I think the majority of Bradford City fans will look back on the season like we have and just wonder what actually happened? What we thought was going to be a fantastic season didn't go to plan at all and had a few twists and turns before finally showing some promise however, it was a little too late in the end and we ended up finishing 14th in League 2, way off the mark of where most fans thought we would be. 

The pre-season build up made all us fans pretty hopeful for the season ahead with Derek Adams coming out with plenty of promises and interviews saying the sort of thing he had in store for us but we saw just a few months into the season those promises were definitely not going to happen and morale in the squad had dropped massively. It didn't take long for fans to start turning on Adams & owner Rupp after performances were absolutely shocking and nowhere near what those players in that squad were capable of, it just looked like they didn't want to play. Still the club kept Adams around and even with his post match interviews angering fans even more due to his ego and the fact he didn't seem to care about the results he was still there to oversee the January transfer window. 

It is safe to say there were some fantastic loan signings like Jamie Walker and Dion Pereria (who we never even saw play under Adams yet turned out to be a fantastic signing when he did play) and then there were some more questionable ones like Daly who we just didn't get the best out of and Bass who somehow became a solid first choice 'keeper even after a fair few questionable mistakes. I think the biggest shock of the window though was us losing our captain Canavan right at the end of the window leaving us short of experience in the centre back position, this was clearly due to something in the background due to how it shocked almost everyone. 

Finally though not long after the end of the transfer window the club finally got rid of Adams with his ego seeming to get the better of him and we had a brief spell of Trueman being back in charge stepping up from the assistant role. What makes the Adams sacking even better is how he said 'you will never find a better manager than me' .... well step aside Adams as us Bradford City fans had a massive shock when the club announced the new managed to be Mark Hughes, no one expected it. In fact it was that much of a shock I honestly believed it was the parody account that had announced it not the actual Bradford City one and honestly I still can't get my head around that it is Hughes in charge now and who knows maybe we might get out of League 2 sooner rather than later with him in charge.

The best part about the Hughes appointment for me though was seeing those players who looked awful under Adams finally start looking like footballers again, they started to show up and actually play some football. They were moving the ball around and actually trying to score and creating some great chances whilst they were at it. At times with how they were moving the ball around it didn't feel like we were watching a League two team it looked much better quality and gave us hope for what the future holds at the club. even players who were missing for most of Adams reign seemed to slip back into the squad and make an impact. We saw Peraira magically recover from an injury that kept him from playing under Adams and he soon became a fan favourite after putting in some great performances. Even Gareth Evans returned to the squad after a long time on the sidelines and showed us what he was capable of  it is just a shame we have now released him as I think he could have done well under Hughes next season. 

Even though the players were starting to perform much better unfortunately results just weren't falling in their favour and we still weren't picking up those points that could have helped us climb the table a fair bit towards the end of the season but at the end of the day a 14th place finish is way better than we expected around the festive period.  

The team started to look so much better and honestly it has set the standard pretty high for us fans for the new season but I think we could definitely be in for a treat as the Hughes rebuild is well underway with us making some pretty good signings early on in the transfer window rather than leaving everything to the last minute plus we are keeping hold of some key players from last season. With a nice mix of new and old I think the season could go pretty well if the players settle into the Hughes way of playing early on and I think with more to be done in the transfer window we could see the club go from strength to strength in some positions where quality has been lacking lately. 

At the end of the day though last season didn't go to plan but it was nice to be back in Valley Parade watching the team we love with fellow fans rather than having to sit and watch it on a laptop screen through ifollow. I don't want to get my hopes up too high going into the new season as we saw how that played out last time but there is a real sense of excitement in the air at the moment so let's hope next season is so much better.

What did you think to Bradford City's 2021/22 campaign?