Comment: The Graham Alexander qualities Bradford City need to keep in his replacement

But when the dust settles on his expected move to Preston North End, Alexander will have made two huge contributions to a famous football club. The frustration is what more he could have done.

How Alexander went about his job offers a clear blueprint of how to replace him. Not with a like-for-like, but with some of the qualities that turned a failing club around.

Sentiment has clearly played a part in the former Preston player’s decision to speak to the Lilywhites. The expectation is he will be back there sooner rather than later.

But there is more to Alexander's move than that.

The geography after commuting from Lytham St Annes for three years is appealing too.

But also, big a club as Bradford are, Preston offers more opportunities. They spent eight figures on transfers this summer, and play in the Championship, a level Alexander has earnt his shot at.

Preston are not big fish financially in the Championship, but they are a long way ahead of Bradford who, for all their excellent support, are not big hitters in the third tier.

If both clubs stay where they are between now and May, they will swap places but with 38 Championship matches left, any manager worth his salt would believe in his ability to turn it around at Deepdale.

The gap to safety is three points, he will have a transfer window in January, there is a fortnight until Preston's next game (against Millwall) and another, shorter international break to come in November.

Bradford will have long known this could happen, and must show that they have planned well for it.

They are a much more attractive proposition than when Alexander replaced Mark Hughes.

In November 2023, they had been mired in League Two for four seasons. Alexander took them up automatically in 2025.

Now Bradford are heading into the job market top of the third tier.

More importantly, Alexander broke down the fear of failure that had begun to choke them at home.

With such a large fanbase, Valley Parade should always be a place where the home team does well, but it brings high expectations that some players find hard to deal with. Pre-Alexander, Bradford won 40 per cent of their home league games after relegation to League Two in 2019; under him it jumped to 62 per cent.

The challenge for the board is to preserve as much of what was good about Alexander as possible.

Very good managers, such as the out-of-work Dave Challinor play football far removed from what Alexander's squad was built for. A radical change of approach mid-season would seem unwise when the old one is working so well.

But Alexander's calmness is something they would do well to look for again. Flattening out the Valley Parade rollercoaster whilst trying to play football which fed fan excitement was an important skill.

The Yorkshire Post understands Bradford will turn again to Mark Trueman as caretaker manager rather than usher in a new man.

That Tom Cleverley is a Bradfordian doing well in the division means he has been quickly linked. Plymouth Argyle could take advantage of Bradford's weekend off to replace them at the top. Paul Warne of MK Dons and Michael Duff, sacked by Wycombe Wanderers this season, know the division and the area.

Getting the right character will be important, but Alexander has made it much easier.