THE SAME THING USING FM22 AS A GUIDE AND WORKING FROM A BUDGET THAT IS MAXED OUT IF YOU PREFER. FOR ANYONE THAT HAS READ THE PREVIOUS PARTS OF THIS ARTICLE AND READ THIS ARTICLE, YOU WILL ALREADY BE AWARE THAT I’VE POINTED THIS OUT ON MANY OCCASIONS AND HAVE PROVIDED CITATIONS TO ANY ACTUAL REAL FIGURES THAT HAVE LEAD TO THE CALCULATIONS ON THE BUDGET AND THE BUDGET BEING FULLY USED UP – THIS IS IN BIG CAPITAL LETTERS AND BOLD, FOR THOSE PEOPLE INCAPABLE OF READING OR PAYING ATTENTION TO DETAIL **

It’s finally here! Now you get to decide who should be on your Bradford City retained list for the 2022/23 season. Taking a look at the table below you can put yourself in the boots of Mark Hughes and work within his budget and decide who stays and who goes in the summer. This isn’t as easy as it might seem! I will give you the reasoning behind mine, and you can let me know what you’d do in the comments. If you want to share what you’d do on your own website, YouTube or any other social media, please leave a link back to this page, as I’d love to see them. You can follow Bantams Online @bantamsonline on Twitter and Instagram or Facebook, feel free to follow and tell me your thoughts.

The last three parts have shown you how we have arrived at the figure we have for the player wage budget at Bradford City. It took you from Edin Rahic’s summer of madness, overspending on players that simply weren’t up to EFL standards, let alone League One standards, to the budget being cut by Stefan Rupp when Gary Bowyer arrived at the club, to the situation Derek Adams found himself in through to the 2021/22 January transfer window. The budget has been calculated to ensure that in this part the figures will be as accurate as possible, and I have also demonstrated that the figures that are quoted on the table below, are as accurate as you could reasonably expect them to be.

You will need to take into consideration the following for players who’s contracts have expired:-

1- Freeing up enough of the wage budget to bring new players in.
2- How much wage a player would want to be paid or re-sign for Bradford City.
3- Is there a better option that’ll be cheaper in wages

You will need to take into consideration the following for players who’s contracts have NOT expired that you wish to sell:-

1- What teams would need the player?
2- Are those teams willing to pay him the same or more than he gets at City?
3- Can they even afford to pay him the same or more than he gets at City?
4- Is this the type of team he is likely to join?

We have established that the wage budget is £46,000 a-week, and you are currently spending £45,400 a-week. You are going to have to make room for new players to come in, and hopefully try to cover positions in case of injuries. I have left out the young players on the £140 a-week basic wage to keep things simple but it is included in the calculations.

The wage bill and budget above already takes into consideration the players who were getting paid by the club and have left, that has freed up £600 a-week. The rest came from the transfer fee from Ollie Crankshaw (covered in Part 3) and other sources that were factored into the 2021/22 budget only because the money was surplus. In the cases of Charlie Wood and Olivier Sukiennicki, if you choose to offer them a new contract you’d be expected to double what they’re currently on, the latter recently had a trial at Hull City.

Below is a list of last seasons loan signings that remain with Bradford City until June, with their wages at their current clubs. This is a guide for anyone who is thinking of signing any of them permanently or bringing them back on loan. If you would like to see a list of all footballers and their reported wages that is up-to date as of the end of the 2021/22 summer transfer window, so you can get an idea of what you’d need to offer them to come to Bradford City, the salarysport.com website is the most accurate way, as it is also where the figures for these wages are used, and as demonstrated in the previous parts of this article, is likely the most accurate. This will help you decide which players to keep and which players to get rid of as you work within your £46,000 a-week wage budget. Please note that the figures are not guaranteed to be right but across different sources these are the best to work with, because on others there appears to be a lot of rounding up and down used. An example would be Theo Robinson who tends to get rounded up to £1000 much like that with Lavery who gets rounded down to the same figure. The exercise isn’t an expose of what wages players are on, but for you to have a base to work within the available budget.

