Huddersfield Town Pulled A Blinder With Bradford City Transfer

Bristol City striker Nahki Wells has enjoyed a majorly impressive career, and has plied his trade from League Two, all the way up to the Premier League.

At 34 years old, the Bermuda international continues to effectively lead the line in the Championship for the Robins, who he joined back in 2020.

While his time as a Premier League player may not be remembered too well, as he made just nine top-flight outings for Burnley, and failed to make a single goal contribution, his time as an EFL star should always be celebrated.

Wells’ career began back in Bermuda, where he played for the Dandy Town Hornets and later the Bermuda Hogges, before he moved to England, and had a brief stint with non-league Eccleshill United.

His journey in the EFL subsequently began with Carlisle United, but he made just three appearances for the Cumbrian outfit, all of which arrived back in 2011.

But ahead of the 2011/12 campaign, Wells moved to Bradford City, where a majorly successful spell would begin, and he has never looked back since.

Huddersfield Town’s move for Bradford’s Wells proved an inspired transfer

During his first season with Bradford, the ace scored 10 goals in 33 League Two appearances, as well as a further two strikes in the FA Cup, as he established himself as a dangerous attacker in the professional game, while the Bantams finished just 18th in the fourth tier table.

Wells would then enjoy a far more memorable 2012/13 season, as he notched an impressive return of 22 goals in 42 League Two outings, while the Bantams went on to earn promotion to League One, via a 3-0 play-off final victory over Northampton Town.

But more incredibly, the West Yorkshire outfit reached the EFL Cup final as a fourth tier side, and the Bermuda international played a key role towards such a historic achievement, scoring three goals in seven appearances in the competition.

On their way to Wembley, where the Bantams eventually suffered a 5-0 defeat to then Premier League Swansea City, they produced some upsets which will never be forgotten, such as a fourth round victory over Wigan Athletic, in the same season that the Latics would go on to win the FA Cup, but also face relegation from the top-flight.

Bradford would then beat Premier League giants Arsenal in the fifth round, thanks to a penalty shootout win, before fending off Aston Villa over the course of a two-legged semi-final.

The Bantams’ reward for enjoying such a successful campaign was the prospect of plying their trade in League One during the following 2013/14 season.

Wells was not at all fazed by the challenge of testing himself in the third tier for the first time since his brief spell with Carlisle, and in fact proved more prolific than ever, as he scored 14 goals in 19 appearances during the first half of the campaign.

Those exploits were enough to convince Huddersfield, then of the Championship, to acquire his services come the January 2014 transfer window.

The choice to snap his services up proved to be an inspired one for the Terriers, as the eventual Bristol City man adjusted well to Championship football, scoring seven goals in 22 appearances during the latter half of the 2013/14 campaign.

He would subsequently go on to score 11 goals in 35 second tier outings, during a 2014/15 season in which the Terriers would finish 16th in the table, and just one point behind West Yorkshire rivals Leeds United.

Wells had an even better season in front of goal the following term, and scored on 17 occasions in 44 Championship appearances, as the West Yorkshire side finished 19th this time around.

Huddersfield would never have expected Wells to help them to the Premier League

But the best was still yet to come for the Bermuda international and his Terriers career, as he notched 10 goals and two assists during a historic second tier season in which Huddersfield proved all their doubters wrong, and reached the Premier League courtesy of a penalty shootout victory over Reading in the 2017 play-off final.

When the Terriers signed Wells from local rivals Bradford back in 2014, they would never have thought that his goals would send them all the way to the top-flight, but such remarkable exploits meant that his former club should always be praised for pulling off an absolute blinder in the transfer market.