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It has been a long time since Bradford City has had a genuinely exciting young player on its books, but in Nahki Wells they appear to have unearthed a real gem.
He came to the UK via an educational programme set up by David Baldwin, Bradford City’s Chief Operating Officer, and run by former player Mark Ellis which mixes studying for a degree with football training. However, it was not the Bantams that made the first gamble on Wells and instead he was first signed by Carlisle United, but released after just six months after failing to impress at Brunton Park.
Within a few weeks, then Bradford City manager Peter Jackson was persuaded by his old team mate Ellis to have a look at Wells and he was signed without much fanfare in the last few days of Jackson’s tenure.
First impressions were good, but not astounding, with Wells showing showing great movement and surprising amounts of speed, but some poor control on occasions and a tendency to try to do too much. Still, with 12 goals in his first season (averaging around one goal in every three games), he had begun to give us a glimpse of his potential. Last season though, he really began to get into his stride.
A marathon 64 game season for City, which included a first Wembley cup final for a team from the bottom tier, saw Wells feature 54 times and score 26 goals – including one in the League Two play-off final victory to make him the first Bermudian to score at the national stadium.
Wells is a natural poacher and playing alongside local boy James Hanson (who also scored at Wembley in the play-off final) gives him plenty of ammunition. They are the archetypal “little and large” pairing (though without the ill advised perm and bottle bottom glasses favoured by the 1980’s “comedy” duo), with the tall Hanson providing lots of flicked headers for Wells to chase down.
To use a well-worn cliché, Wells has pace to burn.
In recent league games against Brentford and Colchester, Nahki has managed to intercept defensive back passes. In the Brentford match, this led to the keeper making a challenge which Jackie Chan would have been proud of, which forced the referee to produce a red card. In the game against Colchester, it led to yet another goal, with Wells collecting the ball and producing a smart finish before adding a second later in the game with a deft flick which had fans debating whether it was a fluke or a moment of genius.
No matter how he scored them, there is no denying that the boy is on a hot streak.
His most recent goal was his 17th in the last 17 games he had featured in which he has featured for City – including nine in nine games this season. A few games before, he had equalled a club record which had stood since the 1960s by scoring in eight consecutive games (10 goals in that period) and but for some heroic defending by Stevenage, he would have gone on to take the record outright.
This kind of prolific form has resulted in Nahki appearing on the radar of a number of clubs and has City fans worried that the star man might be poached by a club in a higher division. Fortunately (for us), deadline day passed without any serious bids being received. In fact, thus far the only club who has made a formal approach is Peterborough, who reportedly offered £1.2 million during late July.
London Road won’t be seeing Nahki’s talents,or at least not on a regular basis. (Courtesy of Richard Humphrey)
At a recent fans’ forum, Bradford manager Phil Parkinson said that he had told Darren Ferguson that the offer had been unacceptable and that given that he rated Wells as a better player than Dwight Gayle (who Peterborough recently sold to Crystal Palace for a reported £5 million) then any offer would have to be substantially higher than the one on the table. To date, nothing more has been heard.
Even if an acceptable amount had been offered, it is not clear that Wells would have been interested in signing for Peterborough, or any other League One side. Parkinson said that his striker “does not suffer from a lack of confidence” and it appears that this applies just as much to his long term career ambitions as it does to his on-field performances.
I must admit that on occasion I have been a little frustrated by Nahki’s lack of public professions of love for my club, but then I have to remember that his relationship with Bradford City is that of an employee/employer relationship, as opposed to my own connection which is more akin to a hopeless romantic/junkie deviant.
He has regularly spoken of his desire to play at the highest level possible. He is a regular starter for the Bermudian national team and last year’s cup run showed that he can cause problems for even Premier League defenders with his pace and movement. The transfer window has its critics, but as a means of protecting lower league clubs from unsettling transfer speculation it provides a welcome sanctuary.
Remember Graeme Tomlinson?
No, I thought not. Tomlinson was another young striker who burst into the City first team in the early 1990’s when the club were also in the third tier of English football. He scored six goals in 17 appearances which meant another Ferguson came calling – Darren’s dad. This time, without the limiting effects of the transfer window, the young striker was persuaded to join the Manchester giant as opposed to staying with City and developing his game.
He went on to appear for Manchester United precisely zero times and scored 14 times in 119 appearances over the next eight years as he suffered injury and then went out first on loan to a number of clubs, and then to Macclesfield and Exeter before dropping into non-League football obscurity.
Tomlinson also had massive potential, but unlike him Wells has already had a chance to gain valuable experience in the lower leagues where opponents can take a rather robust interpretation of Law 12 (Fouls and misconduct) and has shown that when given an opportunity, he will more often than not score.
I would be very surprised if a number of Championship and even Premier League clubs are not watching him. Rumours of a £3 million plus bid from QPR in the last transfer window never materialised despite speculation in the national press, but if he continues to score regularly for the Bantams then interest can only continue to grow. Obviously, I would love him to stay with my club and use his goals to help us compete for back-to-back promotions, but if an offer of “silly money” (to quote our Co-chairman Mark Lawn) comes in when the transfer window re-opens, could we really stand in his way?
Probably not.
I think that unless we are competing for the top few places in League One, an offer of the right money from the right club in January could see Wells leave. It is the nature of game that ambitious, in-form players will be picked up by teams higher up the football pyramid. Some fulfil their promise and others fade from view.
What happens with Nahki remains to be seen, but I hope that his current scoring run continues for as long as he remains as a City player and along with my fellow Bantams, I will enjoy every run that creates terror in the opponents’ defence – until January at least.
