Ryan Sparks interview: Mark Hughes and Bradford City determined to use play-off heartbreak as a springboard

Chief executive Ryan Sparks is still raw about it.

"You just wish we could replay a few of the games," he says. "It was a very empty and low feeling at Brunton Park. Carlisle deserved to win.

"We had a get-together with the players, had some food and said our goodbyes to a few guys. That was the start of next season."

In football, the league table is the only marker that really matters but so many others give cause for optimism.

Bradford have already re-signed last season’s top-scorer despite refusing to negotiate contracts until it was over.

"We've gone into a real war to re-sign Andy Cook so we're hoping that kicks the summer off," says Sparks, from his office overlooking the Valley Parade pitch.

Last season’s average league attendance was the highest for five years, their final game against Leyton Orient the biggest for a league match there in 70. The next week broke a fourth-tier play-off record. Gates win you nothing but it shows the public believe talk of progress is not just bluster.

"Fellow Bradfordians want to see a true representation of the city – that humility, that determination to take on the clubs around us, then get into higher leagues and take on the bigger boys," argues Sparks. "We're trying to build a Bradford City people can relate to. We're not quite there yet but we're on with it."

He points to wins over Salford City and Harrogate Town, saying: "People might laugh but we've struggled to beat those teams. An alarming step but one worth mentioning is that Mark Hughes is about to start his second full season in charge as manager and you'd have to go back to Stuart McCall (in 2017) to find that. Mark's not far off the longest-serving manager after Phil (Parkinson) for nearly 20 years."

That should mean no ripping up and starting again after 17 new players signed last summer and eight were added in January. Sparks mentions the video he shows those signings they do target.

"Last summer it was very much clips from 2012 to 2015, a bit of 16 and 17 and of course the Premier League days and glory of the late 90s," says the man running City day-to-day for absentee owner Stefan Rupp. "It was very much, 'This is what it can be.' We've been able to add footage from this past season to show, 'This is what we are.'

"If you want crazy atmospheres, intensity, anticipation, expectation and all-out drama with a desire to win everything, this is the club for you.

"It's nice to have some of our current players – one of them the leading goalscorer in the fourth division – in that video so players and their agents can directly relate.

"We may not have the spending power of Wrexham, Salford, or even Gillingham but we offer something different. Players coming towards 27, 28, 29 are looking to what they can have to look back on before they retire. Bradford City's a nice chapter for people. That was a huge part for Andy Cook and a massive part for Mark Hughes."

Still, there is much to be done.

"We constantly focus on what we've done right and wrong and you focus more on the wrongs," says Sparks. "We're not high-fiving each other about what went right.

"Once you get over the rawness and pain you reflect on where we were short in general – seven points short of automatics, we won some games really well and also lost some games and dropped some points from winning positions. Some of that was impacted by officials but a lot was on us.

"We had frailties defensively. We gave away far too many corners – more than anyone in the division. If you throw enough mud at the wall it sticks in this division.

"But we've come from back-to-back mid-table finishes to a play-off finish not a million miles away from the top three."

By being so vocal about the need for promotion this year, Sparks set himself up for a fall. It is his way. He feels he must be transparent and available.

"Most people are okay with good news and bad news as long as they understand what's going on," he believes. "I meet with the supporters board once a month and we have fan's forums every year.

"When I took over we were something like 86th in the fan engagement index out of 92 which quite frankly is appalling. Our family excellence reports were the worst in the EFL. We're now top 10. When you're ranked ahead of Manchester United for fan engagement, we're happy with that.

"I always leave my door open, that's just the way I am. You've got to have the backing of your supporters or you can have any strategy you want, any buzzphrase, none of them work – particularly at our club because the revenue we generate goes straight into the team.

"This club has danced with financial issues and you're trying to balance sustainability with ambition – you want to be pushing the needle as hard as you can.

"I've got a responsibility to ensure that the next five, six, seven-year-old has been inspired to watch this football club. I would hate to look back in 20 years and see four or five decisions I've made have crippled Bradford City. By the time I leave I will have made four or five decisions and player sales at junior level that will have put this club into millions of pounds of profit."

Last year he had to change his phone number because of abuse about the January transfer window. A man who started in the media departments at Featherstone Rovers, then the Bantams, before in late 2020 taking over as the Football League's youngest chief executive aged 29, is phlegmatic. “If I didn't want to do it, I could go do something else,” he says. "The early days were a lot tougher because it was all new. I was thrown into a relegation fight, possibly because I was willing to stand next to that because I knew we weren't going down.

"There's always going to be a lot of opinions around a football club but you've just got to stay true to your plan and keep working at it. Don't cut corners if you can – sometimes you have to.

"It’s a pressure club, but this is the kind of club that gets you out of bed. It's the first thing I think about in the morning and the last thing before I go to bed.

“That's why Carlisle felt so hard to take. That project started in February 2022 when Mark joined, recruitment started in March/April. It was 15 months gone in a flash.

"I'm just focused on what I set out to do when I took over in 2020, which is take the circus out of Bradford City and build a football club that can create new memories and that people can genuinely get behind and relate to. When I walk and drive around the city and see younger people wearing Bradford City shirts, they're obviously buying in.

"I've had a lot of stick – more when I started – but people are probably bored of me now. Every person in England has got an opinion on their football club, rugby club or cricket club because it's their passion. They want you to get it right. I always say to supporters, 'I want it just as much as you want it.' Once they realise, it's fine."

He needs good people around him and is spending his weekend overseas marrying Lizzie, "but I'm back in about 10 days and as my other half will always tell me, we just go to another country to answer the phone.

"It's important you've got a good home life because it can be quite intense, your hours are basically 24-7. I'm fine with that because I love the job. My other half knows my life is my work, I'm intense.

"I keep her away from (the abuse) because it's not nice to see. She's seen some stuff said and written and been quite hurt by it but we crack on with our life.

"We've recently lost Neil Matthews (academy manager). It's a reminder life's very short and while I'm extremely serious about this you have to look at the bigger picture. As a human I can't even tell you the unpalatable loss and as a professional we've lost the best academy manager in the country, in my opinion. This club is a darker place without him and I've lost one of our best staff members.

"I'm really lucky to have a team of people here who absolutely get it and buy into it – they didn't at the start. Now in my opinion they completely buy into the fact they will have an impact on the final score.

"My only overhanging sporting grief for this season is for all the people no one ever sees. It was those people I wanted to go to Wembley, have a day out and something back for what they've put in. Now they're going to have to wait 12 months.

"This city needs it badly. We can provide an injection of adrenaline. If we put some silverware in the cabinet, we will be off and I really do believe in League One, this is a completely different animal. All our focus is on making sure we're not having a similar conversation in 12 months."