Bristol City January transfer window verdict as Robins hold off Nottingham Forest and Cardiff City advances

Our say on the club’s business over the past month, with one incoming and four outgoing loans.
Bristol City managed to keep hold of Antoine Semenyo.Bristol City managed to keep hold of Antoine Semenyo.
Bristol City managed to keep hold of Antoine Semenyo.

Given the recent pandemic, the club’s precarious financial position and the lack of a challenge for a top six place, it could have been tempting for Bristol City to cash in on a young player this last month.

Credit to the club that they resisted that, as the young guns of BS3 develop further over the months ahead, with Nigel Pearson making slow progress with his team.

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At times, it’s painfully slow progress, yes. Take that last second kick in the teeth from Emil Riis Jakobsen in the last minute on Saturday, for example. Too often that has happened this campaign. But performances have improved slowly and the home form in particular is promising.

Scouts have been flocking to those City games and interest has likewise been growing in these shiny, new things turning each Saturday. And that won’t change next summer.

It’s important that City finish the season well, continue their forward momentum, improve on the pitch and show these talented young players that something special is building at Ashton Gate.

To that end, adding one player to the squad - Timm Klose - may help. Free transfers have not gone well for the club over the past seasons, and no wonder given that they are free, but Klose may be a mite different.

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The giant Swiss centre-back has started well and slotted in fairly seamlessly into the defence at the weekend. He looks to be just what was needed at the back, where Tomas Kalas, Zak Vyner, Cam Pring and Rob Atkinson can cover the former Norwich man with more pace.

Time will tell on just how shrewd that move works out to be, but equally important is that City have not lost any senior players.

Even though Dan Bentley has not been playing, his absence has not been down to an impending move elsewhere. It was simply to do with form and consistency.

Nigel Pearson will need to discuss with the Bristol City board who he wants to keep this summer. (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)Nigel Pearson will need to discuss with the Bristol City board who he wants to keep this summer. (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
Nigel Pearson will need to discuss with the Bristol City board who he wants to keep this summer. (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)

“It’s difficult sometimes to leave out your captain but it’s a change that I feel is right for the team tonight, there’s nothing more than that going on apart from every position is up for grabs,” explained the City boss back in December.

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That has proven to be the case and only Tyreeq Bakinson has been a noteworthy expulsion from the squad.

Saikou Janneh, Owura Edwards and Sam Pearson will collect valuable experience via more great loans set up by academy director Brian Tinnion and his staff, and will come back better players.

So it wasn’t the fireworks of January 2020, though that took the sale of Josh Brownhill as Filip Benkovic and Nahki Wells arrived.

Neither was it the unforgettable January 2017 with Matty Taylor paraded around the stadium in red: “welcome to Bristol.”

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It was more 2019 and low-key business to help push the club on, with bids rejected for Antoine Semenyo then and now.

All done with the longer term in mind. That’s downright sensible at this juncture with the club moving towards Championship safety, able to mount a late assault on the top half of the league but highly unlikely to challenge for the top six just yet, and with a fine Profit and Sustainability line to walk in the next years.

Although no high earners were moved on (a missed opportunity), and only Bakinson was booted off the bus by 31 January.

But make no mistake: the big decisions are coming this summer, when hopefully the club can convince the likes of Semenyo, Han-Noah Massengo and others to stick around, or go the same way as the Bristol boys of summer 2018, when Bobby Reid and Joe Bryan both were sold on.

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The can is kicked down the road perhaps, then. At the same time, the fizz of excitement about the current side is slowly building, with the fans’ steadfast hopes rising too that the next few transfer windows might be different to the past.

Transfer window verdict: 5/10

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