Adam Chabukiani: Defying All Odds

A rather sad set of results, but with everything else that is happening at the club it can be pushed aside, Europe is a huge plus, the infrastructure is there for the future and you still have half a season to turn things around

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Bradford Park Avenue have started the New Year with a bang with a 3-0 win over Huddersfield and, more importantly, announcing their new record signing.

Shortly after the Football Association declared the transfer window opened, Bradford PA posted pictures of their two new and official signings.

They broke their previous transfer record of £15M for Xhevdet Sefa to sign Sassuolo's Alfred Duncan for an enormous £33M price.

Although not completely £33M yet, the initial fee stands at £25.75M as Avenue will pay the remaining £7.25M in monthly instalments over the course of 12 months.

Branded a club icon over at former team Sassuolo, Italian experts seem to believe that Chabukiani's judgement on this transfer is spot on, even with the hefty price tag slapped on the 28 year old.

Luigi Selva, a Serie A analyst says that Duncan is an all-round midfielder who is brilliant in all cases needed. He comments that his strongest attribute is Duncan's athleticism on the field, with his technical ability not a long shot behind.

Duncan has claimed lots of international experience with his native Ghana and will play in his first ever World Cup next year in Group D against Serbia, Honduras and England.

Close friends have come out in the media to say that Duncan has finally got his 'dream move' to England and is delighted to join the setup in West Yorkshire after six years excelling at Sassuolo.

Adam Chabukiani:
Alfred is a wonderful, exciting player who we are very lucky to have at our club as of now. The midfielder has spoken to me several times over the past few days and has said he can't wait to get started here in England, and it must be said that I am really looking forward to seeing him out there on the pitch and so should the fans.

Although a big transfer, the transfer of Callum Slaterry from Southampton to Bradford has been heavily shaded over with the arrival of Alfred Duncan for a record fee.

Slaterry, 22, spent his whole career at Southampton and broke into the first team in 2019 as the club fell into the Championship. He now joins Premier League Bradford PA for an initial fee of £6M, rising up to £8M by the end of the current year.

In transfer rumours, sources close to the club claim that Chabukiani's next raid is on Sporting Lisbon as he gives orders to Director of Football Oliver Kahn to negotiate a transfer and a contract for their star Argentinian striker Nelson González.

Huge signing mate and I hope it pays off, if you can make it as a midfielder in a midfielder based league such as Serie A he has the chance to be great!!

2016-07-25 22:40#235736 BeanyUnited : Huge signing mate and I hope it pays off, if you can make it as a midfielder in a midfielder based league such as Serie A he has the chance to be great!!

To say that he's succeeded in Serie A when he isn't in the regular mould of a playmaker makes it even better! I hope he does come off, though.

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After the record signing of Alfred Duncan, Bradford PA have announced the departures of five first-team players on permanent deals.

With two central midfielders coming in, two have left the club in recent times for a combined fee of around £14.7M, along with three other players in different positions.

The first player to leave was central midfielder Josh Vela. Vela signed for the club last season for a sizeable fee of £8M. The player made 21 league appearances last season in the Premier League after joining from relegated Burnley.

However, Vela has found first-team appearances hard to come by with additions like Dan Dickinson and Min-Young Hoon arriving at the club in July and August. Vela joins Ligue 1 side Toulouse FC for a fee of £2.7M, with Bradford accounting for a £5.3M loss on the player.

Perhaps the most saddening to leave is the departure of iconic right-back Mason Holgate as the Englishman leaves to join title-chasers Manchester City. Chabukiani had tried their best to resist losing their man but ultimately it was City who activated the 25 year old's £12.5M release clause to take him to the Etihad Stadium.

It is saddening as Bradford PA fans saw their full-back join for a bargain £50,000 fee from Everton back in their League One days and to see such a great service ripped away from them so unwillingly thanks to a release clause has to be damaging to the morale of the team and fans. Nico Elvedi has already spoke out against the sale of Holgate, but the club had no say ultimately.

