{"id":590862,"date":"2021-05-10T13:00:17","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T17:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=590862"},"modified":"2021-05-10T13:00:17","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T17:00:17","slug":"mark-trueman-conor-sellars-bradford-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/05\/10\/mark-trueman-conor-sellars-bradford-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Trueman and Conor Sellars Sacked by Bradford City"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bradford City have sacked joint managers Mark Trueman and Connor Sellars. The duo initially took over on a caretaker basis until being given the job permanently after an excellent run of form.<\/p>\n<p>However, a poor finish to the season has seen the club make a change and the Bantams are now chasing their third permanent manager in the space of 12 months.<\/p>\n<p>The club have offered Trueman and Sellars alternative roles at the club after deciding to remove them from the manager\u2019s position.<\/p>\n<h2>Mark Trueman and Conor Sellars Sacked by Bradford City<\/h2>\n<h3>A Poor Finish to the Season Cost the Joint Managers Their Jobs<\/h3>\n<p>Trueman and Sellars sparked Bradford into life when they first took over, guiding them to ten wins in 14 games. That run stormed the Bantams into promotion contention but a poor finish to the campaign ended any hopes of a late promotion charge.<\/p>\n<p>Bradford finished the season with six defeats in seven matches and just one point in that time. A disappointing finish has prompted a change as the club try to find the right person to lead the club forward.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bradfordcityafc.com\/news\/2021\/may\/club-statement-mark-trueman-and-conor-sellars\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Speaking to the Bradford website<\/a>, chief executive Ryan Sparks said: \u201cI would like to take this opportunity to thank Mark and Conor for their endeavour and commitment over the past six months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth men were fearless in taking on a formidable task in December and faced the challenge with everything they had.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter saving us from potentially dropping out of the division, we wanted a strong finish to the season to give us momentum, heading into next.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis has not transpired and one point from a possible 21, in the end, has ultimately seen us settle for mid-table &#8211; which is far away from where this club wants and needs to be.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe feel, at this point, we need more experience to take us forward into the summer and next season which, for us, is a hugely significant one. We have a crucial few months in front of us, and it is important we are in the best-possible position to be able to prepare for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Mark Trueman and Conor Sellars Thank Club for the Opportunity<\/h3>\n<p>Trueman said: \u201cIt is obviously disappointing to have been stood down as manager, but I respect the board\u2019s decision and am incredibly thankful for the opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn December, Conor and I took on quite a daunting task which we approached with everything we had.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were given the objective of staying in the division at first, which we made sure of with seven games to go. I know football is ultimately a results-based business, though, and recently they had not been good enough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have learnt an awful lot over the past six months and am incredibly grateful to have had the chance to lead a good group of people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to thank everyone who supported myself and Conor in the role, and Ryan for trusting, believing and showing faith in us.<\/p>\n<p>Sellars added: \u201cI would like to give a massive thanks to the football club, supporters, players and staff for what has been a fantastic experience over the past six months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have loved every minute of the job and, despite my confidence in our ability to help take the club forward, I of course respect the decision made &#8211; following a disappointing end to the season &#8211; and my time as joint manager has taught me a lot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will always look back at my spell in charge alongside Mark as an honour and a brilliant opportunity to further develop, using the experience moving forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to give my thanks, once again, for the brilliant support, and hope this club can get moving in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>The Club Appear to Have Someone Lined Up to Take Over<\/h3>\n<p>As well as announcing the dismissal of Trueman and Sellars, the statement also confirmed the club are not seeking applicants for the role.<\/p>\n<p>They say plans are already in place and an announcement will be made in due course. Whoever that is will need to build a team capable of competing for promotion.<\/p>\n<p>The Bantams have struggled to sustain a serious promotion bid since their relegation back to <a href=\"\/football\/tag\/league-two\" target=\"_self\">League Two<\/a>. There is plenty of talent in that squad but they need get this appointment right with the club making far too many changes off the pitch.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bradford City have sacked joint managers Mark Trueman and Connor Sellars. The duo initially took over on a caretaker basis until being given the job permanently after an excellent run of form. However, a poor finish to the season has seen the club make a change and the Bantams are now chasing their third permanent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3241,"featured_media":590871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,34,30],"tags":[2939,8605,8095],"class_list":["post-590862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league-football","category-league12","category-news","tag-bradford-city","tag-conor-sellars","tag-mark-trueman"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3241"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}