ANTHONY O’Connor had no doubts about swapping life under one of Scotland’s top bosses for a club without one at the time.

City’s vice-captain admits his game improved during his two years with Aberdeen and highly-rated manager Derek McInnes.

But he shunned the offer to stay at Pittodrie in the summer to join the Bantams – before they had appointed head coach Michael Collins.

O’Connor, who has settled quickly at Valley Parade, backed his leap of faith.

“It was not a big thing to me,” he said. “There was a lot of speculation as to who the manager would be, would it be this person or that?

“But, for me as a footballer, it didn’t matter who the manager was going to be. I was going to come in and give my best, regardless of who was in charge.

“The gaffer came in and has been nothing but top class. He knows the game and was a good player himself.

“He is like us as players, not going to take his place for granted. He works tirelessly on the training pitch every day and his knowledge of the game is unbelievable.”

O’Connor knows a good leader from his time north of the border and believes McInnes is destined for a bigger job than the Dons.

He added: “Aberdeen have finished second four years in a row. It is only a matter of time before he moves on to bigger and better things.

“He is a top, top manager with a lot of great backroom staff. I can’t speak highly enough of him.

“I feel a better all-round player from my time in Scotland and the manager improved big parts of my game.

“But my next challenge was to come back down here. The chance to play for this massive football club was one I couldn’t turn down.

“It is a very physical game in Scotland, but coming up against Celtic and Rangers is very tactical and technical. You have to be fully switched on all the time, 100 per cent concentrated.

“I want to take that experience of playing in those big games, especially in front of this home crowd.”