Bradford City loanees have Premier League trio to look up to

All of them were handed their first professional contracts by Premier League sides, Oyegoke with Brentford, Wright with Aston Villa and Tomkinson with then top-flight team Norwich.

Only Brentford full-back Oyegoke remains on the books of a Premier League outfit, with winger Wright sold by Villa to Plymouth last January and Tomkinson having played one league game so far in the Championship for Norwich.

Tomkinson’s Canaries are hunting promotion back to the top-flight after a two-year absence, unlike Wright’s Argyle, who are battling to avoid immediately dropping back into League One.

At 22 and having already been sold by Villa, Wright’s chance of making the grade in the Premier League one day look fairly remote, though never say never.

And with the pair of them showing huge flashes of potential at the age of 21, Oyegoke and Tomkinson remain raw, with surely a long way to go before a Premier League club would take a chance on them as a regular first-team player.

Will Daniel Oyegoke break into the first team at Brentford, or another Premier League club, in the coming years? (Image: Thomas Gadd.)

But the path has been trodden before over the last decade, from City’s first team to top-flight regular, so there remains hope for the young trio.

With that in mind, we’ve taken a look at some City loan blasts from the past, and how they’ve done in the Premier League this term.

Josh Cullen (Burnley)

Arguably the best loan signing in City’s (recent) history, West Ham midfielder Cullen was a shining light in the centre of the Bantams’ midfield for one and a half seasons.

It was a coup for the League One promotion chasers to even bring the teenager in in February 2016, given he had featured in a 3-0 Premier League win for the Hammers at Anfield less than six months earlier.

He impressed so much on the Bantams’ run to the play-off semi-finals that the club went back to East London, and persuaded them to allow the now 20-year-old to come back for another year on loan.

That faith in the youngster almost earned City the biggest reward of all, as he played over 40 times that season, only for Stuart McCall’s side to fall short at Wembley with a 1-0 play-off final defeat to Millwall.

That was a tearful Cullen’s last game for the club, and he went on to make impress on loan at Charlton, then excelled in Belgium with Vincent Kompany’s Anderlecht.

Now capped 34 times and counting by the Republic of Ireland, Cullen was reunited with Kompany at Burnley in 2022.

He was a key figure as they romped to the Championship title last season, and has played 19 Premier league games so far this term, having missed a big chunk of action in the middle of term through injury.

The Clarets currently sit six points from safety with six games to go, but their form has improved of late and they still have an outside chance of survival.

That is partly down to the reintegration of former Bantams loanee Cullen into the first team.

He has completed 90 minutes in each of Burnley’s last six games, with the Clarets only losing twicve in that time.

And the individual highlight for the Ireland international came at Stamford Bridge on Easter Saturday, when he managed a goal and an assist as the 10-man Clarets earned a superb 2-2 draw against Chelsea.

A pumped up Josh Cullen celebrates scoring at Stamford Bridge for Burnley last month. (Image: PA.)

With fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest and Everton still in danger of further points deductions over potential breaches of the Premier League’s strict financial rules, Cullen and Burnley’s season is nowhere near over yet.

Reece Burke (Luton)

If Cullen first caught the eye of the City fans in the 2015-16 season, defender Reece Burke did that and then some.

It could even be argued that Burke’s success at Valley Parade persuaded his parent club West Ham to send Cullen there as well a few months later.

The similarities do not even end there, with Burke born in 1996 like his team-mate, and also like the Ireland international, joining the Bantams a few months after making his Premier League debut.

Having had a taste of the big time in the Hammers’ goalless draw at QPR in April 2015, Burke was sent to City that August.

And he was that good his loan kept getting extended, with an initial spell that was supposed to last for a month took him right up to and including the League One play-off semis, where the Bantams bowed out to their soon-to-be even archer nemesis in Millwall.

Burke played 36 times in the City defence that season, and amid strong competition, he won the club’s Player of the Year award.

Loans at Wigan and Bolton followed for Burke, before he became a dependable Championship regular after leaving the Hammers with Hull and Luton.

Burke played 20 league games for the Hatters last season, before featuring twice in a memorable play-off campaign that ended in promotion.

The 27-year-old was a regular in the heart of the Luton defence at the start of their maiden Premier League campaign, before shifting to right-back, then having to sit out for a spell with a knee problem.

Burke returned to the side in style in late January, playing the whole 90 minutes in a stunning 4-0 win over Brighton.

He has started six of their last seven games too, including a thrilling last-gasp win over Bournemouth.

Reece Burke looks to keep pace with Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White, in a game last month which saw Luton score late on to seal a precious point against their relegation rivals. (Image: PA.)

That result has left Burke and Luton in the relegation zone only, with three winnable-looking home games left.

And like with Cullen and Burnley, the Everton and Forest financial situations could offer a back-door route to safety anyway.

Jordan Pickford (Everton)

Did anyone watching Bradford City in the 2014/15 season expect Jordan Pickford to go and play a starring role for England in their last three major tournaments?

Probably not, but the early signs of a hugely promising goalkeeper were there when the Wearsider rocked up at Valley Parade as a 20-year-old.

City’s most memorable exploits came in the cup that season, as they reached the FA Cup quarter-finals, with sensational wins over Chelsea and Pickford’s parent club Sunderland, as well as beating Leeds in the League Cup second round.

The Black Cats understandably didn’t want to risk cup-tying their young stopper, so he missed the real highs of that season under Phil Parkinson.

But in his 33 games for the Bantams in League One, he only conceded 36 times, keeping an impressive 10 clean sheets.

He went on to make his Premier League debut at the end of the following season for his beloved hometown club and his rise was stratospheric, as he joined Everton in 2017 for an initial £25m fee, remarkably making the most expensive British goalkeeper in history at that point.

But it has proved money well spent, with Pickford now closing in on 300 appearances for the Toffees, as surely their ace in the pack.

This season has been no different, as despite Everton’s struggles on and off the field, Pickford is surely in line to be their player of the season, not for the first time either.

An ever-present in the Premier League this season, he has kept nine clean sheets and only conceded 42 goals.

Jordan Pickford lets out his emotions after the final whistle marked Everton's 2-0 win over Chelsea at Goodison Park in December 2023. (Image: PA.)

For some context, and to highlight just how much Pickford, along with the likes of defenders Jarrad Branthwaite, James Tarkowski and Vitaliy Mykolenko, has kept Everton’s head above water this season, only title chasing Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City have conceded less.

Pickford’s form surely makes him a certainty to be England’s No.1 at the Euros in Germany this summer, with the Three Lions heavily tipped to end a major tournament drought that has lasted nearly 60 years…