From the above loan list we can see that it is unlikely we could re-sign Jamie Walker, Tom Elliott or Nathan Delfouneso on loan as they will be at new clubs that will most likely need them. However both Alex Bass and Dion Pereira will still be contracted to their parent clubs in June, although with the latter there are no sources that tell us the period of his extension to his contract that he signed in August 2021.

Bradford City 2022/23 Retained List – My Thoughts

On to my choices for the Bradford City 2022/23 retained list. I have had to not only look at which players I want to keep at the club and those I want to move on, but the wage budget considerations have weighed heavily on my thinking, as well as looking at areas we have cover and those where we don’t. I have also had to take into consideration how much I think it will cost us to renew the contracts of each player, so there may be a few surprises, but they’re kind of attached to being able to keep other players. But I outline my thinking in each case.

Paudie O’Connor – (Release)

WAGE: (£1,800) | REVISED WAGE BILL £43,600

Getting the most controversial call out of the way is that of last seasons Bradford City Player of the Year (and probably this seasons too!). There are some City fans who for some reason just don’t think he’s good enough and probably wouldn’t be thinking twice about releasing him, however that’s not why I’m releasing him.

The fact of the matter is that with clubs in League One wanting his services, keeping him is probably going to cost in the region of £3,000-£3,5000 a-week, even more if it is true that Sheffield Wednesday try to sign him. In a previous article I’ve talked about him in more detail, but my only reason not renewing his contract is because what he is likely to reasonably want, that would just match the wages from those clubs interested in him would make his wage out of reach for us. That’s all it is, if you can find a way to free up enough wages to keep him, go for it.

Gareth Evans (Release)

WAGE: (£3,200) | REVISED WAGE BILL £40,400

This one is a no-brainer, his wages are way too high end for anything to justify keeping him. For his wage alone Hughes can bring in a League Two top-goalscorer striker. This would require seeing whether any on the current list of top scorers are out of contract, and of course if they would join us, but saving this wage is a massive relief. The only disappointment is that we cannot do the same with Andy Cook, who will be very difficult to offload to another club due to how much he is being paid. His wage is high so this is one I’d be desperate to get off of the wage bill. So thank goodness for Gareth Evans.

Richard O’Donnell (Release)

WAGE: (£1,700) | REVISED WAGE BILL £38,700

Releasing Richard O’Donnell is a no-brainer in my opinion. Although he will definitely need replacing O’Donnell is way too hit or miss and our goalkeeper is a key position that might require a player who will be one of the top earners at the club to replace. My opinion is that everything starts with the goalkeeper and if you’re serious about promotion we are going to need to invest in a goalkeeper that we can keep the faith with all season. Because of his wage, if push comes down to shove, I’d keep Sam Hornby as back-up.

Levi Sutton (2 years @ £1200 per month)

CURRENT WAGE: £1000 OFFER £1200per month | REVISED BUDGET £38,900

At 25 years old I think there’s sell-on value in Levi Sutton, I also think given the right role he could be invaluable to us going into the new season. But whatever you may think, I personally believe he has enough in terms of technical ability and mentality that will make him important in one way or another to have as an option in a promotion chasing squad. Even if his appearances mainly come from the bench I think it will be good to know we have that option, and as long as we can keep him at the club for the same wage or a couple of hundred a-week more than he’s getting now, it will be really good value.

Callum Cooke (Release)

WAGE: (£3,400) | REVISED WAGE BILL £35,500

There’s a lot I like about Callum Cooke, and at 25 years old he is still in that position in his career where he will be an asset to clubs in League Two or even League One. He will most likely easily find another club if he is released by Bradford City, but unless he was willing to drop his wage to the same figure as I’d offer Levi Sutton (with me having one eye on selling him in a years time) his wage is just too high to justify keeping him on the wage bill when there’s a lot of rebuilding that needs to be done to get the squad up to scratch and turn it into one that can realistically compete for promotion. I’d go as far to say that in reality this should be an either or, him or Levi Sutton, and Sutton can cover right back when it is needed. I don’t think renewing Cooke’s contract would make any sense for him under the terms I’ve set out and as things stand, I don’t think it would make any sense for Mark Hughes to keep him at the club.

