Yorkshire rivalry is reignited by Wells’ big-money switch

He created a buzz in Bradford, now it’s all about Nahki in nearby Huddersfield.

The striker’s arrival has already sparked talk of promotion, which would take his club into the English Premier League.

But the club’s record signing also reignited the longstanding and fierce rivalry between Town fans and the faithful from his former club, Bradford.

Nahki Wells’s decision to move just a few miles south and join Huddersfield prompted a frenzy of activity in the town as young fans looked to get ‘Wells’ and his number ‘21’ printed on their replica shirts.

The Yorkshire Twittersphere went into overdrive as rival fans baited each other about the big-money transfer. 

Andrew Robinson, a reporter at the Yorkshire Post and a Huddersfield Town fan, told the Bermuda Sun that fans now realized there was more to Bermuda than ‘a dangerous triangle and a dodgy pair of shorts’.

He said: “Talk in the pub at the weekend was about Wells and whether he would cut it in a higher league. On the terraces at the John Smith’s stadium, on Twitter and Facebook, the banter always flows. It’s often brutal and not for the faint-hearted. 

“When Nahki joined Huddersfield, emotions were boiling over on Twitter. Bradford fans —  ‘Sadford’ to Town fans — were pretty upset to lose their star striker to a club they love to hate, claiming we are ‘tinpot’, ‘small’ and ‘going nowhere’.

“And remember we are a town of around 150,000 inhabitants — not a city of 500,000, like them — which is just 10 miles away.

“Town fans didn’t pass up the opportunity to remind Bradford just what they were losing. ‘A great bit of business’ was how one proud Town fan summed it up. Other tweets, though hilarious, are unprintable in a family newspaper.”

Wells’ match-winning, last-minute strike on Saturday piled on yet more pain for the Bradford fans.

Mr Robinson added: “What a debut it was. He hooked in the winner from a tight angle in the 90th minute, sending the Town faithful wild.

“Fans were on their feet, punching the air, cheering and screaming. It was indeed a ‘Nahki New Year’, just as the club’s bad pun had predicted.”

So, has his arrival sparked interest in Bermuda? 

“The jury’s still out on that one,” Mr Robinson said, but one thing’s for sure — we now know there’s more to Bermuda than a dangerous triangle and some dodgy shorts.”

Martin Shaw, who has been reporting on Huddersfield for nearly two decades, told the Sun that he believes that Wells has what it takes to take his new side to the top flight.

The assistant news editor of the Huddersfield Daily Examiner said: “Huddersfield is a sporting town and the fans are passionate.

“The football club is owned by business tycoon Dean Hoyle, a self-made man who made millions from the Card Factory retail empire he started from the back of a van.

“Hoyle is a lifelong Town fan and since selling his business has devoted himself full-time to the club. He has pumped money into the club but runs it like a business, not a plaything.

“Hoyle likes young, hungry managers and young, hungry players hence his purchase of Nahki Wells.”

Shaw added: “Since Wells signed there has been a lot of banter between Bradford fans and Huddersfield fans as to who is the biggest club.

“There is a fierce local rivalry and some Bradford fans believe Wells has shown a lack of ambition in joining Huddersfield.

“It is true that Town are one of the smaller Championship clubs and Huddersfield manager Mark Robins admitted after Wells’s debut on Saturday that he had probably stolen a march on his rivals by moving to sign him so early in the January transfer window. “Had he waited many Championship clubs— and maybe one or two Premier League clubs — would have been chasing his signature and Town would have missed out.

“Dean Hoyle has the ambition to take Huddersfield to the Premier League but is taking it step by step and building solid foundations. Wells could certainly fire Huddersfield into the top flight of English football but, with or without Huddersfield, that’s where he’s heading.” 

Go to www.examiner.co.uk and www.yorkshirepost.co.uk.