Quality midfielder who passes his way into the Premiership.
Born: Manchester, UK
Signed for £600,000 in a pair with Ashley Westwood from Crewe by Paul Jewell in the 1998 summer of sanity.
A regular in the promotion side of 1998/1999 but in and out of the side after that.
Left for Lennie Lawrence's up-and-coming Cardiff team in 2002.
Shimmied off back to Jewell at his Wigan army.
Paul Jewell slapped down £600,000 on the table at Gresty Road and took back to Valley Parade the most unfeasibly blue-eyed midfielder you'd ever seen. Totally, totally, completely one-footed; didn't like to tackle; didn't like to head. What exactly had Jewell seen in him that had failed to impress Liverpool in a trial period. One thing. Passing. Awesome. Unbelievably accurate passing. The best passer the Bantams had ever seen.
Think back to that promotion season. How many times were Beags, Robbie, Thunderthighs and Jamie released with a ball that bisected two defenders exactly to set them on their way through? Many, that's how many. He didn't need to tackle. He didn't need to head. He didn't need to use his right foot. His left did everything. And perfectly. Stuart did all the tough work: tackling, regaining possession, battling for the ball, but when it needed distributing, he'd lay it off to jug-eared Gareth, whose vision would set us off on yet another counter-attack. And won himself Players' Player of the Year that year while he was at it. It was joked that if we took the silky skills and vision of Gareth and combined it with the physique and strength of Darren Moore, we'd have had the perfect footballer. He was even the most well-turned out footballer we had at the time. Impeccable hair, shirt tucked in, never got dirty -- what more could you ask for?
Even in the disappointing years that followed the promotion season, he and Robbie Blake were the two clever players that Beni could understand and play well with (in the unlikely event they were all fit at once!), rather than the ten muppets he usually hadn't a clue what he was going to do next. A Friday night game sticks in the memory in the old Division One against Gillingham, where Gareth, Robbie and Beni's 'triangles' and vision absolutely ripped apart the visitors with such ease and vigour that it should have had an '18' certificate. Their play was so exceptional and free-flowing; just doing it naturally without having to even think that they even inadvertently set up the visitors single goal with probably the best piece of football I have ever seen from a Bradford City team; numerous Blake, Carbone and Whalley passes before a Beni cross resulted in a Jamie Lawrence volley from all of five inches that the keeper managed to save with, I believe, his face and the rebound going straight up the other end for Marlon King to finish!
Signed by Crewe on the Dario Gradi wonderkid production line in 1992, he made over 170 appearances for Crewe in almost exactly 6 years at the club before signing for City. A two-week trial at Anfield was mixed in there with not quite enough being done to impress them into signing him. One suspects this is where Paul Jewell heard about him and immediately checked him out, bringing him and Ashley Westwood in from Gresty Road at the same time. He played for the Bantams 99 times and nicked 3 goals (one off his knee, one from on the line at Bristol City and a scuffed curler against Watford in the Premiership) before being shipped back out to Crewe on loan around the time of our first administration. He was unaffordable to us after that as I'm sure we'd have done our level best to keep him, but unfortunately pastures new beckoned and he left for Lennie Lawrence's up-and-coming Cardiff team in 2002. He has since been signed by Paul Jewell again! For Wigan, this time.
You may not have noticed him but we'd never have got to the Premiership without his abilities. A classy player we should never forget.
THATS FROM THE BRADFORD CITY WEBSITE
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Info on Gareth
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