WHEN Peter Jackson admitted to the City board that he had no answers for his team’s obvious shortcomings, few could have imagined his successor would still be firmly installed in the hot-seat today.

Bradford City and management continuity had been mutually exclusive terms after all.

The previous four years leading up to Jacko’s sudden departure had also seen Stuart McCall and Peter Taylor come and gone. Big reputations had failed to revive a club who remained at their lowest ebb.

But today marks Phil Parkinson’s fourth anniversary at the Valley Parade helm - as the sixth longest-standing boss in the country.

Since that Bank Holiday Monday when he first officially took charge, there have been 159 managerial exits – not far off the equivalent of every club in the league twice over.

Last season 64 left their position, the 47 who were pushed was the highest tally for over a decade.

In their end of season review, the League Managers’ Association worked out that the average tenure of dismissed bosses is now down to 1.23 years – 0.86 in the Championship.

Those staggering figures lay bare the cut-throat nature of an industry that seems to get flakier each season.

Yet Parkinson remains solidly in place, now up to third as the longest-serving gaffer in Bradford City history.

Today will be his 224th game in charge – the JP Trophy win over Sheffield Wednesday 24 hours after he came in, while technically during his era, was very much under Colin Cooper’s watch.

Parkinson started for real with a late, late draw at Morecambe the following weekend; the first of 184 league games that will this afternoon equal the tally of Trevor Cherry in the early 1980s.

Mike Harrison, editor of the City Gent fanzine which began in the days of Cherry, feels the key with Parkinson’s progress was coming into the job “with his eyes wide open”.

Harrison said: “Phil knew the type of club that Bradford City are and the type of characters he would be dealing with on and off the pitch.

“He inherited such a poor squad. I remember Crawley away just a few weeks after he started.

“Substitute Lewis Hunt got subbed – it was that bad. Yes there were some good players but the application wasn’t there.

“But through his judicious way of finding people, starting with characters like Andrew Davies, he managed to steady the ship.”

That ship was steered away from those early rocks and into smoother waters. That journey has continued heading in the right way ever since.

It has not been speed-boat progress up the leagues but City have moved forward each season.

A measure of the competitiveness under Parkinson is that there are only eight league games when they’ve been beaten by three or more.

That Bristol City blitzing at the end of last season obviously stands out and the second-half collapse at Swindon three weeks ago. But defeats/implosions of that magnitude have been few and far between.

Harrison said: “That’s testament to a manager who puts a lot in the type of players he recruits and the way he sets up for each opposition. He is so analytical.

“Clearly the same deal of thought goes into every team he is up against, whether it’s Port Vale at home today, Chelsea at Stamford Bridge or Aston Villa in a semi-final at Villa Park.

“To be in charge for 40 cup ties is incredible, given our recent record before he came in. Also take into consideration two seasons ago we went out in the first round of all three cup competitions.

“This year I suspect he wouldn’t be too disappointed if we go the same way.

“The cup run last year did over-shadow so much. The league campaign was pretty steady but I’ve not got any great memories about a particular game.

“But you are comparing it to the thrill of walking away from Valley Parade having beaten Leeds and Sunderland or Stamford Bridge after knocking out Chelsea. We still did a decent job and probably finished where we should.”

Parkinson and his staff – right-hand men Steve Parkin and Nick Allamby, goalkeeping coach Lee Butler and head physio Matt Barrass – are close to putting pen to paper on new deals.

A wobbly start to the new season has not distracted anyone at Valley Parade from maintaining the status quo.

Parkinson has shown plenty of times that his team dust themselves off after setbacks and come back stronger.

He didn’t realise the anniversary was looming when told about it yesterday. “Wow!” was his first reaction with a puff of the cheeks.

But after letting it sink, he was quick to stress that the hunger is still there. Sometimes you can be in a job for too long and staleness can creep in – not at all in his case, insists the City chief.

And that’s welcome news for Harrison, who feels there is no more suitable hand on the tiller.

He added: “As long as Phil Parkinson wants to manage Bradford City then as a fan, I’m very happy for him to do so.

“It might be slow and steady progress but look back to where we were in 2004 when Colin Todd had to patch a team together after the second administration. It was a fast decline.

“I admire Phil so much because the recruitment policy hasn’t really changed from Todd’s time, looking for the best players we can afford to pay who are out of contract.

“Everybody is doing that these days – and it’s laudable how we run our finances as a club - but Phil has proved that he has done better at it than anybody else in recent years.”