Bristol City boss takes swipe at Crystal Palace in candid transfer revelation

Nigel Pearson has revealed why Bristol City did not conclude a deal for Crystal Palace defender Jake O’Brien in the January transfer window.

O’Brien, was linked with a move to Ashton Gate towards the end of the winter transfer window, as the Robins sought defensive reinforcements, to help make a late push for the play-offs. The 22-year-old was out on loan at RWD Molenbeek at the time, who are owned by Eagles part-owner John Textor, and ended up staying in Belgium, rather than making the move.

Pearson was on the search for a centre-back, and his transfer team landed on the Republic of Ireland Under-21 international, but there were complications with the deal, and in the end they shelved their transfer interest. During Pearson’s two-and-a-half-year reign at Bristol City, he hasn’t signed a single loan player, and has instead focused on the development of the players at the club.

Explaining his stance on the loan market, he said: “I’ve spoken on many occasions that they can be an expensive thing to do, so there’s a centre-back we were linked with from Crystal Palace, who was over in Belgium.

“From what he was earning from what Crystal Palace wanted, they wanted four times what he was earning to come here on loan. It’s not really player development is it?

“On their part that’s - we want to make some money on our player going out on loan. For me, that underlines why I don’t want to do that kind of business. I don’t want to do that type of business, that’s nonsense.

“When we explore whether we loan out players out, the only thing in my mind is football. The finances, that end of the building (he was at the Bristol City training ground) can sort that c**p out, it’s nothing to do with me. It’s about whether it’s the right thing for us to do for the development of our player, full stop.”

O’Brien has since been linked with a move to France, and Manchester City owned club ES Troyes AC are said to have had a bid of nearly £1m rejected for him earlier this summer. Palace aren’t expected to make a decision any time soon on him, and will give him a chance to impress Roy Hodgson in pre-season.

As to whether Bristol City will be using the loan market for their players to get some vital first-team experience, there is no imminent departure just yet from the High Performance Centre. A total of 10 players from the Under-21’s are training with the first-team, and several of them will go to the warm weather training camp in Austria next week. Not all players can remain in the current set-up, but as an example both Sam Bell and Tommy Conway had loan offers last season, but were kept in the first-team picture, rather than being sent out on loan, and went on to be important players for the remainder of the campaign.

Pearson added: “In terms of loaning players out or getting players in on loan, I wanna see our own players, I don’t wanna see them play for someone else, I wanna see what they’re like in here, and because of how we have structured and streamlined in terms of what it looks like, our best players get fast-tracked within our own system. Our Under-18s will get fast-tracked to the Under-21s, and the Under-21s into the first team and if they’re not good enough we’ll move them on.

“I don’t mean that in a derogatory way, it’s about trying to find the right place for your players. The days are gone now for us having too many players and we just loan them out because we’ve got too many players.

“We want to keep our best players, and we want to develop them for the first team, and if they’re not good enough we want to try and find a place for them in football. Likewise getting players in from getting players in from other places on loan.

Asked if any players loan futures are already made up, he responded with: “No, at the moment we’re looking firstly to see whether we’re going to use it, and whether there’s a very visible change. For me, that’s the first thing.

“Hopefully what is evolving here an internal feeling of opportunity, but again it comes back to the players being responsible. For instance these youngsters, they’re not all of a sudden involved in the first-team and become big time charlies, no chance.

“They will recognise there is an opportunity and if they lose it that is their responsibility too. This is a part of football education that is really important in how we develop the culture. We’re talking about looking forward to the season here but hopefully for the future of the club this is something that will last for a long time, where we find a way of working which actually gives us a chance of developing our own players and being a success developing our own players by achieving on the pitch too, it’s something that will stand in good stead for a long time.