NEW year resolutions are there to be broken.

But few would have expected David Hopkin to go back on his before February was out.

His decision to walk away after just 175 days at the Valley Parade helm has caught everyone on the hop.

And it comes after the Scot began 2019 with a public proclamation that he wanted to put down long-term roots at the club.

Flashback: Hopkin outlines long-term aim with Bantams

Talking about John Coleman’s stability with New Year’s Day visitors Accrington, Hopkin drew on his own experience at Livingston.

Taking over a team in freefall, he was unable to stave off the drop in that first season. But then rebuilt the club to bounce back with successive promotions.

As Hopkin would often point out, the Livi side currently stabilising their position back in the Scottish Premiership still largely consist of his players.

It was all about building the right foundations.

That was his aim for City when he spoke ahead of kicking off the year with a win over Accrington.

“You go into a job and I don’t think about anything else other than staying here as long as I can,” he said.

“You want to build something and put things in place and then you’ll be successful. That’s my plan for Bradford.”

So, what changed?

That win over Stanley was City’s fourth in five games – a goal-laden run that had everyone genuinely believing the drop to League Two could be safely avoided.

Maybe there was a false sense of security generated by such a purple patch, although Hopkin was always quick to warn about the size of the battle to come.

He has always known what he was up against from the day he walked into Valley Parade.

But maybe he did under-estimate the extent of the repair needed from the chaos left on and off the field in Edin Rahic’s wake.

“I don’t panic, I don’t get nervous” was the bullish message from the manager to a team whose flimsy self-belief is exposed every time something goes against them.

After 34 games, they have managed to recover only one point from a losing position. When the going gets tough, this City seem to want to go anywhere but there.

Hopkin talked about making the club more professional. His renovation of the office block at their training ground revealed forgotten contents in cupboards going back to Phil Parkinson’s time.

It was only a few weeks ago that he had the walls of the building spruced up with images of the club; the stadium, the fans, the memories of the fire disaster.

He wanted the players to understand what City meant to the people of Bradford and the close bonds within the community since the horrific events of 1985.

Hardly the acts of somebody planning a quick flit, although Hopkin tellingly ensured the focus of the pictures was on the stage rather than specific individuals who might come and go.

His mantra has been to ensure that when he leaves a club, from Morton and Livingston in Scotland to any future managerial post, it would be in a stronger position than when he came in.

Has that been the case at Valley Parade?

City are still second from bottom after somehow blowing an “open goal” against Walsall’s 10 men.

Four points from safety, taking in the goal difference, with 12 games to go may not sound like last-chance saloon considering where they were in November.

But the sheer ineptitude of losing to a team with no form whatsoever, minus their centre forward and a goal down inside the first 12 minutes, came like a hammer blow.

The squad may be fitter and more organised than the one Hopkin inherited but do you see that fight in them to scramble their way above four worse teams by May?

Towels have been chucked in from sections of a fanbase completely turned off by a season that has lurched from one low to another.

And now the manager himself has had enough.

His final Telegraph & Argus interview beside the scene of Saturday’s crime defended the team as Hopkin insisted the players do care.

But his demeanour suggested a man reaching the end of his tether. His departure at this stage suggests he maybe cared strongly enough to give his successor time enough to still pull off a great escape.

A reign bookended by two 3-2 defeats finished in the same manner as the even-briefer turn of Michael Collins by losing against 10 men.

It leaves City looking for a FIFTH boss in 13 months since Rahic gave Stuart McCall his marching orders – and don’t forget there were six rudderless weeks at the start of the summer after Simon Grayson’s exit when nobody held the position.

It’s incredible to think that Phil Parkinson was in charge for 1,757 days before all the madness began.

Going on the same turnover ratio since February 5 last year, that is the equivalent life-span of 23 current managers!

You remember those clubs with the revolving-door policy that we all used to sneer at during Parkinson’s prolonged leadership? That is what City have become.

It’s a big challenge for the next incumbent but not, for now, an insurmountable one.

Just don’t get too settled in the surroundings.