“THERE is something creeping into the game right now which is the reason I don’t want any part of it.”

As a player of nearly 700 games – over a third of them for City – and seven years of coaching, Lee Duxbury is currently on the outside of football looking in. That is by choice.

Anyone who watched him in his two spells at Valley Parade will remember someone who would never shirk a challenge.

The present side are crying out for Duxbury’s type of commitment.

That passion is still evident when he speaks about the game – and those he blames for the decline of City and many other clubs.

“It angers me to see them going down,” he said. “But the lads they have got there now are just not good enough.

“If Gary Bowyer gets us out of it, he deserves a massive pat on the back. But I can’t see it.

“The manager is only as good as his players. No matter what system they play, they are going to struggle because of the personnel.

“But there’s a bigger picture to it all. It’s pointless talking about the football side of it because what’s happened this season is almost nothing to do with that.”

Duxbury points the finger of blame at former chairman Edin Rahic – and to a lesser extent, Stefan Rupp for employing him.

Just as Rahic uttered that immortal “I know football” line, he feels too many current club owners think they are experts.

It’s that interference from above, which Duxbury fears is happening more and more, that is putting him off putting his UEFA A coaching licence to full use.

“Look at Fulham. Their owner’s son was bringing in players who looked great on paper.

“But what are their characters like? What is their background?

“They don’t look at these things, just the stats. You have to watch players week in, week out and see how they are on a horrible Tuesday night.

“Fulham have spent £100 million on poor players and are going down because of that recruitment. It’s the same with Bradford.

“But it’s happening everywhere from Fulham to Gateshead. You’ve got Blackpool, Charlton, Leyton Orient, my old club Oldham – all these places where the owners are playing Football Manager.

“That’s why a multi-millionaire like Paul Scholes decides he doesn’t need it after a month.

“We don’t do five or six years of education for the coaching badges to listen to an owner telling us what we should be doing or who we’re getting in. It’s all wrong.”

The fact that City are teetering on the brink of relegation with their biggest wage bill since dropping out the second tier in 2004 highlights the mismanagement of the Rahic reign.

But Duxbury says it goes deeper than that.

He added: “Stuart McCall had got a good DNA around the club. It was positive from top to bottom and everybody was going in the same direction.

“But Rahic didn’t want Stuart to get all the limelight. He didn’t like that – so he got rid of him.

“He came in and upset people, he fired them and started getting involved with the football side of it.

“Why do you think Larry (Simon Grayson) didn’t sign a deal? Because he’s thinking ‘I’ve had this already at Blackpool and I’m not going to start that again with Bradford’. It infuriates me.

“My dad’s a joiner, that’s his trade, and I’m a football person. I played for 20 years, nearly 700 games and scored 75 goals.

“Now I’m a coach and the only reason why I’m not in it now is because I’m not a yes man and can’t handle the way that these people run clubs – and are literally ruining them.

“That’s why Bradford City are going down this season because of one man’s ego."

The return of Julian Rhodes, he stresses, has been a significant step in the right direction. City have also got a boss in Bowyer who has negotiated the minefield behind the scenes at Blackpool and still managed to bring them back from League Two.

Duxbury said: “Julian being back is so important. The way he ran the club before he left was spot on.

“If coaches aren’t doing their job by getting the right results and players, then sack them.

“But if there is interference then how can you blame the manager?

“If I’m manager of Bradford City, I’m never going to tell the CEO how to do his job. I’m not qualified for that and vice versa.

“Yet these people are happy to hire and fire managers when they really have to look at themselves.

“I’m mad about it because Bradford’s situation is self-inflicted. That’s down to one person and it’s so wrong.”

“An evening with Lee Duxbury” takes place at the Old White Bear in Cross Hills, near Keighley, on Tuesday, April 30 (8pm).

Admission is £3, which includes a pie and pea supper plus a donation to Sue Ryder Manorlands.