After such a bright start last season, missing only one league game throughout the 2020/2021 Premier League campaign, Lewis Cook has found himself leaving the club after only 12 matches in all competitions this year at The Avenue.

Cook is the second midfielder after Josh Vela to leave the club this month, as he joins German Bundesliga outfit Red Bull Liepzig for a fee of £12M, with Bradford due a fee of £1.5M if the Englishman features in 50 league games for his new team.

But perhaps the biggest move of the window this far is the move which takes England star Jack Grealish to France where he joins Olympique Lyonnais for an astounding £18M transfer fee.

Grealish joined Bradford PA from relegated Aston Villa after the summer where he starred in England's EURO 2020 winning year in which he was the most creative player at the tournament, bagging six assists. He signed for Bradford for £12M as the versatile winger played in 21 games for Avenue last season, but that number has fallen to only six appearances this season.

Finally, Andrea Ranocchia has left The Avenue after a nightmare spell that was never going to work out for either parties. Chabukiani snapped up the 33 year old from Leeds in the summer for just over £300K after an impressive season in the Championship, helping Leeds to a league title.

But signed to provide experience to a youthful back four, Ranocchia failed to make a single appearance for the club and it was the most economical idea to sell the centre-back. The Italian joins Aston Villa for a profit of £950,000.

In terms of arrivals at The Avenue, Chabukiani has added four more new players to his team. The first of which is Colombian right-back Jordan Morrison, who signs on a free but has had to leave on an indefinite loan to Bradford's Bosnian affiliate Olimpic Sarajevo until the defender is granted a UK work permit.

Bradford snapped up Sport Recife wing-back Edgar Bruno on a free transfer after his contract at Ilha do Retiro. The 23 year old looks a brilliant player on paper and is valued at £11M.

Also joining on a free but failing to attain a work permit in the UK is left-winger André. The Brazilian, 23, has yet to make an international appearance of any sort as he joins on a 1-year deal from Santos.

With links stemming back to Ben Blackmore with the next transfer, Australian midfielder David Green joins the club on a free transfer. The 18 year old joins Bradford from the same Centre Of Excellence that legend Ben Blackmore did and fans will be hoping the youngster will have a similar effect in the coming years at The Avenue.

Some sad departures there for sure, but as the way is with football clubs, to buy big you need to sell big!

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We began the New Year of 2022 very well with a 3-0 win against Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield Town. We carried this form into the FA Cup as we won both the 3rd and 4th Rounds of the domestic cup against Leicester and Brighton. Our showing in the league wasn't so good, with only nine points picked up out of a possible eighteen.

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We have improved ever so slightly from our position at the end of December as we move up one position up to eighth place in the Premier League. We are still quite far away from the only current Europa League spot which Everton currently stand in at fifth place as we are seven points away from their 42 point tally. Man United have magnificently come back to challenge Chelsea in the title chase this year with the two teams level on points but Chelsea with the advantage of a game in hand.

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Before this season, Rémy Cabella was a regular entrant for this award but has found himself outplayed by many other members of the squad this season. But at the start of 2022, Cabella looks back in shape again with a magnificent month in January. The Frenchman was involved in ten of our goals this month with four goals and six assists adding towards his overall tally of nine goals and ten assists so far this season.

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Some crazy departures, very sad but also some good performances!

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Bradford Park Avenue have splashed out on the final day of the transfer window, paying upwards of £53.2M in one day.

A youthful trio, a 16, 20 and 23 year old adds onto the previous number of seven additions this window to make the transfer tally ten new players for the January transfer window.

Bradford signed up Valencia's Aldo Ríos, Feyenoord's Joel Looyen and Juventus' Joan Montenegro in a hectic deadline day finale.

The first announcement by the club today was the arrival of Aldo Ríos, with reports claiming that the total fee would amount to £20.5M.

Ríos is a Peruvian international with 28 caps and 11 goals for the senior team, aged only 20 years old. He is a striker recommended by Bradford's chief scout Sylvain Wiltord after reports were compiled on Liga BBVA by scout Felice Natalino.

