Bradford City owner Stefan Rupp on how Bantams' fans are inspiring him to make necessary investment

The Bantams have been stuck in League Two since 2019, and when Rupp made a rare visit to watch a game at Valley Parade in March, it quickly became clear their exile would stretch into a sixth season.

Bradford were beaten 5-1 by Mansfield Town that day, their biggest defeat of the campaign, days after losing at home to a Forest Green side who would finish the season bottom of the Football League. The next two matches were lost 3-0, to Notts County and Harrogate Town, amidst protests against Rupp's ownership and chief executive Ryan Sparks' stewardship.

It felt like a broken football club.

But pre-season always brings optimism in football. Graham Alexander's team picked themselves off the canvas to take 19 points from a possible 21 to end the season – one short of what was needed to make the League Two play-offs.

Now, the cabbage patch of a pitch Rupp watched his players struggle on has been replaced by a green carpet, and the chairman is trying to make good on his promises made at the height of the unrest to be more visible, more generous in his funding and offer more communication.

He says he shares the frustration of the supporters, but is encouraged so many have signed up for more next season.

“Everybody is entitled to their opinion and if you own a football club you have to be able to cope with that criticism without taking it personally," he argued.

“I could fully understand the people because I was thinking the same.

“But on the other hand, if I look at our season tickets, we’ve sold close to 14,000.

“You see how much the people care about the club. That’s a big motivation for me to also invest because they have as well.

“That makes it much easier to cope with any kind of criticism. Football is a very emotional topic and here in Bradford it is part of daily life.

“It’s part of the people’s DNA and you have to respect this.”

Rupp was clear, too, that the problems he saw in March were not down to manager Alexander.

“Graham was not in doubt for me in March," he insisted. "It was the inconsistency that we were facing the whole season long and the bad home form also comes into play.

“If you look at Graham’s win ratio, it is more than 50 per cent. He took over a team that was not his in 19th position and we ended the season one point adrift of a play-off spot.

“I have to say it was a fantastic job.

“Of course, we could have reacted much earlier (to sack predecessor Mark Hughes) but you are always twisted.

“But it’s done and dusted. We have to look at what we can actively improve and do better in the upcoming season.

“The bad performance in March definitely cost us the play-offs. We had a lot of injuries with key players at the wrong time but that is something you can hardly influence.

“At home we were not good enough and that is something we definitely must improve.

“The six victories out of seven gave us the necessary momentum and self-confidence to have a much better start in the upcoming season than we had last year.

“We have talked a lot and I think he’s a very honest, hard-working guy. He’s very focused and knows exactly what he is doing and how he can get success.

“I think we will see the full potential in the upcoming season when the squad is 100 per cent his. I’m quite excited about that.

“Recruitment is ongoing, slowly but steadily, and I think we will heavily improve what is already there."

Another reason for optimism is that financially-speaking some big beasts – and good teams to boot – of the division have left it, with Mansfield Town, Wrexham and Stockport County winning automatic promotion. Former Premier League clubs Charlton Athletic and Reading avoided relegation from League One.

Not that Rupp is going to be lulled into the trap of calling the division easier.

“You always see surprises," he pointed out. "You don’t know exactly what they are spending but you get a good idea when you look at the market and the players being sold.

“You have to orientate yourself on the best five (budgets) if you want to be competitive and fight for promotion. This is what we’re doing.

“It’s a fine line there because our strategy was always to keep the club self-sustainable. But maybe now it’s time to change this approach and say we have to invest if we want to get promoted. But we’ll do that still within a means we feel comfortable with and not put the club at risk.

“If you look at the likes of Wrexham, they produced a loss of £11m last season. That’s something we simply can’t afford and wouldn’t want.”