Stuart McCall made just shy of 400 appearances for West-Yorkshire side Bradford City, scoring 45 goals in that time as well as captaining the Bantams to promotion in the 1998/1999 season. Upon the midfielder pulling the curtains down on his remarkable career, McCall would then begin his managerial career first as a caretaker in the year 2000 before being replaced by Jim Jefferies. After seven years, McCall returned to the club as manager beginning a three year stint in League Two before resigning so that Peter Taylor could help turn the season around to steer City clear of a relegation battle. Following managerial ventures into Scotland with Motherwell and Rangers, the man himself returned to City to just lose out in the 2017 play-off final to Millwall in a heartbreaking moment for fans and McCall alike.
Because that is what Stuart McCall is. He is not just a legend, or manager, he is a fan of Bradford City.
Since controversially being sacked by Edin Rahic, McCall took over at Scunthorpe United, but suffered a disappointing tenure in charge before being sacked, and has been without a job since last year. At the beginning of the season the rumour of Stuart returning as a director of football circled social media but nothing came out of it. Following a disillusioned season so far, manager Gary Bowyer got the fans on his side, personally calling them up to discuss them renewing their season tickets, supporting Stephen Darby and his battle with motor neurone disease and signing high-profile names such as James Vaughan, Clayton Donaldson and Matthew Palmer. But following his ‘boring’ tactical decisions to play across the back and remove any creativity from the team, fans became disenchanted from their Bantmas.
As the fans began to lose confidence in their manager Bowyer, many started to demand his sacking, with such negative atmospheres against Mansfield Town and Oldham Athletic that the board decided it was in the club’s best interest to part ways with Bowyer and replace him with who else but- Stuart McCall.
With McCall back at Valley Parade tomorrow alongside new signings Lee Novak, Kurtis Guthrie and Glen Middleton, which that alone will be enough to attract a higher attendance, but the return of Stuart will get the fans absolutely rocking. City are known to have one of the better atmospheres, not just in their league but in the whole EFL, constantly taking a large away following all over the country and showing indescribable loyalty to this team. Stuart will know this and will be more than eager to get his side playing because he is a fan and, as a fan, he knows that nothing gets the supporters going more than a City side who will fight for the shirt, show passion, get stuck in, and most importantly, become a Bradford City side which fans will look back at for years to come.
Of course, we may have to wait until next summer for McCall to get his own team in so that he can get City playing the way that he wants, having players who can play in the roles that best fits Stuart’s tactics, but for now as the fans it is our responsibility to get behind the team and create an atmosphere; not for Stuart, but for the Bantams, because as one our team is a force to be reckoned with in League Two, one which should be doing much better than it currently is.
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