Caolan Lavery (Release)

WAGE: (£1,400) | REVISED WAGE BILL £34,100

I suspect this will be a name on everyones release list, I don’t think he is EFL quality and at 29 years old I see nowhere but down for him. I’m not entirely sure how he was paid £1,400 to begin with, but we were in a tight spot for attackers with deadline day looming. The good bit of business is that Derek Adams chose to sign him on a one year deal, no doubt with an eye on this summer.

Theo Robinson (Release)

WAGE (£600) | REVISED WAGE BILL £33,500

Another signed by Adams on a one-year deal, another that he no doubt signed with one eye on the summer of 2022/23 and another that everyone will probably have on their list of players to release. There’s not much else to add except at 33 years old he is nearing the end of his EFL career.

Charles Vernam (2 years to £2,700 maximum)

CURRENT WAGE: £2,400 | REVISED WAGE BILL £33,800

It is hopeful that we could convince Vernam to remain at Valley Parade on the same wages he is currently being paid, and unlike many others on this list, Vernam will no doubt attract interest from other teams in League Two that might be able to afford to make him one of their highest earners. He would be an asset to many clubs in the bottom tier of the football league, so it is likely an increase in wage would be needed to keep him at the club. I wouldn’t be too surprised if that figure went up to £3,000 a-week, but at that wage it would all depend on who Mark Hughes would have lined up to replace him. Personally I’d want to keep him at the club, but could we bring in a decent loanee in that position that wouldn’t cost us anywhere near that figure in wages? Are there permanent options that would look at anything between £1500-£2500 as a major increase in their wages? There could be, so a lot would hinge on his wage demands.

Elliot Watt (2 years to £2,700 maximum)

CURRENT WAGE : £2,300 | REVISED WAGE BILL £34,200

At 22 years old, and with plenty of potential for development, and also the fact that there has been interest in him from the higher reaches of the football league, what to do about Elliot Watt is a very tough call. Personally I think whether he stays or leaves will hinge on a few factors, firstly who else is currently looking at him. Bear in mind that he is seen as a player with a really good potential, so a club from the Championship could choose to take a punt on him for a wage in the region of what he’s getting now at Bradford City. They would look to develop him rather than sign him to go into their first team. This is something you should consider when you decide whether to keep him or get rid, at 22 years old, you aren’t just renewing his contract because you think we need him in midfield, or releasing him because you think we can do better, but this time in January or the following summer, he could have sell-on value and that would go towards another player or three.

So with Elliot Watt, I have made the call to keep him because I think as the team improves, so will he. He has already shown that he can be an important part of the team, so he will be an important part of the first team going forward into the new season. On the other hand we may not get a lot of choice if there’s a League One or Championship club that comes knocking on his door, and this could mean having to pay him a higher weekly wage than he is currently getting. I personally might be prepared to give him £3,000 a-week at a push if I were Mark Hughes, but anything over that I would begin to find hard to justify considering the players that I’d need to bring to the club. In a way, this could be a straight choice between Elliot Watt or Charles Vernam.

Matty Foulds (1 year £600)

CURRENT WAGE £580 | REVISED WAGE BILL £34,200

There’s a few things to consider when dealing with Matty Foulds. He is 24 years old and hasn’t reached the heights of Paudie O’Connor, in other words Sheffield Wednesday won’t be after him, in fact it is unlikely he has featured on the radar of many other clubs in the football league. He could probably get more money at a smaller League Two club and get more first team football, but in his case playing for Mark Hughes in his hometown club in what could be a team pushing for promotion could do his career a lot more good in the long term than leaving us. From the managers point of view, he could get someone younger in for that wage, but Foulds provides cover for the left-back position as well as central defence, which is always useful. There is also the fact that under the right circumstances he could prove himself to be a really important player if he gets the opportunity. He’s one of those that it’s hard to be 100% sure which direction his career will head in. This is why a one-year deal for no more than £600 a-week would make sense and I think Foulds would take it. Even at a push I’d be tempted into offering a 2 year contract on these wages, but he may want the safety net of being in a position to increase his wages the following summer. But I’d keep him for a season.

