you can kick a** against Elfsborg: great first season, and good luck for what's coming next!
Adam Chabukiani: Defying All Odds
The story of a young Georgian refugee, born through the chaos of the Abkhazia War to find his feet in the footballing world.
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Calling it now, you win the Europa and get champions league from it, will probably qualify in the league anyway, but ya never know
It's been a hectic month of transfers at The Avenue and we've only just reached August, with 12 joining the club so far this summer.
Adam Chabukiani seems to have changed his transfer policy a lot compared to last season as he has failed to sign up a single player from the British Isles as his squad hunts European progression.
A particular nation which Chabukiani seems to be buying from is Switzerland - the national team that he manages - as he snaps up four Swiss players this window in the form of Stéphane Pires, Xhevdet Sefa, Nico Elvedi and Yann Sommer.
The manager has also set a record high for fees spent on transfers in a season already as he reportedly spends approximately £75million on player arrivals this summer.
In terms of departures, there was plenty more than arrivals but at a much lower cost. 28 players found themselves leaving the club this summer, with the large majority of them failing to play a first-team game after sitting in the Under-21s last season.
However, we sold a huge star in American striker Michael Lieblein as A.C. Milan snapped him up for a fee of £31.5M - the largest fee we have ever received for a single player and he made up the large portion of the £78M we made from transfer fees this summer.
We sold a star wonderkid in Paul Humphreys as the 18-year-old left for Spurs in an £11M deal. Rafinha also left for a £9M profit as he joined Villareal in a £10M deal.
Included in the departures are the loan deals of which there are nine players on temporary contracts elsewhere.
The first to leave was Brazilian right-back, Neto, who was signed in 2020 from Sport Recife in Brazil on a free transfer. He was immediately loaned out to Mexican side León and after that, Liga BBVA outfit Real Sporting. Combined, the 21-year-old made thirty league appearances on his two loan spells. He now joins Swiss side FC Thun for a spell in the Raiffeisen Super League.
After his arrival last season, Salvadoran forward José Luis Aguilar joins Slovenian giants Maribor on a season-long loan deal. He spent last season on loan in Slovenia as well, with Olimpija Ljubjana.
Roger Pursehouse is set for new surroundings as his four years on loan to Alfreton came to an end in June. In all competitions, the striker scored an outstanding 124 goals in 193 games for the Vanarama National League team. He quickly became a fan favourite after leading their promotion season with 17 goals, before three consecutive Play-Off finishes. However he will move up north for a season-long loan deal with Scottish Premiership side St. Johnstone.
Versatile defender Luke Lloyd links up with Premier League strugglers Everton for the season after The Toffees narrowly missed out on relegation last season.
Luciano Pesce, the Argentinan number ten is set for a spell in the Bundesliga this season after being loaned out to Avenue's feeder club Olimpic last season. He impressed in Bosnia with eight assists and two goals in 26 games in the Bosnian top-flight.
Algerian centre-back Abbes Bouchouk is set for another season at Avenue's feeder club Olimpic after failing to attain a work permit to remain working in the UK. The defender brought stability to a failing back four and even scored four goals and assisted three in 28 games, finishing the season with a 7.50 average rating according to Prozone.
After such a bright start in the Premier League promotion season, where he started almost every game, Tony Cooke has been loaned out again to Sheffield United in the Championship. The left-back played in League One last season as he helped Ipswich Town to a league title with six assists in 44 league games.
New signing Víctor Quiroz has been immediately loaned out to Serie A giants ACF Fiorentina just days after arriving from being released by Chilean side Universidad de Chile. The left-winger is worth around £6.5M and Chabukiani will be hoping that value will rise with his development in Italy.
Finally, Avenue youth graduate John South is set for a season in League Two as he joins Stevenage on a year-long loan. The striker played for Woking last season in the Vanarama National South, scoring three in ten games.
Some very shrewd business for both incoming and departures my friend!
Bradford Park Avenue have eased their way into the Europa League Play-Off pot after a 5-1 aggregate victory over IF Elfsborg.
With Avenue staging their first match at The Avenue stadium in the new history of the club, they ran out 2-1 winners in the home tie after a 3-0 win in Sweden the week before.
