THE financial crisis at Bradford should serve as a lesson to every football club in the land of the dangers of allowing ambition to over-ride common sense.

That was the reaction from the Reebok to news that the Yorkshire club - relegated from the Premiership just 12 months ago - is up for sale after being placed into administration.

"It is a warning," Wanderers' chairman Phil Gartside said. "I think there will be more clubs who go the same way. In fact I am sure there will be more.

"I am quite surprised that it's happened to Bradford before some of the smaller clubs but I am afraid they have been the victims of their own success and demise.

"They got into the Premiership and spent big money to stay in there. But, when they were relegated, the income wasn't there to cover their commitments.

"They bought (Benito) Carbone, for instance, and placed him on an expensive contract. They've tried to shift him on but they have not been able to. That hasn't helped."

Like Wanderers, Bradford defied the odds and confounded the critics when they survived their first season in the Premiership after winning promotion in 1999. But they spent heavily on players in an effort to stay in the top flight and relegation last year proved a devastating blow.

Chairman Geoffrey Richmond blamed the collapse of the ITV Digital deal, which will cost Division One clubs between £3-4 million, and the continuing commitment to expensive players' contracts - Carbone's proposed transfer to Middlesbrough collapsed recently - for contributing to his club's parlous financial plight.

Former manager Chris Kamara said it was the price of a spiralling wage bill. "Once they brought in big money players they knew something like this would happen," he said. Now administrators say the club will have to terminate the contracts of several players to reduce costs.

But Wanderers believe they have shown the way forward for the less wealthy top-flight clubs by using free transfers, loans and short-term contracts to strengthen their squad for the Premiership and Mr Gartside today re-affirmed the club's commitment to operate on similar lines next season.

"We had a fantastic average gate last season of just over 25,000 but players' wages are nowhere near covered by gate income," the chairman explained. "Although they are still the cheapest in the league and represent terrific value, we've had to put our season ticket prices up. We had no choice.

"But we still enjoyed success in our dealings this year with players like Bruno N'Gotty, Fredi Bobic and Youri Djorkaeff - without making commitments which would have given us problems if they had not come off. It would not have killed the club if we had been relegated.

"And next season is not going to be much different. We've got a structure in place now where we have an income from football - about £16 million of Premiership money - which gives us an ability to bring players in but only on similar lines to last season. We still need a few more years of stability before we can think about paying big transfer fees again.

"So we will borrow players, bringing them in on trial and seeing whether they want to stay, and we will concentrate on Bosman (free) transfers - always looking to improve the quality of course.

"But it will be more difficult because, after the success we've had with Bruno, Fredi and Youri, more clubs will be doing it our way. But we did it first and we've learned a lot. Sam (Allardyce) already has his network of contacts and he knows that side of the market better than anyone.

"And, having had names like N'Gotty, Bobic and Djorkaeff benefit from coming here, we are going to be able to attract players of similar quality."