CITY’S window recruits must pass the character test as the club focus their search for another striker.

The Bantams have been one of the busiest clubs in the division so far in the January market with five new arrivals and four departures.

As the only League Two team not to have played in 2021, City have utilised the extra free time to continue reshaping their squad.

The hunt remains ongoing, with at least one more experienced front man and a winger on the shopping list before the February 1 deadline.

They were last night being strongly linked with Oldham's Danny Rowe, who scored a long-range goal against the Bantams in the FA Cup at Valley Parade in November.

But City have stressed they will only do business for players who prove they want to come – and will walk away from others.

“What is absolutely crucial to us is that we bring players to the club who want to be here,” said chief executive Ryan Sparks.

“They’ve got to have a desire to want to win things as a Bradford City player and they are willing to buy into the culture we are trying to create.

“That’s the key and we’ll stop at nothing to ensure that.

“If that means we get an excellent player on paper, which is a situation that hasn’t served this club very well in recent years, but we’re not too sure he’s actually bothered about being here or is not prepared to move towards the club etc then we simply won’t progress it.

“That has already happened. We have already had people on the table that, on paper, you would have been very excited about bringing to Bradford City.

“But once conversations have gone a bit further we’ve decided ‘perhaps not’.”

Defender Matty Foulds became the latest addition to bolster a group that also features new faces Jordan Stevens, Will Huffer, Niall Canavan and Rumarn Burrell.

Left back Jackson Longridge yesterday followed Kurtis Guthrie, Ben Richards-Everton and Austin Samuels in being moved on this month to free up space within the salary-cap ceiling.

Sparks added: “I think it’s about getting the most for your budget.

“If you’ve only got a certain amount of money to spend on certain players, you want to make sure that when you are investing in your future you are doing it in the right way.

“It’s not just as simple as being handed a list of available players and told to pick some. It has to be a bit deeper than that.

“The deals are naturally harder to come by and, as the window draws nearer and nearer towards its close, values and conversations change.

“Clubs who may or may not have received offers from us change their mind because they suddenly decide they would like our money.

“A lot will change but in two weeks’ time I am still quite confident that we’re going to be in a position where we’ve achieved our goal – to improve the squad in all areas and give ourselves every chance of finishing the season in a really positive manner.

“We’ve got a clear plan in the remaining part of the window into how we are going to address it. It was always going to be busy because there were things we wanted to achieve.

“There are still two positions that we want to strengthen. I don’t think it’s a big secret what those areas are.

“It will be as and when but we’re fishing in a pond where a number of other clubs are in there with us. We have to be able to sell our vision to the players we’d like to bring to the club.”