Bradford Park Avenue fans were left uneasy until the 54th minute at Boras Arena as Elfborg's defender Sebastien Holmén scored an own goal to put Avenue a goal to the good.
The own goal was followed up by an Aymen Abdennour header in the 70th minute as the Tunisian defender got onto the end of a Nico Elvedi headed assist from the initial corner to head it past the keeper.
Australian midfielder Ben Blackmore finished off precedings in the away tie with a beautiful 20-yard finish that powered into the bottom-left corner of the net in the 82nd minute.
This meant that Avenue carried a 3-0 away lead into the 2nd Leg of the match-up which was hosted by The Avenue's first ever match at the footballing arena since the club left Horsfall Stadium in June.
Rémy Cabella didn't keep fans waiting for a goal, though, as the Frenchman cut in from the right-wing to fire in a lethal finish to put Avenue 1-0 (4-0) up in the 2nd minute of the match.
The man on the other wing, Tom Ince then doubled Bradford's lead in the 39th minute with another well-executed finish into the corner to put Bradford 5-0 up on the aggregate score.
Elfsborg's star man, Dino Islamovic netted a consolation goal in front of the watching 14,575 spectators to make the aggregate score 5-1, 2-1 in the actual match.
The referee's whistle only built up the anticipation of who the club would be drawn against in the Play-Off stage of the tournament.
A day after the 2-1 home win at The Avenue, the draw was made and Bradford Park Avenue are now set to play against Austrian team SC Wiener Neustadt later this month after their first two Premier League matches against Huddersfield Town and West Brom are played.
ninjaskill: Thanks mate! The expansion is already underway 
InfraRed: And indeed we did
Thanks for the kind words buddy 
Atoobie: That's the dream mate!
BeanyUnited: I am certainly proud of most of the business I did!
InfraRed: And indeed we did
Thanks for the kind words buddy Atoobie: That's the dream mate!
BeanyUnited: I am certainly proud of most of the business I did!
Adam Chabukiani has added three more players to his Bradford squad for the 2021/22 season.
With twelve players arriving over the course of July, the Georgian manager has continued to add strength to his first-team squad.
The club announced the signings of Swansea right-back Keith Miller, Leeds' centre-back Andrea Ranocchia and the loan signing of Chelsea striker Jay McManus.
The arrival of Keith Miller is the first British signing that Chabukiani has brought to The Avenue this summer, with the Scottish full-back agreeing an £8M move to Bradford PA.
Miller began his career at Falkirk before a free transfer to Scottish dominators Celtic in 2016. He made 78 appearances for the Scottish Premiership side in which he helped The Bhoys win three consecutive titles.
He moved down south towards Wales as he joined Premier League team Swansea City for £9M. The 21-year-old made 24 appearances for Laurent Blanc's team last season before Adam Chabukiani made his move to West Yorkshire with Bradford.
Andrea Ranocchia joined two days after Miller this month. Ranocchia signed a one year contract with Avenue after Bradford and Leeds agreed a £325,000 transfer fee for the Italian.
Critics are commenting that the signing of Ranocchia was pointless and had no reason to be made, with the club already hosting a good range of defenders like Abdennour, Cooper and Elvedi. They also criticised the defender's age, with the centre-back at the back-end of his career at 33 years old.
However, manager Adam Chabukiani was quick to defend his new signing, saying that his team lacks the type of challenging experience that Ranocchia gathered during his ten year spell at Internazionale from 2010 until 2020, in which Inter were title-chasers every season.
The season-long loan signing of Chelsea's Jay McManus has also confused fans slightly, with the striker more adapted to life in the second tier rather than in the Premier League at this stage.
However, experts and fans were able to comment that Chabukiani may be looking to experiment with a two or three striker formation this season as Xhevdet Sefa and Domingo Brana remain the only current first-team strikers at Bradford.
Bradford will pay Chelsea £30K per month over the course of McManus' loan spell this season.
In other news, Bradford have also let go of Gary McKeown for £90K to Shrewsbury, where the winger will link up with former Bradford PA teammate Garreth O'Callaghan. Brazilian full-back Vinícius has been released by the club after three years in the development side.
