CHIEF sports writer Simon Parker last week marked 25 years covering City for the Telegraph & Argus – but what of the managers he worked with during that time?
Now he reflects on the 17 different Bantams bosses he has interviewed since October 2000, remembering the characters, the anecdotes and what it is like dealing with the men in the Valley Parade hot-seat.
CHRIS HUTCHINGS
I would only work with Chris Hutchings for just over a month after arriving at the T&A – and never saw his team win.
Hutchings and Malcolm Shotton had been present when Geoffrey Richmond invited me, I think summoned is probably more appropriate, for a getting-to-know-you meeting before I started.
Both eyed me warily as Richmond dominated the conversation.
I found Hutchings to be very polite and pleasant to deal with although from a “soundbite” point of view his interviews were a bit cliched and predictable. There was never a stand-out line.
Richmond was always the point of contact, grandly announcing Stan Collymore’s arrival and inviting me for a breakfast-time exclusive. I did wonder how much, if any, input the manager had at the time.
The last chat I had with Hutchings as City boss was explaining Collymore’s absence from a defeat at Charlton due to “having his wisdom teeth removed”. I later found out that Collymore’s wisdom teeth had been taken out several times before …
Two days later, halfway through a meal with the missus on our wedding anniversary, Richmond was on the phone informing me the manager had gone.
JIM JEFFERIES
If Chris Hutchings was nervous about giving anything away, Jim Jefferies was the polar opposite.
It was a dream to be so well informed – if only the results had been any good.
Jefferies even drove me to a behind-closed-doors friendly at Middlesbrough one midweek morning. Can you imagine a Premier League boss doing that today?
While in the car, Geoffrey Richmond called the manager to discuss Stan Collymore. Jefferies quickly told him that I was also there and could hear every word – and Richmond proceeded to give me chapter and verse about drumming up speculation to get the striker moved on.
It was an odd time with Richmond demanding Jefferies cull the wage bill by shedding the big-hitters – and then later accusing him of just giving up and accepting City’s relegation fate.
I had no problems with Jefferies right up to his bizarre exit after a miserable defeat at Coventry on a Sunday night two days before Christmas – thanks ITV Digital.
Jefferies did the usual press stuff afterwards and I asked if he feared that was it. At which point, he smiled broadly and said,“you’ll have to ask Geoffrey”.
Sure enough, the following afternoon Richmond was on the phone with the news that Jefferies was no longer employed by Bradford City. That ensured there was no Christmas Eve in the pub that year for this reporter.
NICKY LAW
My time with Nicky Law felt like a game of two halves.
Irreverent, brutally honest and very funny became sullen, terse and disagreeable as the months went on.
It was my fault for stupidly running a quote slagging off an opponent that, in hindsight, was clearly meant to be off the record.
Trust is the biggest part of any relationship between reporter and club and a 200-word throwaway piece ruined it.
But I think there were also issues away from football which magnified the problem with me for the rest of his time in charge.
The first year had been on a much sounder footing – including a very amusing incident when he was explaining a painful rash on his backside.
Instead of just talking me through it, he made a point of dropping his tracksuit bottoms to point out the offending area.
Unfortunately, we happened to be stood just inside the glass doors to hospitality and a little old lady was passing by at the exact moment!
The laughs stopped later on and, when the end came, I knew before he did. We were both stood in an awkward silence outside the press room waiting for the opposition manager to finish. I’d already had a message that he was gone – before a member of staff appeared to invite him for a chat with the chairman.
Thankfully, our relationship was repaired a few years later when we met up after a City game at Chesterfield. But it had been the most uncomfortable year I had with a manager.
BRYAN ROBSON
Covering football inevitably makes you cynical after a while. But there are still moments when you do pinch yourself and realise the privileged access you have to some household names.
A Sunday dinner with my parents being interrupted by the house phone was one of those.
“It’s Bryan Robson for you,” said mother in a deferential tone that suggested a member of the royal family was interrupting our roast beef.
Robson’s reign was short and not particularly sweet – warranting just one page in his autobiography – but circumstances were against him. Having built a team of experienced loanees to try to keep City up, being plunged into a second administration and losing them all whipped the rug from beneath him.
You could see the enthusiasm drain from that point and despite the public “will he, won’t he” suggestions about staying on, you knew he’d be straight out the door at the end of the season.
Midweek chats were interesting, especially the early morning ones after he’d spent the previous day “scouting” in Ireland and there was a hint of last night's bar in the air.
Robson did have a good sense of humour as the former Radio Leeds City commentator Derm Tanner found out.
