Bristol City set for ‘interesting summer’ as Nigel Pearson gives hint of what’s to come for the Robins

Bristol City finished their 2021/22 season with defeat on the road, as the Robins went down 2-0 to play-off hopefuls Huddersfield Town.

The Terriers won via two first-half goals as Harry Toffolo and Danny Ward found the back of the net to earn a third place finish in the Championship.

Bristol City can look to the West Yorkshire side as inspiration for what can be achieved in a short space of time however, with Carlos Corberan’s team finishing 20th in 2020/21 but flying up into the play-off places the year after.

Manager Nigel Pearson discussed his summer plans for his squad following the club’s 14th loss away from home this year, as the Ashton Gate side look to replicate the victors next year.

“The best work that you can do as a manager sometimes is when everything is falling apart and we’ve had a difficult set of circumstances to try and solve how we move forward, based on how our circumstances have changed,” said Pearson to BBC Radio Bristol following the game.

“But it doesn’t matter. Our owners will continue to be very supportive of the club and that’s an important thing to recognise.

“We’re going to have an interesting summer, let’s put it like that. It’s not going to be flush with big spending but we can be very competitive next year,” he added.

Pearson was also asked if he is aiming for large scale change of his squad or whether it will be incremental change.

The manager’s answer was dependent on the transfer market but suggests that ideally he would like to make wholesale alterations in the next transfer window if possible.

“I can’t give you an honest answer to that because it could be one or the other. Or it could be somewhere inbetween,” Pearson said.

“We’ll see. Hopefully there will be a number of additions, and I suppose it depends on our ability to retain the players that we have as well.

“We’re not in a hurry to get rid of our starlets but as I pointed out the other day, there will be circumstances that mean that we have to protect our own investment in players.

“Running the clock down [on contracts] is not a good thing for us with some players.

“Yeah, it will be interesting but hopefully we can keep the majority of the players together, but I only want to keep them if they want to be here,” added Pearson.

Han-Noah Massengo looked to be emotional at the end of the game at the John Smith’s Stadium, described by Pearson afterwardss as: “the occasion affected him.”

The midfielder has a year left on his current deal and his future in BS3 remains uncertain.

Bristol City may have interest in several of their players this summer as they look to recruit themselves.