Brandon Lewis has joined Cambridge on loan, as is the case with Ritchie Peacham to Sunderland, Marcel Nemec to Woking and Dimitris Sofokleus to MK Dons.
As the transfer window quickly approaches its end, Bradford PA have completed two first-team signings and one development team signing.
Dan Dickinson, Michael Traub and Pacato have all joined the Yorkshire club for a combined fee of £18M, with Dickinson being the most expensive of the lot.
With fellow American footballer Michael Lieblein leaving Bradford earlier this summer in the club's largest transfer fee received in their history, Dan Dickinson has made up for the lack of American's in the team.
Dickinson, 24 years old and born in Newcastle, England was declared for the U.S.A national football team in 2017. He started his career at New York Red Bulls after his family emigrated to the city early on in his childhood.
Dickinson has made 27 caps for the American national soccer team since his declaration. However, in 2019, Dickinson crossed the America-Mexico border as Mexican giants Cruz Azul snapped up the midfielder on a free transfer.
Dickinson made 41 appearances over two years that he played at Estadio Azul between 2019 to 2021. But with Dickinson's agent offering his client out to European teams, Dickinson has made his return to the north of England to join Bradford Park Avenue for a fee of £10.75M.
Next up is German winger Michael Traub who joins the club from Hamburg for a fee of £250K. Traub, who turns 20 years old in March, began his career at 2. Bundesliga outfit Braunschweig before a move to Hamburg a year later.
Traub made 88 appearances across several teams in Hamburg's system like Hamburg III (2017-2020) and Hamburg II (2019-2021) but never made a first-team appearance for the club.
However, last season he went on loan to 2. Bundesliga team Dusseldorf which turned out to be successful as the winger was involved with five goals in thirteen games.
The German signed a three year contract at The Avenue and will be earning £6,000 per week.
Finally, the club agreed a big money deal for Flamengo's top scorer Pacato. The 22-year-old Brazilian striker agreed a four-year deal with Avenue as he earns £53,000 per week in the Premier League.
Pacato grew up in Rio de Janeiro where he was spotted by Flamengo scouts at the early age of seven years old. He signed his first professional deal in 2017 and made two appearances in his first pro season in the Brazilian top-flight.
Pacato has European experience, though, as he had loan spells with Israeli team Maccabi Haifa and Ukrainian team Zorya where he netted seven goals in eighteen matches in the Ukrainian top-flight. After Zorya, his form at Flamengo tremendously improved as he scored twelve in twenty matches in 2020.
This season he has been Flamengo's top scorer with fifteen goals in twenty-five matches which also includes three assists.
Pacato joined Bradford Park Avenue this afternoon, with a fee agreed of £9.5M to bring the striker to The Avenue.
Yet again, some superb work in the transfer window mate! Although some of these regen's are scary looking men 
2016-07-10 08:23#235111 BeanyUnited : Yet again, some superb work in the transfer window mate! Although some of these regen's are scary looking menThanks mate! And hahaha, I've got to manage them - imagine how terrifying that is!
19th July 2015 should be a day that will forever stick in the mind of all Bradford PA fans as it called for the signing of the man that would lead them to five promotions.
Yes, that's right. Matthew Fletcher has finally left the management of Adam Chabukiani to join Zico's Dynamo Kiev in a fee approaching £2,800,000.
The legendary striker made his name known in Vanarama North as he finished the season as top scorer with 38 league goals and helped Bradford PA achieve promotion that season.
In every season from Vanarama North to the Sky Bet Championship, Fletcher was a key part of the team and was the league's top scorer every single season.
The official statistic of Fletcher's amount of goals is 219 goals in all competitions in 276 games which is absolutely incredible.
He broke several goalscoring records including to be the only footballer to score in the top six divisions of the English football pyramid.
During his time at Horsfall Stadium, Fletcher earned award upon award every single season.
