Daley the biggest casualty as City look to the future

The Bantams announced their release list yesterday detailing the players who have failed to earn a new contract for next season.

Omar Daley’s inclusion was perhaps the biggest surprise. The Jamaican international has been with the club since January 2007 and has been a fan’s favourite since scoring his first City goal against Yorkshire rivals Rotherham United.

Daley, who has played over 50 times for his country, was named in the PFA League Two Team of the Year at the end of the 2008-09 campaign and earned a new three-year contract that season.

Injuries have blighted his Bantams career since. After a bad knee injury in February 2009, Daley suffered a series of setbacks but has still managed five goals from 22 starts for the club this season.

Bradford manager Peter Jackson said that the decision to release Daley was simply business.

“A lot of it is financial,” he said. “I just need to look ahead to next season. I felt it was the right decision because we need a complete change of personnel and a change in mentality.”

Another player released was midfielder Jon Worthington, who played under Jackson for four years at Huddersfield between 2003-07 and City’s interim boss said it was a difficult decision to make:

“It was hard,” he added. “I’ve known him a while and he was my captain at Huddersfield, but I just felt like we needed to freshen things up. I wanted to shake it up.

“We’ve got 14 players under contract and you have to get players out in order to bring others in. We need to make sure the season we’ve just had doesn’t happen again.”

Among others released are striker Gareth Evans and centre-back Shane Duff. Lenny Pidgley was one of three goalkeepers to be released, along with youngsters Lloyd Saxton and Chris Elliot. Chib Chilaka, Ryan Harrison and Louis Horne have also gone and Jackson said his short time working with the players did not make giving the news any easier.

“It doesn’t matter how long you’ve known your players, it’s always hard. I had six or seven young lads in tears in my office but the club has to move forward,” he said.

Jackson said he does not know what his own future holds.

“I just keep going,” he said. “Day to day I’m planning our pre-season and working on how to move the club forward. The board will help me move forward.”