£1.25m Portsmouth loanee braced for Bradford City upheaval amid League One frustrations
Hayden Matthews has featured twice for Bradford City since his summer loan switch from Pompey.
A period of upheaval awaits Hayden Matthews just weeks into his Bradford City career.
The Aussie was, of course, allowed to depart Fratton Park late in the summer transfer window after falling down John Mousinho’s pecking order at the heart of defence.
After penning a season-long loan at Valley Parade, it’s been a slow start to life with the Bantams having so far struggled for minutes with the League One table toppers.
Matthews is yet to feature for Graham Alexander’s side in the third-tier and has been left out of all four league squads since his September 1 switch.
The Pompey loanee has been limited to just two EFL Trophy outings at present and was handed a rare start in Bradford’s 2-1 triumph over Newcastle United U21 on Tuesday.
Pompey loanee braced for Bradford upheaval
But despite a promising midweek display, any hope of impressing the man who brought him to West Yorkshire looks to be undone, with the head coach’s future becoming increasingly uncertain.
With Bradford leading the way in League One, Championship interest is growing in Alexander, with managerless Preston North End looking to strike a deal for the Scot.
The Lilywhites sacked Paul Heckingbottom prior to the international break after a disastrous start to the season, which had seen them win just one of their opening seven matches prior to his dismissal.
Indeed, the Bantams boss is leading the race to take the Deepdale hot-seat, with the Valley Parade outfit confirming they have ‘reluctantly’ granted Alexander permission to speak with North End.
A statement released by Bradford read: ‘Bradford City AFC can confirm we have been approached by Preston North End to speak to Graham Alexander regarding the Sky Bet Championship side’s managerial vacancy.
‘Reluctantly, Bradford City has granted permission for Graham to speak to Preston North End.
‘The club will be making no further comment at this time.’
His appointment would mark Alexander’s return to Deepdale, where he enjoyed an outstanding decade-long stay and amassed more than 400 appearances.
Pompey loanee Matthews and Bradford are not in action until October 3 after this Saturday’s League One fixture was postponed due to international call-ups.
John Mousinho on Hayden Matthews’ Pompey future
The £1.25m signing was allowed to depart Pompey prior to the summer window’s climax on a temporary basis, with Mousinho stressing a loan switch would be beneficial for Matthews’ development.
He told The News: ‘We had four centre-backs competing for the spots and when Connor Ogilvie comes back he can play there as well, so we just wanted to get Hayden minutes.
‘His future is at Pompey, but obviously we’ll see what it’s like in January. Hopefully he’ll get some minutes when he goes out and plays for Bradford and we will go from there.
‘He needs games, we’ve got high hopes for Hayden, we don’t want him to exit the club permanently, we want to see him back here, but he’s never had a proper run of games here for a number of reasons, mainly injury, so we want to get him some.
‘There was a lot of interest in him, Bradford are a very competitive League One side, it's going to be a very, very good development for him in terms of learning from a really good manager.
‘Bradford is a big, big club as well in terms of the way they are set up. So I think it will be a really good loan for him.’