The Bristol City star that is ‘goldust’ according to Nigel Pearson and every manager wants to have

Nigel Pearson says Bristol City top scorer Andreas Weimann is a manager’s dream and described him as ‘goldust’ after his performances this campaign.

The 30-year-old is by far City’s top scorer with 15 goals this season whilst he has also got six assists, ranking him joint third across the Championship for goal contributions.

Only top scorer Aleksandar Mitrović and Bournemouth’s Dominic Salanke have had more with Weimann tied with Blackburn’s Ben Brereton-Diaz.

“He’s the type of player that every manager really wants in the sense that his appetite for work is incredible,” said Pearson.

“What really pleases me this season for him is that I think he knows that the players, his teammates, appreciate him, but he’s getting the rewards for all of his hard work.

“And some people question elements of his game, but I think he’s a fantastic player. And whatever system that you play, or whatever job you ask him to do, he’ll just do it. And that is, wow, that’s gold dust.”

The pair had briefly crossed paths at Derby County when Pearson was manager there and Weimann was part of the playing squad, but was unable to call upon him due to an injury.

Weimann was out with a cruciate ligament rupture when Pearson was appointed as head coach back in February and as a result, the pair would have to wait to reunite when pre-season began.

But after impressing Pearson after a long lay-off, the Austrian though has bounced back on what can be a difficult injury to recover from and has excelled in a side that has had no problem in finding the net.

Pearson says that Weimann has had a positive influence on the team this season, inspiring others whilst other players have had a negative impact on the team.

“I’ve had some players here and one of them I got rid of, thankfully, that if it wasn’t how he wanted it to be, sulk,” he stated.

“So we talk about how the squad evolves, I don’t want energy sappers.... I like selfish players who are selfish to be successful. There’s a difference between selfless and selfish when the selfish types of players who are just there for themselves, not interested.”

Weimann’s form along with the emergence of Antoine Semenyo and Chris Martin finding his shooting boots have changed City’s transfer plans for the summer with the club needing to do astute business when the window opens in June.

Should City hold on to the trio then Pearson says there is no one else out there that is better than what they have. It could mean that come the summer that whatever money is made available for him to spend will be used on a different area of the pitch.

“Andi is having a good season, 15 goals - yeah, let’s see if we can get to 20. I mean, our strike force incidentally, have got 30 goals between them. All the talk last summer was about signing a striker, we can’t afford, and probably won’t do for a few years, to buy a striker that’s better than what we’ve got, that’s the problem.

“And so at the moment, if you’re looking at where we need to make adjustments, it’s certainly not up front at the moment. It would be, you know, whether we can keep everybody or not is a different type of question. But it’s not a huge necessity at the moment.”

Weimann’s scoring record is ever more impressive because he is not an out-and-out number striker. At times he has played as an attacking midfielder to Semenyo and Martin, whilst on other occasions he would be deployed as a right-sided winger.

Pearson’s found a system to fit three of his four senior attacking options in and as a result of that, Nahki Wells has found himself out of the side.

The City boss though is adamant that despite sometimes playing as a midfielder that he is of the belief that he’s a striker.

Pearson said: “He is a striker. He is a forward, for me he is a forward. He will do what you want him to do if you want him to run in behind and play on the last shoulder he’ll do it all day long.

“But what we have is a quite a nice blend, you know, we’ve got even Nahki, Nahki will score goals. But you know, for Nahki to find it difficult to get pitch time is an indication of how the others are doing. Because it’s not favouritism.”