Why Ollie Watkins is the one who got away for Bristol City and a mistake that needs avoiding again. Brentford man would have been perfect for the Robins It must be great to be a Premier League football manager. With the riches at your command the very least you can do is shop from the lower leagues and cherry pick the best talents. Eddie Howe is one such manager who is reported to be looking at the best attackers and left backs around. Bournemouth will be able to use their monies from a third year completed in the Premier League to try and buy reinforcements with Sky Sports reporting that the Cherries will possibly cherry-pick the likes of Ollie Watkins for some £12m this summer. Howe has sent plenty of scouts to Ashton Gate over the last weeks and although the latest that we've heard is that the south coast side are cool on Bobby Reid at the moment preferring to target higher priority players, it is highly likely that Howe will bring in a striker. If only it was Bristol City nursing such a talent as Watkins who has been outstanding for much of this season at the Bees. The former Exeter City man was - in our understanding - a target for the Robins last summer but is believed to have been swayed to head to Griffin Park because of a number of factors, including the long held interest of Brentford, meaning any late 'vultures' were successfully turned away. City missed out there but Watkins would have been ideal and is surely the sort of signing that should be targeted to come in at Ashton Gate. Born in Newton Abbott, having already tasted football at nearby Weston-Super-Mare, and sure of pace, power and shooting ability, nobody in the Championship had more shots per game this season (except Nelson Oliveira: 3.2 to 3.1 according to Opta stats). The 22-year-old hit 11 goals and grabbed four assists across all competitions in 2017-18. The Robins would have had some strike force with Watkins on one flank and Bobby Reid to fit in around Famara Diedhiou too. Indeed Watkins scored a good goal in West London last season as the two sides met. The forward pulled off into the half space in the Bees' left channel and out-jumped Eros Pisano to head in Jota's cross to equalise after Josh Brownhill had scored a deflected long range opener. Watkins was a threat throughout and the attacker has made a swift adaptation from lower league football with the Grecians to wowing Premier League scouts. Brentford will do well to hold on to Watkins, with Dean Smith also a wanted man, and where for the right price any player is available. But also any player is swiftly replaced with like for like. Bristol City may need to heed such lessons and avoid missing out on the next Watkins. Would it be the worst thing to follow suit and track who the Bees track? It is said that the next Exeter starlet to follow Watkins and Chelsea's Ethan Ampadu is midfielder Jack Sparkes. And the Robins now need to make sure they don't miss out on any further South West talents appearing from right underneath (well, 83 miles away) their noses. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/ollie-watkins-one-who-away-1577280
We stuck by our strategy, we have or had Gustav Engall, Famara Diedhiou, Bobby Reid, Matt Taylor,Milan Duric, Cauley Woodrow, and Lois Diony, who needs OllieWatkins.?...
To be fair most of those players have done ok taking injuries into consideration. Only Diony has been really poor - and I still think there is more to this than meets the eye - he must have displayed SOMETHING to have been brought to AG in the first place and to have been selected for games.
'he must have displayed SOMETHING to have been brought to AG' Like Engvall and a dozen others. R&W - Of the 30 LJ has signed how come the core of the team is still pre LJ ? By the way - Allegedly Craig Woodman advised Watkins to avoid BCFC. Just saying.
