Nigel Pearson issues Bristol City injury, transfer and contract updates on Tomas Kalas, Antoine Semenyo and co

Ahead of the new campaign, Nigel Pearson discussed plenty for Bristol City supporters to get their teeth into with the new Championship season beginning on Friday night.

Speaking to Geoff Twentyman on his Sound of the City programme on BBC Radio Bristol the Robins manager explained that neither Tomas Kalas or Antoine Semenyo are close to a return to action. (Give it a listen in the link above.)

He also discussed transfers and contracts, essentially repeating what he had said after the Bournemouth game: further players need to go out before anyone else comes in.

Meanwhile, the future does not look bright for Han-Noah Massengo, who appears to be slipping towards leaving the club at the expiration of his contract in summer 2023.

Here are some of the key takeaways from Pearson’s latest interview.

Han-Noah Massengo has nothing going on: either signing a new deal or heading elsewhere...

“The offer’s been on the table for a season, more or less.

“He’s a squad member who may get pitch time. That’s it. You know my thoughts on players running their contracts down. We as a club need to have policies that don’t allow that in the future.

“There’s nothing happening in terms of him committing himself to being longer at the club and absolutely nothing happening in people being interested in him.”

On Joe Williams, the plan is to nurse the midfielder this season when needed...

“I think there will always be a concern because of the history of the last two or three years in particular. So there will be weeks where we go Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday... where we may have to offload him for certain games.”

“That’s the ideal world. If you need results then things change a little bit.”

On Tomas Kalas coming back soon or not...

“Tomas is very slow progress on a grumbly old issue that’s not really making progress at the minute. It’s a bit of an unknown quantity with Tomas.”

And the news is not good on Semenyo either...

”Hopefully we’ll get him back at some point in September maybe.”

Zak Vyner’s chances this season...

“We need players. He’s one of these players who is contracted to us. While we can’t make aquisitions we need to make sure that all the players in our squad, provided they are onside, get the right amount of exposure in pre-season so they are game ready when the season starts.

“He’s had a good pre-season.”

The three-year plan for promotion...

“I don’t think of it in those terms. I’ve got another two years left on my contract here and if we achieve what we set out to do in that time-frame, fine. If we don’t hopefully we will still be moving in the right direction.

“Whether the timescale needs to be longer - and it probably will because of how we’ve had to do our business over the last two years and it’s slowed it down - what nobody can really affect is how the market forces affect business elsewhere.”

More arrivals?

“I work for the club and with the club to achieve our objectives. Regardless of whether I would like to do A, B and C it doesn’t matter... unless circumstances change, it’s less likely that we’re going to do more business.

“But I’m not ruling things out because things can change quickly.”

Interest in City players...

“There has been some interest in one or two players who we don’t want to leave. That’s as important as looking at lack of interest for players that we might want to move.”

Chances of loans arriving late in the window...

“People think that loans are cheap. Well here’s the main reason I haven’t brought in anyone: the exisiting culture in the club wasn’t strong enough to have people who aren’t necessarily going to be here the year after.

“It’s a viable option for us this year... We could but it’s got to be the right ones. We’ve made enquiries about a number of players which haven’t materialised more because Premier League clubs have tours in pre-season they use their younger players to poulate thieir squads when they travel abroad.”