Former Wanderers man Mark Litherland has been named as Bradford City’s new head of Academy.

Litherland served as the Whites’ Academy manager for two seasons before departing the club last summer.

He now succeeds Neil Matthews, who sadly passed away several months ago, in the role at Valley Parade.

“It feels great to be here. I have been welcomed by all the staff with open arms and am really enjoying it so far,” Litherland told the club website.

“It is evident that the work of Neil Matthews, God bless his soul, and the rest of the staff has been top drawer to get the Academy to where it is today. That has been evident to me from day one.

“I just want to follow that on and build on it to improve us and help the Academy get better and better to the point where it is one of the best in the north of England.

“For me, an Academy is a family, and we want to be a really strong family because there are 91 other football clubs out there who want to beat us.

“The environment is key, and I can tell just by being in for four days that we are in a really good place. The players enjoy their work, and long may that continue.

“I have spoken to the manager and he is very keen on youth development, and from my point of view that is perfect. We want to be developing international players and Premier League players for the future.

“There is masses of experience already in the Academy, and I am looking forward to trying to make us the best category three side out there, and pushing on from that.”

Litherland spent eight years at Bury, seeing 30 Academy products feature for the first team, prior to his time at Wanderers. He also had a stint as Academy manager at Rochdale.