Bristol City set to miss out on transfer target as rivals agree fee

Bristol City's Championship rivals Millwall look set to win the transfer race to sign in-demand Hibernian striker Kevin Nisbet, after a deal was agreed.

For the second time this year, the Lions have agreed terms with the Scottish Premiership club, and are hoping it is second time lucky, after he turned down a move to The Den. Nisbet's reasoning for turning down the move was that he had only just recovered from a long-term injury, but after playing on since December, he is now ready to make his next move.

A fee of £1.2m rising to £1.5m has been agreed according to The Sun, which is less than the £2.2m that was reportedly agreed in January. He has a year left remaining on his contract, and most recently spoke about his desire for Hibs to get for a fee for him should he depart, and was seemingly consigned to leaving the club. To make matters worse for Lee Johnson's Hibees, Dunfermline Athletic are set to get a six-figure sum from it after inserting a sell-on-clause, which means less money to reinvest back in to the squad at Easter Road.

Blackburn Rovers and City had been said to have held an interest, and reportedly sent scouts to watch him this season. Turkish giants Galatasaray had also watched over the Scotland international who scored 12 goals in 19 matches for Hibs this season, who have qualified for the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Europa Conference League.

Nisbet is on City's transfer shortlist, but is only considered an option should any of their strikers depart, or suffer a long-term injury. Tommy Conway is their leading forward, and scored 12 goals in his breakout campaign, which was impacted by a hamstring tendon injury. Nahki Wells, who turned 33 recently, is a back-up option whilst there is a feeling of more to come from Harry Cornick, who netted just once after making the move from Championship play-off winners Luton Town. Andi Weimann and Sam Bell can also play as a striker too, and there is a desire to recruit defenders rather than attackers, given their issue last season was keeping out goals, rather than scoring them.

"Forwards are very expensive," Pearson said to BristolLive last month, when posed the question about the links to Nisbet.

"Forwards are commodities that don't come up very often. Are we in a position to buy better than we've got? I don't think we are. For us to buy players who are better than the ones that we currently have would be very, very expensive. So we'll produce them instead.