In the three years he spent at Nuevo Mestalla, the Peruvian made 20 appearances in all competitions, scoring five goals for Valencia. Los Ches fans have mixed opinions on the deal, with some unhappy at losing such a promising player, and some happy at the large profit margin the club made after they bought the player from Universidad San Martin for £160,000 in 2019.

Ríos signed a three year deal worth around £5,000,000 as he will be earning around £40,000 per week. Bradford PA star Domingo Brana has welcomed the signing of Ríos, commenting that the competition will be even better within the club as he has other strikers like Xhevdet Sefa and Pacato to contend with.

The next player to be confirmed is the Feyenoord left-winger Joel Looyen. The Dutchman is only 16 years old and has already been capped by the Holland Under 19's national team.

The youngster has only just completed formal education in The Netherlands and has come out in Dutch press saying that he wants to focus solely on his footballing career now.

Chabukiani snapped up the wonderkid for a fee of £2.7M, which some of the fee will be paid in monthly £100K installments. However the fee will be continually funded as Feyenoord will receive £170K per game for his next ten appearances in the league. They will also receive £850K when Looyen makes his Holland debut and will be due £850K after ten league appearances for Bradford PA.

Last - and certainly not least - is the arrival of Argentinian centre-back Joan Montenegro. This transfer took up the majority of Chabukiani's winter budget as he joins for £30M - just short of the record transfer involving Alfred Duncan earlier this month.

Montenegro has made one appearance for the senior Argentinian national football team after 20 Under-20 caps for their youth team. Montenegro began his career at Boca Juniors and made 15 appearances for them in his first ever season for the Argentina giants. After signing for Juventus in 2018, he went on various loans to Estudiantes, Hertha Berlin, Boca Juniors, Olympiakos and Dnipro.

After so much experience at top teams around the world, it can't be denied that the 23-year-old possesses the ability and knowledge needed to succeeded in the English top flight and beyond. The player agreed a four year deal with the West Yorkshire side and will be earning £90,000 per week at The Avenue.

In other transfer news, Bradford's summer signing Vladislav Lazarov joins Spezia on a season-long loan where Spezia will pay a monthly fee of £27.5K to Bradford. Courtney Holmes has also gone on loan to fellow Premier League side Huddersfield Town, who currently struggle at the foot of the table.

Unhappy loan duo Álvaro Ortiz and Jay McManus have terminated their loans at The Avenue and have returned to Valencia and Chelsea respectively.

BeanyUnited: Indeed, it's just the way football is sometimes - especially losing Holgate to City

Griffo: I know, I'm most upset about losing Holgate after going through so much with him but thanks about the performances!

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February in comparison to others, has been a decent month. We slumped to our lowest position in the Premier League to date during the month but gradually began to get up the table again with a few points on the board. With eight games of the league season left, it's really beginning to hot up as to who claims the European spots this season, and admittedly we are far off the pace in the league, currently five points behind the team in front of us. However in Europe, there is still hope as we defeat Anderlecht in both legs of the 1st Knockout Round of the Europa League and now go on to face Sporting in the next round.

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We finish February in eighth place, however the gap between us and Liverpool is a lot larger than the difference between ourselves and Newcastle, Tottenham and Burnley. At the bottom of the table, it looks increasingly likely that Huddersfield Town will be relegated this season as they slip further away from safety with every coming game. This is also the case with Swansea. At the top Chelsea still lead the way on 65 points and it is slowly becoming a two-horse race between them and Man United who are one point behind them unless Arsenal (five points behind Chelsea) make an unlikely comeback at this stage.

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The Cabella machine is definitely back in form, with another exceptional month from the French attacking midfielder. I am in two minds with keeping the player beyond this season due to his age and decreasing physical ability, but performances like he has been putting in these past couple of months are really budging their way into making me want to keep Cabella. He didn't bag any goals this month but puts four more assists onto his seasonal tally.

