Mark Hughes’ Bradford City rebuild: Why Bantams ticked all the boxes for Sheffield Wednesday old boy Vadaine Oliver

The stature of the club he has just joined in Bradford City may speak for itself for the 30-year-old forward, who has signed a three-year deal until at least the summer of 2025.

Being closer to his roots in Sheffield ticked a box every bit as big for the ex-Gillingham and Northampton Town striker, who has three young children. As moves go, this one looks close to perfect in every way imaginable.

Oliver, who snubbed interest from several clubs in League One – and some others abroad – to join City, told The Yorkshire Post: “It was a big decision for me.

“Family wise, I needed to get back home with my family as my kids missed me too much.

“I was getting back after games for Gillingham for less than 24 hours and it was hard on the kids and my missus. It was important to be back up north.

“I was training and had an apartment down there and after games, I’d just shoot off up the road to Sheffield.

“In the first season when the team were on such a high and the team were doing well, it was kind of riding the crest of a wave and not so bad. But in the second season, it was a bit of a gruelling task, to be fair.

“I had other options in League One – quite a few. But they were not ticking the boxes for family reasons.

“I’d have to move or uproot everyone and it just did not make sense.

“Whereas Bradford made perfect sense. I knew it was a drop down this season, but I cannot see it being one for the future.

“It is a massive club with massive ambitions and I do feel going forward, it is a great fit for me.

“Everything is gearing up for a real push and a good time.

“Other clubs did not tick the right boxes. Some were big, but at the other end of the country.

“Some were also not very ambitious and trying to do anything – but more sustaining in that league.

“Given the back of the last year at Gillingham, I did not want to be in that again. I wanted to be in something that is successful and moving forward.”

City may be Oliver’s tenth port of call in a nomadic career, but he is no stranger to being at a Yorkshire club where the expectations and the pressure to vacate a level of football where their supporters justifiably feel that they do not belong in is palpable.

His career began in his home city with Sheffield Wednesday.

The opening chapter of his career did not work out in the way he envisaged, but he has a second chance at another ‘sleeping giant’ in Bradford, with York City, Lincoln City and Morecambe also among his other former clubs.

Oliver, who struck 27 league goals in two seasons at Gillingham after helping Northampton to promotion from League Two in the previous 2019-20 campaign, added: “I was at Sheffield Wednesday from nine to 20 and in my last year, when we got promoted to the Championship, I’d been out for the season with an injury.

“It’s Sod’s Law. We had Gary Megson for part of that season and he loved me, to be fair and I got on really well with him.

“But he left halfway through and Dave Jones came in.

“He got the boys up and didn’t know anything about me and was not just willing to give me a chance.

“At a young age, it was hard to take.

“But as a footballer, you know you are going to come against hard times and I kind of just knew that I was going to stick at it and not quit and just finish it there. I knew I had to chase my dream and it’s finally come back around now that I am back up north in Yorkshire at a massive club.

“I will have a few family and friends coming to games now at Bradford as they could not come to Gillingham that much.”