Bradford City Head of Recruitment David Sharpe has revealed that Alex Gilliead was offloaded by the club as he was not in the club’s plans.
The midfielder was sent to League One’s Shrewsbury Town with The Bantams targeting multiple players in his position over the summer transfer window. Stockport County‘s Antoni Sarcevic and Joe Adams were brought in over the summer, but with the Wigan Athletic loanee out for the season, Corry Evans was signed on a free transfer.
“It’s Our Job To Be Ruthless”
Speaking to BBC Radio Leeds, Sharpe, who also joined over the summer from The Latics, explained the decision to sell Gilliead to Salop before the club faced an injury crisis in the midfield.
“At the time we didn’t have this injury crisis. Gilly’s a great lad, he’s popular, when I spoke to him when he left he was a lovely lad.
“We felt that it was best moving forward that he wasn’t in our plans and it was as simple as that. Supporters might have liked him and there will be other players that supporters like that won’t be in our plans moving forward.
“It’s our job to be ruthless with that and in time the plan is to deliver on the pitch and that’s with success. We’ll make unpopular decisions, we can’t just keep players around just because the supporters like them.”
Writer’s View
Alex Gilliead was probably the most versatile player in the Bradford City squad but he was surprisingly sold to Shrewsbury. In hindsight, he would have been such a vital player across the team in the injury crisis the club faced over this season but Graham Alexander’s side fared reasonably well. It does put the extra burden on the club to deliver promotion this season as if they have let go one of the better players in the side and yet again failed to get out of League Two, the pressure put on the hierarchy at Valley Parade may intensify.
Football journalist with The Real EFL since 2023. A 2024 Multimedia Journalism graduate from the University of Salford, Lewis specialises in Salford City FC and EFL coverage.
