Devante Cole leaves Bradford City for Fleetwood

Devante Cole: Signed for Fleetwood

Devante Cole: Signed for Fleetwood

Bradford City striker Devante Cole has joined League One rivals Fleetwood Town on a permanent deal.

Cole, the son of former Newcastle and Manchester United striker Andrew Cole, only joined Bradford last summer after leaving Manchester City but he has fallen out of favour with City boss Phil Parkinson and been allowed to leave for an undisclosed fee.

“We wanted to freshen things up and we got a very good financial offer from Fleetwood,” Parkinson told the Telegraph & Argus.

“It puts some money back available to us and we felt that if we didn’t take it, that money might not be there in two days’ time.

“Purely for football reasons, we decided it was the right thing to do.”

As TEAMtalk reported earlier in the day, Fleetwood striker Jamie Proctor, 23, has gone the other way on a month’s loan deal as Parkinson aims to end the Bantams’ goalscoring problems.

Cole had loan spells at Barnsley and MK Dons last season, scoring five times for Barnsley and netting three times for the Dons prompting Bradford to make a move for him

Cole made a bright start to life at Bradford, scoring five goals in his first nine games, but he has found his chances in the starting line-up restricted in recent weeks and has been criticised for his lack of work rate.

Luke James, on-loan from Peterborough, also looks set to move on from Bradford with two League Two clubs interested in the forward.

James has struggled for game time at Valley Parade and his exit would leave another gap in Bradford’s striking department, so expect Parkinson to add another forward to his ranks in the next week or so.