York City chairman Jason McGill's 'surprise' at James Meredith move (From York Press)

York City chairman Jason McGill's 'surprise' at James Meredith move

11:48am Friday 29th June 2012 in Sport By Steve Carroll , Sports reporter

YORK CITY chairman Jason McGill expressed his “surprise” at defender James Meredith’s move to Bradford City.

The 24-year-old will become a Bantam on July 1 after rejecting a new deal at Bootham Crescent and opting to join the Minstermen’s League Two rivals at Valley Parade.

Having been widely reported to have attracted the interest of Championship and League One clubs, Meredith’s sideways switch, on a two-year contract, has caught both supporters and officials at City off-guard.

On his move, the Australian said: "I thoroughly enjoyed my three years at York. I have nothing but respect for the manager and the chairman and they’re a great family club. But Bradford’s ambitions match my own and I’m excited to get started.

"I got on brilliantly with the manager (Phil Parkinson) from the moment I met him and he told me all about the ambitions for this club. I can’t wait to get out on the pitch in front of 10,000 in the magnificent stadium.

"I’ve heard it’s a great atmosphere to play in and I’ll be doing everything I can to help take Bradford a step up."

When asked to comment on Meredith’s move, McGill said: “At the start of the close season, we all believed that we wouldn’t have a chance at signing James again. He had gone to other clubs in League One and, apparently, was offered significantly higher money than York could afford.

“However, I had a long conversation with James on Wednesday evening that went on until 11pm at night. I was made aware that Bradford City were interested. York City gave, what I believed, was a fair offer - an improved and enhanced offer - which he had indicated was comparable with Bradford City.

“You would have to ask James Meredith the reason why he chose Bradford City over York City.”

McGill added: “I am quite surprised. James Meredith has been with us for three seasons and we have gone through the difficult stage of going to Forest Green Rovers on a Tuesday, Bath City, and the journey in the Football League is going to be a fun, enjoyable, journey with York and we wanted James to be a part of that.

“When you’ve gone through all the difficult times, you want the players, and hope that the players that had gone through those with York, to be motivated and wanting to be at the club. It is quite a surprise to me.”