The manager called him “Dan” from the start and Tanner was too polite to correct him. It then got to the point where he had to live with the new name – knowing full well that Robson was deliberately winding him up.
COLIN TODD
“You like whiskey? Have one, take what you want, I’ve got plenty.”
I hate to think of the number of times I wobbled back from Valley Parade early Thursday afternoon after a pre-match presser in the manager’s office.
Colin Todd would insist on a “snifter” while we talked about the next game – and then another while we chatted generally about the world for a good while afterwards.
“I don’t drink the stuff” he’d say while shoving another sizeable pour in my direction!
Todd steadied the ship during his reign at Valley Parade after the financial woes that threatened to drag the club under.
He was one of the most accessible managers I have worked with – even taking an 8am call in the bath in the dressing room. What was even more disturbing was that Bobby Davison, his assistant, had answered the phone with a “he’s right here with me, I’ll pass you over”!
Todd had a father-son relationship with Dean Windass and bristled if I let on I knew something that he felt I shouldn’t. “Your mate Windass been telling you again? Why don’t you get the team off him then.”
But we never fell out for long and he was pretty open with everything I asked. Even when he decided to stop talking to the media briefly, he allowed me to jump in his car after a game at Carlisle and gave me a quick interview - as long as I didn’t tell anyone where it came from!
STUART McCALL
I have never felt more gutted for anyone than when Stuart McCall’s City lost to Millwall at Wembley.
You could see the disappointment in his eyes afterwards, knowing that the chance of getting to the Championship again had gone because most of the team would leave in that summer.
My biggest regret covering the club is not seeing McCall enjoy a promotion. His three managerial spells were very different but he never changed as a person.
The day he was first appointed in 2007, he invited me in for an exclusive interview.
McCall talked plenty and I got loads recorded – only to discover to my horror on leaving that the machine had jammed!
A sheepish knock on the door and McCall agreed to go through it all again – even asking Wayne Jacobs, his number two, to go fetch a pen and pad for me. It was typical of the guy.
Fast forward to McCall mark two and a midweek away game at Oxford.
I was right on deadline when he came up to do the post-match chat. Seeing I was up to my eyes in finishing, McCall picked up the Dictaphone and talked into it for a couple of minutes giving me all the quotes I’d need while I carried on bashing out the match report.
McCall’s last managerial spell in 2020 was the most difficult for him but, again, he was such a joy to deal with when football stopped for Covid.
I dread to think how I’d have filled the holes with any other manager. But we’d have a weekly chat, often garden to garden with a beverage or two, and chew the fat on everything.
Who else would give you a column on appearing on stage with Rod Stewart in America?
PETER TAYLOR
There was one ground rule with Peter Taylor – never mention long-ball or direct football.
Woe betide anyone who suggested a hint of route one in City’s play. The number of times I received an early phone call unhappy with paragraph 20 of my match report.
Taylor could be an intimidating figure and did not tolerate fools. The reporter covering during my holiday got a congratulatory call afterwards for “not being too young and busy”.
It was always best to get Taylor on a Monday morning when he was back home in Essex and out walking the dogs. He had plenty of time to say exactly what he thought.
I always wondered what fellow park dwellers must have thought hearing this bloke ranting into his phone about the Jamaican FA not playing Omar Daley enough or fans “grassing” on James Hanson for having a Saturday night beer out.
The pre-season tour of Essex under Taylor in 2010 was one I won’t forget. Canvey Island, Chelmsford and a trip to a local park to play Stambridge United from the 11th tier because it was managed by his old mate.
Taylor also took a keen interest in my player ratings and suggested Steve Williams should get nought in his final game – a wild 3-2 win over nine-man Stockport.
“I’d give him six out of 10 for scoring two goals,” said Taylor, “and minus six for the two they scored – so that’s a zero!”
PETER JACKSON
It was not quite the West Ham level of cruel timing but Peter Jackson’s exit felt very harsh and sudden.
His pre-match press conference had opened up into a story-telling session about Bobby Campbell. Despite a poor start to the season, Jackson seemed in good spirits.
Barely an hour later, things had accelerated quickly in a meeting between the manager and board and he tended his resignation. That Campbell piece would never see the light of day.
You could see how much managing City had meant to Jackson – witness the sheer relief of securing their league status with a draw at Hereford when he threw his claret-and-amber tie into the away end.
He did have the odd habit of talking about himself in the third person.
Jackson ranked a win at Macclesfield in his all-time top five as a manager, saying: “We’ve gone up to 15th on Peter Jackson’s 50th birthday. It’s marvellous!”
Part two including Phil Parkinson, Derek Adams, Mark Hughes and Graham Alexander is online tomorrow afternoon.
