Andrew Davies Signs for Bradford City, but is it all good?

It looks like Andrew Davies will have agreed to sign for Bradford City for £12,000 less than he was paid at Stoke City.

But is it really a pay cut? After all without a club he would be getting nothing more than Job Seekers Allowance.

In fairness to Andrew Davies a few other clubs from higher leagues were looking at him, some I have no doubts would have been put off by his discipline issues and I am not totally convinced Carlisle United would have offered him as much as we have.

Never the less, he did choose to sign, albeit for one season for Bradford City, this means we are unlikely to be able to cash in on him though if he does leave for a club in a higher division next season. But let’s give credit to Phil Parkinson for persuading Davies to join City on a permanent basis without waiting around to see what Championship or other League 1 clubs might have to offer.

 But a slice of reality now, and a look at the knock on effect this signing has on the club.

Andrew Davies effect on Bradford City budget

Firstly, I cannot help but think that maybe Phil Parkinson had been given an optimistic view of how season tickets sales would pan out. At the moment we have sold just over 3000, which would probably only just cover the clubs outgoings.  At somewhere in the region of £156,000, Andrew Davies alone takes up a fair percentage of that budget.

So just how many cut price season tickets were Mark Lawn & Julian Rhodes hoping would be sold this year?

It is not just about the players that are coming in that really matters. We can get rid of players to other clubs and hopefully not have to pay the rest of their contracts,  but to equal one Andrew Davies we it means getting rid of up-to six players. This is not altogether a bad thing considering how crap most of the squad is anyway, but is also easier said than done (considering how crap most of the squad is anyway).

What does Luke Oliver expect to be paid?

The timing leaves a lot to be desired too. Even though many people will argue we had to get something sorted before he went anywhere else, there is one player in particular who will feel he is entitled to as much a week as Andrew Davies. That man is Luke Oliver.

Ok Luke Oliver is older (just), but that is no argument considering Andrew Davies is getting a 1 year contract. As well as being Bradford City Player of the Year he also played more games because he only gets sent off after matches when there is a brawl.

It will be interesting to see how the trio of Luke Oliver, Simon Ramsden and David Syers view their offers in light of what Andrew Davies will be getting.

It is important to bring in quality players such as Davies to strengthen the squad. But it is equally, if not more important to be able to hold on to players such as Oliver, Ramsden and Syers to make the pre-season squad re-building job as straight forward as possible.

After all when you are replacing the endless list of no marks brought to the club, the last thing our manager needs is having  to replace players already part of his plans.

However I want to harp back to the whole one year contract thing. I do not know if this was decided  by Andrew Davies himself to allow him to easily get a move to another club after his year is up, or as I suspect yet another risk bit of risk avoidance by the club. Yet again we face seeing another quality player leave Valley Parade in the future without the club being in any position to make money out of it.

Some things will never change I suspect.

Good news for Bradford City signing Andrew Davies

We can only hope that the signing of Andrew Davies will have the desired effect on season ticket sales and this should hopefully make a bit more room in Parky’s budget. And I could not possibly argue the fact that Davies is a quality defender and building from the back is vital if Bradford City are going to be in the mix for promotion.

But the signing of Andrew Davies will have more than certainly brought with it a few extra challenges for Phil Parkinson when it comes to budget and keeping existing players at the club. After all we are supposed to be skint and struggling to shift season tickets, something which covers our outgoings and I would imagine it is whatever is left over that would be used for the players budget.

It is great news to have a player like Davies sign so early, especially considering the disappointment last year surrounding Clayton Donaldson and Ashley Grimes. But let’s just keep our fingers crossed that Parky has not made an offer to Davies that he may not have made having had a clearer idea of exactly what his budget was going to be.

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