Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Robins must sell to buy
key members of our squad. It’s unfortunate, but that’s how it is and that’s why it’s even more frustrating when players miss opportunities.
“I always do as a manager what we agree is the right way forward.
“I don’t intend now to start putting demands out there and we know we’re short in some areas. What we’d like to do compared to what we can do at the moment is very different.
“So I’ll just reiterate what I’ve already said and that is we would need players to leave before we can do business to bring players in. That’s it. That’s what it is. We should be getting better results than what we’ve had but we’ve continued to make errors that have cost us games and that’s unfortunate for us.”
Pearson remains open to bringing in at least one player on loan but admitted it is not the most viable option to bring in a new face because of the costs that remain attached to it. City did look at temporary deals in the summer, including an attempt to sign Brighton attacker Reda Khadra, who opted for Sheffield United.
“Good loans are expensive,” added Pearson. “I’m not writing them off because if we get the opportunity to do that in the right area then fine but the area that still needs addressing and we’ve been unable to fill and do the business we would have liked this summer is in a defensive position.
The one issue in regard to trading is that City do not particularly have an abundance of saleable assets. Alex Scott, Antoine Semenyo and Tommy Conway are the most notable names who would generate decent transfer fees.
Han-Noah Massengo is free to sign a pre-contract with a foreign club in January as he approaches the end of his deal in the summer, while Tomas Kalas, Dan Bentley, Nahki Wells and Jay Dasilva are all among those whose contracts expire at the end of the season. Semenyo was linked with a £5 million move to Rangers on Thursday, although it is understood there has been no contact between the clubs. However, he has plenty of admirers across the Premier League including Bournemouth and Crystal Palace who were linked with the player in the summer.
Assessing the game today, Pearson added: “The most important thing is to get our best players on the pitch.
“We will need to be positive. I don’t want us to go into this game just trying to stop Watford – it’s about us utilising the strengths that we have. We need to go in with a frontfoot mentality.”
City versus Watford this afternoon is a 3pm kick-off at Ashton Gate. The sides are 20th and fifth respectively.