SIMON Grayson believes the critics should cut City's owners some slack.

Grayson has almost reached a decision on whether he will be staying at Valley Parade now his short-term deal is up.

But whatever he opts to do, he feels that Stefan Rupp and Edin Rahic do not deserve to be blamed for every issue that has gone wrong.

Rupp issued an apology at the club’s awards night this week at the end of a season that has seen the Bantams crash out of the play-off reckoning.

Grayson insists mistakes have been made across the board – and the owners are not responsible for everything.

He said: “They are enthusiastic but obviously disappointed with how the season has panned out.

“As everyone says, they’ve apologised for the mistakes they’ve made but they are not the only ones.

“This club has probably had problems going back over a number of years.

“People seem to pick up on the fact that Edin and Stefan can bear the brunt of it at this moment in time.

“But they’re not the ones who’ve not done anything with the pitch for 10 years. They’ve not been in charge so why should they get criticised for it?

“Other parts connected with the club aren’t necessarily their fault and some of the good things that they’ve done have probably gone under the radar. People prefer talking about negative issues instead.

“When the results are there, you can paper over the cracks and people don’t take notice of them.

"But when things go poorly, everybody wants to come out of the woodwork and have a little chip about this, that and the other. They forget about the positive things that people have done as well.”

Grayson met Rupp and Rahic on Thursday and an announcement on his position is expected early next week.

He added: “I’ve got a rough idea of what I’m thinking of doing and I just need a few other bits and bobs to be talked about.

“It’s more for the football club what needs to be resolved rather than my future.

“It’s what needs to be better for this club in the long term and improve from this year to make sure the mistakes that have been made don’t need to happen again.

“It’s about trying to pull the club together, whether I’m here or not. That’s how it has to be because this is a good club with a big fanbase and is fighting its way to try to get back to the Championship.”