Bradley Wood

History will remember Bradley Wood for one thing, you know what it is, and so do I. Rightly or wrongly, he is a disgraced ex-footballer, not the legend that he seemed to be shaping up as.

With the dust settled on his misdemeanours now, it is easier for me to say it was a crying shame what happened. There are some who won’t remember his qualities, others who refuse to believe he did wrong. I’m not here to debate that right now; I’m here to tell you why he’d be better in a Keith Alexander side.

Firstly, not trying to be funny, but we never went on cup runs under Keith. Plus, it was far harder to access certain types of odds and smartphones were in their infancy, so gambling wasn’t easy. No dig at Bradley there, it’s a fact. If he’d played a decade earlier, it wouldn’t have been as easy to do what he did.

He was also a typical Keith player, committed to everything, robust and energetic which sometimes made up for lacking a certain finesse. He is essentially Mark Bailey, Mark II, the prototype that seemed to improve on the original until it self-destructed.

Also, before anyone thinks too badly of Brad, he reached out a few weeks ago when I lost my Dad. That meant a lot.