Alexander exits for Preston as Bradford place Trueman and Doyle in interim charge amid promotion bid
Bradford City faced Reading at the Select Car Leasing Stadium on Saturday after manager Graham Alexander stepped down to join Preston, a development that emerged earlier in the week. Coaches Mark Trueman and Colin Doyle took interim charge and held a meeting with the squad on Monday.
Alexander took over in 2023 when Bradford were 16th in the bottom tier of the EFL and guided them to ninth in his first season, third in his second to earn automatic promotion, then a fourth-place finish back in League One and a playoff semi-final defeat last May. Bradford were top of the League One table when he left, and it was the first time in 43 years they have lost a manager mid-season. He won 79 times in 158 games – the best win rate of any Bradford manager in charge for at least 65 games. Under his tenure Bradford twice reached the EFL Trophy semi-finals, recorded a 10-game home winning run that broke a club record set in 1953, and last year (2025) had the best home record of any side in Europe’s top five leagues; chief executive Ryan Sparks said Alexander and assistant manager Chris Lucketti, who has followed him to Preston, delivered "some of the most incredible moments in our recent history".
Mark Trueman has stepped into interim charge five times since joining Bradford as an Under-18 coach six years ago and now faces the task of preserving the upward trajectory that began when Alexander arrived. Previously his role had been to raise the team during low periods rather than to sustain a promotion push. "Some of the players were a little unsettled, didn’t know what was going on or who was taking the team," Trueman said. "But the players have just got on with business, and that’s the key. It shows the mentality of the team. This could quite easily derail them, but they’ve continued to do the right things."
On the pitch, Jake Beesley headed Bradford into a fourth-minute lead at Reading on Saturday. The 1,118 travelling supporters who made the 400-mile round trip sang about being top of the league but did not chant for their departed manager, and on forums and social media fans expressed a mixture of sadness, anger and anxiety about the timing of Alexander’s exit.
In Reading’s dugout, Leam Richardson faced questions about whether he was interested in the Bradford vacancy; he said he would be in the Reading dugout for the match and insisted he had not been contacted. Sparks and sporting director David Sharpe watched from the directors’ box to assess whether Reading displayed a style of football that would fit the framework Alexander built. He previously worked with Sharpe, who was chair at Wigan when Richardson was manager, and he has also coached Callum Connolly, in the Bradford starting XI, and Nick Powell, who came on from the bench.
Other candidates mentioned include Plymouth manager Tom Cleverley. Cleverley is a former Manchester United midfielder, a Premier League winner in 2013, and at 37 has built his managerial reputation these past two years. Udoka Godwin-Malife’s second-half equaliser meant Plymouth moved above Bradford on goal difference.
The next appointment is crucial. Getting Alexander so right makes getting it wrong so much more costly.