Callum Fowler thinks Graham Alexander should take the Preston North End job if the opportunity comes.
I like Callum. He watches an awful lot of EFL football, generally talks sense and his argument isn't difficult to understand. Preston are a Championship club, Alexander is a Preston legend and, despite everything he has achieved as a manager, he has never managed permanently at that level.
But this is one where I’m not convinced.
Because there's a difference between moving up a division and moving into a better situation.
Right now, Graham Alexander has arguably never been in a stronger position as a manager. He has built something at Bradford City, has enormous credit in the bank and is managing a side sitting third in League One.
Preston, meanwhile, are second-bottom of the Championship after losing six of their opening seven league games.
If you're Alexander, is that really a gamble worth taking?
Why Preston makes complete sense on paper
Football League World highlighted Fowler’s belief that Alexander would be the right man for Preston following Paul Heckingbottom's departure. Fowler has also said on The Pyramid that while he expects Preston could go for Dave Challinor, Alexander would be his choice.
It's hardly a wild suggestion.
Alexander made more than 400 appearances for North End across two spells and his relationship with the club clearly goes far beyond simply having played there.
He has spoken previously about how much Preston means to him, describing Deepdale as a special place and becoming emotional when recalling the free-kick he scored with virtually the final kick of his playing career.
Then you've got his managerial record.
He took Bradford out of League Two, followed it by finishing fourth in League One at the first attempt and has started this season with four wins from six league games. City currently sit third on 12 points.
Earlier this month he reached 75 Bradford victories in only 154 matches, reportedly the quickest any City manager has ever reached that figure. His win rate at that point was 48.7%.
If Preston want a manager with EFL experience, promotions on his CV, a clear way of playing and an enormous connection with their club, Alexander ticks plenty of boxes.
I completely understand why they might want him.
I'm less sure why he should want them.
Alexander has something at Bradford that managers rarely get
The biggest thing Alexander would be giving up isn't League One football.
It's security.
He signed a new three-year deal in 2025 that keeps him and Chris Lucketti at Bradford until the summer of 2028. More importantly, it doesn't feel like one of those contracts that exists purely until the first bad Saturday afternoon.
This is Alexander's team now.
The squad has increasingly been shaped around the way he wants to play. The back three that once caused enough discussion to power half of Bradford's pubs is now simply how City operate. Players understand their jobs, recruitment increasingly looks tailored towards the system and Alexander has built a relationship with a group that clearly buys into him.
He has also earned the most valuable currency any football manager can have: patience. That hasn't always been the case during his career.
Alexander has already experienced just how quickly managerial jobs can disappear. Fleetwood sacked him after he had taken them to their highest-ever league finish. Scunthorpe dismissed him while they were in the League One play-off positions. Salford got rid of him six matches into a season in which they were unbeaten. His spell at MK Dons lasted just 16 games.
At Bradford, for the first time in a while, he has built enough credit to survive a difficult month.
That matters.
What happens if Preston don't improve?
This is the bit that gets overlooked when we describe Preston as a “Championship opportunity”. Alexander wouldn't be walking into a comfortable Championship club sitting 12th and looking for somebody to take them to the next level. He'd be walking into a relegation battle.
Preston have taken three points from their first seven matches and have lost six of them. Heckingbottom was dismissed after the 1-0 home defeat to Lincoln, with the club specifically referencing their significant investment and unacceptable results. Reports put their summer spending at more than £15million.
That spending is actually both an attraction and a warning.
You could look at the squad and think Alexander would have enough quality to turn it around. But you could also look at it from the board's perspective. They've spent heavily, they're already unhappy and they're under pressure to see a return from that investment.
Alexander wouldn't be getting two years to carefully construct Bradford City Mark II. He would be expected to start winning.
What if he doesn't?
What if he takes the job in October, Preston continue struggling and by March he's gone? Suddenly he's no longer the manager who won promotion with Bradford, finished fourth in League One and was building another promotion challenge. He's another recently-sacked Championship manager looking for his seventh permanent job.
That's how quickly the picture can change.
Football management doesn't come with a save button.
The Championship argument isn't quite as simple as it looks
The obvious counter is that opportunities don't wait around.
That's completely fair.
Alexander is 54 and has managed more than 600 games without getting a permanent crack at the Championship. If a club where he is already adored offers him that chance, he can't simply assume another one will appear six months later.
There's an emotional pull too.
If Alexander went to Preston, kept them up and eventually pushed them towards the top half, he'd have done it at a club where he's already a legend.
You wouldn't begrudge him wanting that.
And there's no guarantee Bradford's current trajectory continues forever. We've watched enough Bradford City over the years to know that putting “everything is going rather well” into writing is usually an excellent way of inviting trouble.
But Alexander doesn't have to choose between Preston now and never managing in the Championship.
There's another route sitting directly in front of him.
Get there with Bradford.
What does Alexander's reputation look like if he stays?
This is where I think the risk-reward starts leaning heavily towards City.
Bradford finished fourth last season immediately after promotion and are third again in the early stages of this one. Alexander himself said after the Bolton play-off defeat that City had established a “blueprint” for something successful.
Imagine what his CV looks like next summer if Bradford challenge for promotion again.
Better still, imagine what it looks like if City actually go up.
He wouldn't simply be an experienced lower-league manager being offered an opportunity to prove himself in the Championship.
He'd be the manager who took Bradford City from League Two to the Championship, potentially with two promotions and a League One play-off campaign in three seasons.
At that point, Alexander isn't hoping someone gives him a Championship job.
He's already got one.
And he'd have it at a club where the players know him, the staff know him, the board backs him and the supporters have seen exactly what he has built.
There are no guarantees City get promoted, obviously. Six matches aren't a season and League One will provide plenty of kicks in the teeth before May.
But the possibility is real enough that walking away from it deserves serious thought.
Preston would be romantic. Bradford might be smarter
There is something undeniably appealing about the Preston story.
Club legend comes home. Former captain takes over. Graham Alexander returns to Deepdale and tries to rescue the club where he spent such a huge part of his playing career.
You can already see the announcement video.
But managerial careers can't be based purely on the nice bit at the beginning.
The question is what happens afterwards.
At Bradford, Alexander knows exactly what he has. At Preston, he'd be taking over somebody else's squad, somebody else's difficult start and a Championship relegation battle with immediate pressure attached.
If he gets it right, brilliant.
If he gets it wrong, he could sacrifice nearly three years of carefully rebuilt managerial momentum in six months.
That doesn't make Preston a bad job forever.
It might just make it the wrong job right now.
Bantams Unfiltered verdict
I understand Callum Fowler's argument. Preston are a division higher, Alexander has an enormous connection with them and you can't expect a manager to turn down every opportunity simply because Bradford supporters would rather he stayed.
But if I were Graham Alexander, I wouldn't go.
Not now.
He has spent almost three years building genuine authority at Bradford City. He's contracted until 2028, has a squad that understands him, has promotion already on his CV here and currently has City competing towards the top of League One.
Giving all of that up to inherit a side with three points from seven games feels less like climbing the managerial ladder and more like betting everything he's built on a rescue mission.
Maybe Alexander backs himself to keep Preston up.
You'd expect him to.
But there's one question I'd be asking before signing anything:
If Preston can sack Graham Alexander six months from now, will Bradford City still be waiting for him?
Probably not.
And that's why, romantic Preston return or not, staying at Valley Parade might be the bigger career move.
Would you take the Preston job if you were Graham Alexander, or finish what you've started at Bradford City?
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