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No rush for Wells to leave Bradford

It is nice to see that Nahki Wells helped Bradford City achieve their main goal of promotion to League One next season.In the process he scored 26 goals, including the third in the 3-0 win over Northampton at Wembley in the promotion play-off final which made him the first Bermudian to score at Wembley Stadium. Two appearances at the historic stadium in one season is also a first for a Bermudian and is something he will be proud of in years to come.Now lets hope he goes from strength to strength and goes on to achieve the ultimate aim of playing in the Premier League. Clubs have been rumoured to be looking at him, including Crystal Palace who got promoted back to the Premier League this week through the play-offs, but if nothing happens then at least he is certain to be playing in a higher division with Bradford next season. I admire the way he didn’t let all the transfer talk interrupt his preparation for the play-off final as he went about it all very professionally.I’m happy for Nahki, he’s done tremendous in the short time he’s been there and it tells me he needs to be at a step higher. He’s got that chance now and lets hope he continues to improve and does the same thing next year. He still a young man (23 today) so he still has time on his side and lets hope he gets promoted again with Bradford. As a professional footballer you want to play against the best and the best is in the Premier League.Maybe moving up to the Premier League one league at a time could be the best way to go, and if he had gone there from the start it probably would have been difficult for him. Having said that, if you can play you can play anywhere. I think he’s doing the right thing by taking his time and maturing, because in this game the more you stay around it the more you learn.The English game may be in its summer break but you can bet there will be a lot of deals done over the summer. Nahki may still be on somebody’s radar but he has to make sure that any move benefits him. The club will have the final say and it goes without saying that Bradford don’t want to lose a player who scored 26 goals for them last season. You can understand that, 26 goals are hard to replace, no matter what division you are in.Being in League One next season will be a good tester for him but I think he’s capable of doing well. Lots of times it is mental but I think he has that toughness to be able to keep improving.It will be interesting to see how the three promoted teams fare in the Premier League next season. Cardiff, Hull City and Crystal Palace are going to have to invest in new players but smart investing is the key. Over the last couple of years Queens Park Rangers spent heavily on players but still suffered relegation last month. It is hard to come up and stay up but it is worth a lot of money to the clubs getting promoted, something like £160 million which is what I saw in the paper yesterday.You do have to be very sensible about how you spend your money and people should look at what Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger does and follow that plan. If you were to ask me which of the three clubs I think have the best chance of staying up, I would only say it is going to be hard to call. Last season Southampton, West Ham and Reading came up from the Championship and only Reading, the champions, failed to stay up. In the Premier League, West Ham finished higher in the standings than the other two despite only gaining promotion through the play-offs the previous season.It is going to be tough next season for the three promoted teams with Cardiff, the champions, playing in the Premier League for the first time. It will be tough, too, for the three relegated clubs — QPR, Reading and Wigan — to bounce right back. Few clubs have been able to do that, look at Bolton, Blackburn and Blackpool recently.Bermuda will play a friendly against the England C team — made up of semi-professionals and amateurs — next Tuesday evening and I encourage the local players to go out and give a good account of themselves. It’s going to be a good standard, not going to be easy and our players have to be mindful of that and not underestimate them because they are a C team. That would be a daft thing to do.Bermuda will be playing many youngsters and that’s a good thing though it is always nice to have a good mixture. You can’t have all young puppies and no experience.