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Cabella is producing some great performances all season long, I haven't seen him be this good in any of my saves, a good manager in charge perhaps

Form is improving keep it up mate!!

Griffo: He's been ace in all of the time he's been in this save for Lyon and Bradford and has scored at least ten goals in his past five seasons. Overall, a really impressive player - especially under me

BeanyUnited: Cheers man! It's been good recently

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Adam Chabukiani spoke of 'exciting times ahead' as the club anticipates hosting the Europa League 2nd Knockout Round against Portugal.

Joining Bradford Park Avenue in July 2015, Adam guided Avenue to Play-Off promotion in his first season in the club's Vanarama North days. This time of year, the club are playing Europe's elite in one of the most reputable competitions in the world.

He spoke to The Daily Mail after Bradford PA training today (Wednesday, 9th March 2016).

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Chabukiani: "First of all, we [Adam and his coaching staff] are very happy. For us, it’s a massive thing, the trust first of all from John [Dean], the club behind him, all the supporters and the players, it’s fantastic. We’re delighted to be in this position in time. The dream has become true."

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In your first ever interview you stated that you wanted to make the fans proud. It's safe to say you have done that...
Chabukiani: "It’s true, after two years, we’ve created together a big culture, a philosophy for the club that we all share and it’s key that our supporters feel proud of our players, we feel very pleased and very proud of that."

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All of your teams over the years have always earned the respect of the fans. How important is that?
Chabukiani: "It’s a massive step for us. Now is an exciting period for Bradford with the facilities we have, the new stadium, we have unbelievable staff and players. We have an exciting period ahead and I’m happy to be here to try and help the club to be successful in the next few years."

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How would you sum up your six years at the club?
Chabukiani: "It’s always difficult to settle when you arrive at a new club like I did all them years ago. It wasn’t easy at the beginning but the people were always available to help us and we're flying as a result. The staff and people here are fantastic. We all enjoy working together and always have done."

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The team ethic is key to your philosophy and you can sense that feeling throughout the club...
Chabukiani: "This is the first few steps! For me, for an even bigger success, it’s always about the team, always. This is the most important thing. Now we need to keep improving. It’s a big challenge for us to move on. We need to be stronger in our mentality individually and collectively. We are happy but always thinking about the future.

"In football, it’s always possible to improve. A lot of things have happened this season that we need to learn from for next season. I think we’re in a good way so be patient, work hard and ensure that the good things arrive.

"We have our own philosophy, we have our own history and it’s not important what happens with our rivals. This is our challenge, to try to look at us and try to improve ourselves, thinking about only us. The mentality is right for the future."

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What do you think about the potential of this group?
Chabukiani: "We have massive potential and we cannot stop. We need to try to improve every day. It’s true now we are nearing the end of the current season and now is a moment to try and analyse and assess but next season we need to have better mentality and try to improve in all areas - this is our challenge. We need to put the idea in our minds that okay, it's been a decent season so far, but we need to be better."

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There is so much to be proud about over the last few years but do you feel this is just the start?
Chabukiani: "We need to feel proud and very happy. It’s true that our ambition is to win trophies. To achieve Europa League football is fantastic and we need to keep that level this season and try to look ahead and try to challenge for trophies. We need to push ourselves to try to improve individually and collectively.

"We need to be ambitious. The club is very ambitious with the new stadium last year. It’s a massive challenge to play in the Europa League and we need to try to fight for the top six both this and next season. That would be fantastic but it will also be a tough period for us as it has always been over the years."

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Do you expect the players to grow from the experience of challenging for European football?
Chabukiani: "We need to use all the feelings we experienced this season to try to improve and learn. I think we can improve because we are young but we have very good players, clever people and it’s important to learn about the past and make sure we can capitalise on that in the future."

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Chabukiani's Bradford PA will take on Sporting Lisbon tomorrow in the Europa League 2nd Round after wins in the Group Stage and in the 1st Knockout Round against RSC Anderlecht.