Nahki Wells has lifted the lid on his Bristol City exit, having left Ashton Gate upon the expiry of his contract earlier this summer, confirming he was never given the chance to extend his stay in the West Country.
Wells, who joined the Bristol City ranks from Burnley in January 2020, spent five and a half years in BS3. In his time as a City player, Wells featured under all of Lee Johnson, Dean Holden, Nigel Pearson and Liam Manning whilst scoring 48 goals in 237 appearances in all competitions.
In an interview with the One Stream in Bristol podcast, Wells said on his departure: "I left that season assuming that I would be a Bristol City player for at least another season, one in which I obviously felt that Liam [Manning] would have stayed around.
"I was told that I would be offered something, and then the next phone call I got a few days before the start of preseason was just that I'm not getting offered anything. There was a little bit of a narrative in terms of how it went, when people don't really know how it went. A lot of the assumption was that I didn't get the contract length that I wanted, that I didn't get the wages that I wanted or wished for, but I just wasn't afforded any option to stay at the football club.
"It was a very upsetting summer for myself in that sense, because I never envisioned that. I never expected that to be the case. I would have felt bad if the club just wasn't able to meet my terms and wishes, but to not have been afforded an opportunity to stay at the club in any degree was one that was like being stabbed in the heart, and it's just a shame. There was no way that I felt like I was not going to be afforded an opportunity to stay at the club, and that was just how it went.
"I was told I would be offered something from a certain individual at the football club to then not hear from them for six weeks. A new manager comes in, as soon as he's announced, I got the call that I'm not needed and he and they want to go a different route.
