Western Daily Press (Saturday)
City targeting a striker – but not in the near future
BRISTOL City chairman Jon Lansdown has indicated that signing a striker is a priority “for the future” after the Robins 1-0 defeat at Millwall revealed their limitations in the final third.
City have made a solid start to the 2021/22 season, lying tenth in the Sky Bet Championship after ten games, however only Middlesbrough have scored as few goals in the top half of the table as the Robins’ 11.
Nahki Wells’ injury in the warmup at the Den left assistant manager Curtis Fleming, overseeing first-team matters as boss Nigel Pearson selfisolates, with just two senior strikers in Andi Weimann and Chris Martin, as Antoine Semenyo also recovers from an injury “niggle”. Thirty-yearold Weimann has played 900 minutes of a possible 900 and 32-year-old Martin 872, and while both have mostly performed to a high level, there are understandable question marks as to whether it is sustainable over a further 36 League games.
Without Wells’ pace, City’s play against Millwall looked a little onedimensional and it has been a factor of nearly every game this season that the Robins have to work for every goal as they simply do not have the individuals to fashion something from nothing.
“If Chris gets injured, we’re going to have look slightly different in terms of how we play,” Lansdown said. “It’s not like we haven’t got other good forward players, we have Antoine (Semenyo) in there, you just don’t necessarily have that focal point.
“You’re always going to have that with a squad, but it gives you something to focus on for the future in terms of recruitment.”
In reality, “the future” is likely to be next summer at the earliest following a transfer window just passed in which City were open to the idea of bringing in another striker, but the options on the table either were not of a sufficient quality or overpriced and lacking in value.
Pearson does not expect to do any business in January, barring an emergency, due to what will be an inflated market and a likely lack of financial resources, and accepts that the money required to bring in the type of striker he craves has to be put on hold for this season as the club recovers from the impact of the pandemic.
“At some point, in a year’s time or two year’s time, the investment will maybe be in someone that can score more goals,” Lansdown said.
City’s wage bill has been around the mid-range of the Championship, but has been off-set by consistent player sales. However, that policy has been hit by the pandemic.
“That has highlighted some of our flaws because we’ve been a trading club,” Lansdown added. “Our losses over the last year are horrific. We haven’t been able to sell the player we normally would have done.”
City, with assistant boss Fleming still in command, face an away trip to third-from-bottom Peterborough United in the Championship this afternoon.