Bradford City have received an apology from Carlisle United manager Paul Simpson after words were said about the potential sale of Jake Young.
Having originally been interested in Jake Young, Simpson would pull Carlisle out of the race for the striker with the price deemed too high. In fact, the Blues manager would brand the price tag set by Bradford as “ridiculous” which would spark some comments from Bantams manager Graham Alexander.
In his response, Alexander did not hold back his thoughts, saying, “It’s disappointing from my perspective because I spoke to the manager myself about Jake.”
“I don’t think he has any right at all to set a price on any other team’s player, to be honest, so I didn’t really get where he was coming from.”
Young has been one of the most talked about players this transfer window, with plenty of speculation surrounding his future. The 22-year-old has shone in League Two this season so far, just not for Bradford.
Having been loaned out to Swindon Town at the start of the season, Young would stake a strong claim to be in the League Two Team of the Season conversation despite never really being handed a chance by Bradford.
In just 25 League games for the Robins, Young would score a spectacular 16 goals with a further four assists, quickly establishing himself as a firm fan favourite at the County Ground.
As a result of those performances, Alexander decided to recall him straight away in January, however Young would only make his first appearance since rejoining after coming off of the bench against Swindon on Saturday.
The 45-minute cameo has brought up further speculation on whether he is actually for sale or not this January, yet time is running out for a move to happen given the window closes on Thursday night.
One team who will not be in for Young is Paul Simpson’s Carlisle after the comments he gave about the price tag. In a new interview with the News & Star, Simpson has apologised for those comments.
“To be honest with you I probably owe Bradford an apology because I probably spoke out of turn.”
“I don’t like getting into spats with clubs. I made a comment to [the News & Star] the other day about Bradford with the Football League stuff, and nothing’s come from that.
“But in all fairness to their chief executive Ryan Sparks, he did apologise for the abuse I got [from some of their fans], so I probably spoke in the heat of the moment at Barnsley about it and probably shouldn’t have done so.
“I apologise for that to Bradford.
“But listen – Jake Young wasn’t coming here. It was something that I didn’t think was the right business for us but the fact he’s playing for Bradford puts it out of our heads anyway, which we had done – we’ve moved on.”
Writer’s View
Simpson’s comments do not come as a surprise given the original views shared by both clubs. With the manager also stating that Bradford chief executive Ryan Sparks has also apologised, it seems as if the previous problems have been left behind them.
Both clubs however are seeing plenty of problems on the pitch currently, with Carlisle in the relegation zone in League One and the Bantams only 18th in League Two.
This won’t be the last that we’ll hear of Young’s future this window and the striker could still be on the move this January.