Lee Angol (1 year £1000)

CURRENT WAGE : £2000 | REVISED WAGE BILL £33,200

With Lee Angol I think his injuries will have impacted his chances of getting a decent wage at another club, let alone Bradford City. It is unlikely there will be other teams willing to risk £2,000 a week, which is a decent whack, on a player that spent most of this season out of action. At 27 years old, for other clubs there are younger safer options that they could sign, but for Bradford City, at the right price, renewing his contract could be a very smart move. However the massive sticking point would be his wage, and I wouldn’t be willing to pay a penny more than £1,000 a-week for him. But I’m also banking on a hunch that he won’t get more than £1,000 a-week anywhere else, and if this happens, at that price, he’s definitely worth keeping and could be a cool bit of business if he stays injury free.

Lee Angol signed a 1 year deal with Bradford City on 4th May, 2022. Bradford City have agreed a 1 year “contract extension” with the striker which has the option of a further year included. Although it is described as a contract extension on the Official Bradford City website, Telegraph & Argus reporter Simon Parker reported that It is “understood that the Bantams did not take up the option to extend his original deal but appear to have offered a new one on different terms”. Angol may have been offered a new deal on a lower wage, as it would make no sense for the club to decline the option to extend his original contract on the same weekly wage, only to offer him a deal that gives him an even higher weekly wage.

Predictions: Correct (1 year contract – Probable lower wage).

Luke Hendrie (Release)

WAGE: £600 | REVISED WAGE BILL £32,600

Another of Derek Adam’s signings that seemed to be more of a stopgap than anything long-term, Luke Hendrie had been freed by Hartlepool and it is likely that the 6 month contract suited both Adams & Hendrie. This is the reason his wage will have been so low, as he could re-negotiate in the summer if he impressed, for Adams, he would be able to offload him easily if he didn’t. He hasn’t impressed and we need someone much better to fill the right back position.

There’s also the issue of Olivier Sukiennicki & Charlie Wood. I’d probably keep both at the club, although this is an issue for later. Renewing their contracts will require probably doubling their current wages.

FINAL WAGE BILL – £32,600 – REMAINING BUDGET £13,400 p/w

Getting rid of players under contract

The most problematic part of this pre-season is that bloody winter World Cup that the corrupt FIFA thrust upon the world. This makes getting rid of those players on high wages that will have few clubs interested in signing them, a race against time. Time is against us!

In terms of our wage budget, I like measuring everything in terms of Andy Cook’s. Currently I have managed to free up enough wages for around 4 Andy Cook’s. If I could get rid of Andy Cook I would too! My reasoning is simple, comparing him to some of the leading scorers in League Two, and the fact that £3,500 a-week is one of the higher wages in the league, shows he is simply not value for money, and I also don’t think he has the right mentality, and is part of the problem with our team, not the solution. To give you an example of some of wages the League Two top scorers are currently on. At Swindon Town Harry McKirdy was on £2,200 a-week before he signed a contract extension with them in January. Top scorer Dominic Telford at Newport County with 24 goals so far this season is on £2,400 a-week, at Forest Green Rovers there is Jamille Matt on £2,400 a-week and Matty Stevens, the leagues 2nd leading scorer on 23 goals, was only on £780 a-week until he was rewarded with a new contract in January.

The biggest problem with Andy Cook is finding another club that will take him. They’d have to offer him the same wages he is getting at Bradford City, and those that would be in for him are unlikely to fit that bill, so we could be stuck with him. The first name on my list in terms of players we definitely need to get rid of is obviously Oscar Threlkeld who will most certainly be someone Mark Hughes will want out of the door after substituting him at half-time against Colchester United, after once again proving that, to put it politely he is useless. At £1,800 per-week there might be some clubs around who will be willing to take a punt on him, as long as their scouting is poor or they’re desperate for a right back. His wage isn’t out of range for an ambitious National League club.

If we can get rid of both of those players it would make life a lot easier for Mark Hughes, with it bringing our wage bill down to £27,300 a-week.

The final name on the list of players to move on that are under contract would have to be Fiacre Kelleher at £1,300 a-week. Because his wage is not too high, it would be good to just get a last minute look at him whilst Paudie O’Connor is suspended. He is unlikely to feature as a first team regular, however, depending on how he does in our remaining matches, might be a decider on whether we hold on to him as back-up. It might also depend on whether we can get rid of Andy Cook, because Mark Hughes will need to free up some serious wages to allow for the rebuild our squad is in dire need of.