In 2016, he won the Player of the Season and Top Goalscorer award. In 2017, the Top Goalscorer award. In 2018, the Supporters' Player of the Year, Player of the Year and Top Goalscorer award. in 2019, he was named in the League One Players' Select. In 2020, he won the Supporters' Player of the Year, Player of the Year, Top Goalscorer, named in the Players' Select and won the Asian Footballer of the Year awards. Fletcher capped off his final season this year by winning the Footballer of the Year award.
In terms of records, he broke the most goals scored in a Vanarama National game. He broke the club's record of most all-time appearances with 138. Broke the Bradford record for fastest goal scored in eleven seconds. He held the Bradford records for most goals scored in a season overall and in the league and winning the most Man of the Match awards in a season.
Matthew Fletcher's exploits at Horsfall Stadium over the years earned him international recognition and eventually found his way into the Australian national team as he sits on 28 caps and 10 goals in his international career.
He was bought after Hull City released him in 2015 and nobody expected Fletcher to go this far with the club, with Jack Hallahan now the only playing staff to remain from Chabukiani's debut season as manager of the club.
Many previous Avenue legends have voiced their memories with Fletcher to the press.
Kasjusz Piwowarczyk (Bradford PA: 2015-2018): Saddened to hear of the news that Matthew Fletcher has left Bradford Park Avenue after all these years. He was a magical player and an absolute delight to play alongside. He was always the man to look to when you needed a goal.
Ben Blackmore (Bradford PA: 2016-present): Gutted to see my man Matthew leave the club. I arrived the season after the club's first promotion and my fellow Aussie struck up a bond right away after I joined in 2016. He will be missed at 2016, but I will still have the luxury of meeting up with him internationally with Australia in the future.
Jack Hallahan (Bradford PA: 2015-present): I've been at the club as long as Matty has and it's been an absolute pleasure working with him. Me and Fletcher had been the only playing remnants from the first season of success here and I will cherish the memories I had playing alongside him for a very long time to come. The Bradford journey with Fletcher is something I will tell my grandkids.
Michael Lieblein (Bradford PA: 2018-2021): I joined the club quite late on compared to the others that were in the team when I arrived and I immediately knew who was the top dog in this team, and that was Fletcher. In my time as a footballer I have never known a player as good at finishing than Matthew, and I've known plenty of great strikers, but Fletcher is the icing on the cake.
Adam Chabukiani (Bradford PA: 2005-present): I've been at this club in several different roles for over fifteen years now. And I can assure you, in that long time I have been working here, nobody has been as talented as Matthew Fletcher. As soon as I saw him arrive at the training ground in 2015, I knew that I had got this one right. He has given me a lot of freedom in my time as manager at the club as he was always the man to take the pressure off us winning the game by scoring a few past the opponents, it gave other players the chance to play freely. He really is the ultimate footballer and we wish him all the best in Ukraine.
Just caught up on this page, have to say the strikers you bought in look like steals! Cant wait to see how this season goes
2016-07-10 16:32#235119 Atoobie : Just caught up on this page, have to say the strikers you bought in look like steals! Cant wait to see how this season goesI can't help but agree with you! I'm delighted with the strikers and Dan Dickinson, they all seem to be cracking players for me
After what was a fairly impressive preseason, we didn't play any high quality teams apart from arguably Celtic at Celtic Park in front of a 30,000 crowd. We beat them as well as non-league teams like Woking, Ebbsfleet and Bromley. In July we defeated Elfsborg 3-0 which set us up well for the 2nd Leg. We have yet to be defeated this season, even in non-competitive matches.
As we finish this month, we do it on top. Before the season started, the predicted finish for us this season was set at 7th place. We are now joint-top with Chelsea on ten points as we lead only by a superior goals scored count. However, as we all know, a lot can change as there is still 34 games left to play.
Despite Xhevdet Sefa winning the Young Player of the Month award this month, it was Alen Halilovic who wins this months Player of the Month for me. Halilovic won the Barclays Premier League Goal of the Month with a fantastic finish into the top-left corner. Another one of his goals entered 2nd place in the same vote, with a brilliant 25-yard shot which hit the post before it went in, so the Croatian is no stranger to a good goal.
Exceptional start mate! Those new signings seem to be bedding in superbly
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