Analysis: Five potential names to be next Bradford City boss

Mark Trueman was immediately installed as caretaker manager for his second spell in the hot-seat and takes charge at Oldham on Saturday. But what will happen next?

The bookies' odds are not always the most reliable list of potential choices but here is some insight into a few of the potential candidates being mentioned.

GRANT McCANN

The former Hull, Peterborough and Doncaster boss is the early favourite with the bookies for the Valley Parade vacancy.

But it seems unlikely that McCann would drop to League Two having been managing in the Championship up until last month.

The Irishman is not thought to be in a rush to get straight back in after being sacked by Hull’s new owners – despite being 10 points clear of the drop zone at the time.

“He had his problems at Hull but was a success at Doncaster when you see what’s happened to them since he left,” said Phil Buckingham of The Athletic.

“He had a rotten first year at Hull where it all imploded on him. But then he bounced straight back to win the League One title – and actually got sacked at the right time in a sense because he’d just won a load of games so his stock was quite high.

Grant McCann was sacked by Hull last month after back-to-back wins

“He’d just won back-to-back games against Blackburn and Bournemouth but with the new ownership coming in, they wanted a change.

“If it had happened a month before, everyone would have said it was absolutely the right call. But it looked very harsh and the new guy hasn’t pulled up any trees since.”

McCann was in the running for the Sunderland job and was thought to have made the two-man shortlist once Roy Keane pulled out.

The Black Cats opted to appointed Alex Neill instead but McCann will still probably be targeting a club at the lower end of the Championship or top end of League One.

STEVE EVANS

Steve Evans will always be a controversial figure with City fans after his chequered history with the club.

The Scot was sacked last month by Gillingham, his seventh managerial job, after two-and-a-half years at the Priestfield Stadium.

His CV includes a short spell in charge of Leeds but it was with Crawley, who he took into the EFL, and Rotherham that he made his name. He won back-to-back promotions with the Millers in 2013 and 2014.

Evans’ Crawley side were involved in the infamous post-match melee in Phil Parkinson’s first season at City which saw five players sent off after the final whistle.

Steve Evans took Rotherham from League Two to the Championship in successive seasons

Evans was later given a six-match stadium ban and fined £3,000 after being found guilty of "using abusive and insulting words and behaviour, including a reference to gender" towards a female member of City's staff.

But he has never hidden his admiration for the Bantams and Valley Parade.

Evans recently said: “I think anyone who gets it right for Bradford, it’s not just the Championship, it could be the Premier League.”

PETE WILD

The Halifax manager is earning plenty of admirers for the way he has got the Shaymen battling for promotion with the big boys in the National League.

“They were in mid-table anonymity when he came in,” said Tom Scargill, FC Halifax Town reporter for the Halifax Courier. “The top of the table seemed a million miles away.

“But now he’s got them competing up there on a small budget. He’s built a team which is stronger than the sum of their parts.

“They work really hard and buys into what he wants them to do. They play a really attractive style of football.

“Other clubs are paying National Lottery numbers compared to what is available at Halifax, which makes the job he has done even better. Recruitment has been key – he’s looked closely at the players’ character as well as their ability to get the right people in the building.

“His manner around the club is brilliant, he’s very down-to-earth and humble.”

Wild had a brief stint in charge of boyhood club Oldham before being appointed Halifax boss in July 2019. Their progress since then has seen him linked with several jobs.

“There was talk about going to Grimsby in November 2019, Hartlepool earlier this season and Chesterfield fairly recently,” added Scargill.

“He’s doing such a good job that he’s not under the radar anymore. He’s going to get linked to other jobs.

“The chairman has said it’s probably a question of when rather than if. Obviously, Pete has ambitions to manage as high as he can.

“When he reached his 100th game in charge, he said he didn’t think he’d do one.

“He has that humble, down-to-earth nature about him but by the same token he is doing his coaching badges and management course to arm himself to be the best he possibly can be.”

JONATHAN WOODGATE

The former Leeds and England defender is keen on applying for the Bantams job after spells in the hot-seat at Middlesbrough and Bournemouth.

Woodgate was sacked by hometown club Boro in June 2020 after one season in charge – with them only outside the Championship relegation zone on goal difference.

He joined Bournemouth as senior first-team coach a year ago and was quickly put in charge after Jason Tindall’s sacking.

Jonathan Woodgate is reportedly keen on applying for the City job

Woodgate, who won the Championship manager of the month award in April, lost in the play-off semi-finals to Brentford and left the club in the summer when his contract ran out.

Alex Crook, of talkSPORT, said: “He gave Bournemouth a punching chance of getting promoted, which they probably didn’t have when he took over.

“He made a crucial change with Philip Billing’s role as the number 10, where he’d been playing deeper under Jason Tindall. That got the best out of him.

“They played a bit more on the front foot and were a bit more organised.

“Ultimately, they blew it in the play-off semi-finals because they were 2-0 up at one stage in the home leg.

“I think he was going to be replaced either way. The plan was only for him to be there until the end of the season – Scott Parker was always the one they wanted.”

But what would count against Woodgate is a lack of knowledge of the lower leagues and the players.

RICHIE WELLENS

The axe fell on Richie Wellens this season even quicker than Derek Adams.

Wellens lost his job at Doncaster after just 199 days back at the club where he had two previous playing spells.

Doncaster were second-bottom of League One, although Wellens admitted a crippling injury list meant his “hands were tied and legs chopped off at the knees” when it came to selection.

Richie Wellens is looking to bounce back after his Doncaster departure

He had received a bad hand but the Doncaster board felt he should have dealt with a tough situation better. They had picked up just 13 points from 19 games with the team struggling to score goals.

He had previously been sacked at Salford last season after just four months in charge – a brief reign that had begun with a 3-0 win over Stuart McCall’s City.

So Wellens is now eager to rebuild a managerial reputation that peaked with the League Two title in 2020 with Swindon, led by the prolific goals of Eoin Doyle on loan from the Bantams.