I would probably keep players that are young and have development potential such as Finn Cousin-Dawson and Reece Staunton, they also offer a bit of cover in positions that can be tricky to fill. Finally with the players I haven’t mentioned I’d say they’re safe under Mark Hughes for one reason or another. In the case of Alex Gilliead we have seen flashes of a player that could be vital in a decent team, I can’t knock his work rate either. The only issue I have is it is a wage that feels a little too high for where he fits into the squad but he is one that I think could be worth it in a team that is doing what it is supposed to do. However if a decent offer comes in for him, I’d certainly be open to letting him go and finding someone to replace him. Since Abo Eisa has been injured all season there’s not much that can be done about that, we can only hope that he is the answer to a lot of our problems and stays fit in the 2022/23 season. It isn’t like Eisa is usually out injured, it’s just how it has worked out for us this season. So given the circumstances of where we are with him, it would be best to see how it goes this season.

Dion Pereira (In On Loan 6 months)

WAGE £0 | REVISED WAGE BILL INC SALES £27,300

I don’t think we would be able to sign Dion Pereira on a permanent deal, and I don’t think it would be a good idea anyway. Pereira is unlikely to feature in Luton Town’s plans next season and as I’ve said before, Nathan Jones would probably feel that he wants to see Dion get more league experience under his belt before bringing him into the first team fold. As with last season I think it would make perfect sense from the point of view of Luton Town and Bradford City to have another loan arrangement which isn’t going to cost us anything, or at worse a few hundred pounds a week. The deal would be a six months deal which just gives Luton Town and Dion Pereira that option if he is doing really well, he could always be brought straight into the Hatters first team or loaned to a team near the top of League One. Alternatively, we could extend the loan spell. Longer term, this could put us in a better position of signing Dion permanently the following season if he does well here but Nathan Jones ultimately decides not to renew his contract at Luton Town.

As for the other loanee’s I think Mark Hughes would be better placed to bring in players that could make a difference to us using his contacts. I definitely wouldn’t want to bring back Jamie Walker as he is a player that even at Hearts was an inconsistent footballer, and this is a mentality issue not a technical one. We need to get rid of those types of players not bring in more. Alex Bass is an interesting one, it would all depend on Portsmouth as his current wage of £2,500 is certainly affordable. He has saved us from dropping points on a few occasions and I think some people have been overly critical of him considering we are talking about League Two goalkeepers. However I think it would be better to see if we can find better options, with a budget of up to £3,500 a-week put towards a decent keeper.

What would you do if you were Mark Hughes?

In my attempt, I have freed up enough wages for a decent striker and a decent goalkeeper, with 3-4 other key areas that could be filled too. It would probably leave space safely for 5 loan players. But having said all of this, it would still leave us a bit thin on the ground for any injury issues during the season, and having looked at the budget, it is now easy to see why injury issues have crippled us for the last two or three seasons. What we really need is not to worry about having to move on players that are under contract that we most probably can’t get rid of. Our competitive budget is only competitive when there is enough money available to spend and it is not clogged up by players that aren’t good enough to play for us.

Whether you like him or hate him, we should be thankful that Derek Adams went down the 1 year contract and loan road for a number of players. He has left some wiggle room for Mark Hughes to free up the budget, which means less time taken up trying to find clubs for those players that would choose sitting on the bench on their wage at Bradford City vs taking a pay drop to play first team football at a club lower down in the football pyramid. Imagine if you had to figure out who to bring in when Caolan Lavery, Theo Robinson, Lee Angol and Luke Hendrie were all still under contract. Imagine if instead of bringing in all of those loan players in January we had signed two players like Nathan Delfouneso and Jamie Walker who would have been taking up anything from £6000 a-week in wages for the next season, even Luke Hendrie. The fact is that when you have limited funds available your choice of player is limited, especially when you have injuries and positions you need to urgently fill.

Do you agree with my choices? What would you do differently? Leave your retain list and the reasoning behind it in the comments. Or if you plan to use this on social media, please take a moment to give a link to this page and/or a mention to it. This way it helps with comparing notes and, for transparency, it has taken about a month to work on this and do all of the maths in the other three parts that got us here.