Bristol City owner makes Scott and Semenyo transfer admission as Premier League clubs circle City owner Steve Lansdown admitted the club do not want or need to sell their prized assets and likened the situation to Adam Webster. Bristol City owner Steve Lansdown admitted the club don't need to sell star players Antoine Semenyo or Alex Scott this summer but conceded he wouldn't stand in their way if Premier League clubs came calling. Both players have been subject to speculation with moves to the top flight over the previous two transfer windows. Manchester United were the latest club to be tentatively linked with Scott while Tottenham, Leicester, Everton and Leeds have also reportedly shown an interest although there are more than likely to be a raft of top-flight clubs keeping an eye on his situation. As with Semenyo, West Ham, Brighton, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth have either scouted or declared an interest in the striker while City rejected a January offer from Nottingham Forest for his signature. Manager Nigel Pearson said last Thursday how the club have received enquiries for players they would like to keep, although they have yet to receive any offers. He also admitted the club may have to trade in the market if he wants to bolster his thin squad before the window closes at the beginning of September. With no offers on the table for Han-Noah Massengo, Scott and Semenyo are the club's only prized assets while Dan Bentley, Tomas Kalas and Jay Dasilva's contracts all expire next summer meaning they could leave for nothing at the end of the season. Pearson admitted the size of his squad remains a concern but with a limited transfer budget available, he has his hands tied when it comes to recruitment while Lansdown highlighted the similarities of Adam Webster's £20million deal to Brighton in 2019 - the last time the club received a significant transfer fee for a player. Speaking to BBC Radio Bristol, Lansdown said of Scott and Semenyo's futures: "The first thing you have to have is an offer for them which we haven't got. How do we retain them? "They're under contract. Antoine's got two years, Alex has got three and we don't need to sell them and we don't want to sell them. So like all these things you have to make offers to make you change your mind because that money can be reinvested to bolster the rest of the squad. "We did it with Adam Webster, we didn't want him to go but he was adamant he wanted to so we put a price-tag on him that gave us a good return on him. That's business. "I think the transfer market is only with the Premier League sides. They have the capital to do it and the owners who can put the money in to do something but strictly speaking, I don't think that's there anymore. "Why would Alex or Antoine want to go to someone else in the Championship? They have fantastic facilities here, it's a great club to be a part of, great team-mates and a progression that they can see in their own careers but when a Premier League club comes in for them that's when it's difficult to turn down and I wouldn't stand in their way." Lansdown also touched upon Massengo's contract situation with the Frenchman's short-term future still up in the air. The club have yet to receive an offer for the midfielder while there is no evidence the 20-year-old will sign a contract that has been on the table for around a year. It means City face the increasing possibility of losing him for nothing next summer or will be forced to accept a take-it-or-leave-it bid towards the end of the transfer window. He added: "I don't like it because I think people should be honest with us. I don't want to say disloyal because that's the wrong word but I had it with Joe Bryan in the past. "I try to convince players if they are good enough people will come in and make offers for them. If they're not going to sign then we have to look for ways to capitalise on them which means we'll have to move him on at some point." When asked if they had received any bids, Lansdown responded: "Not that I'm aware of." https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport...s/bristol-city-scott-semenyo-transfer-7432355
Poor old Nige, he can't sell and he can't buy, in some cases he can't even give players away, we are in bad place, a lower division promoted side put 3 past us in front of a record crowd and we lose our first home game of the season, 5 goals against, 3 for and no points to show 2 games in, great start.
As someone else said yesterday was a great example of how how not to get the ‘floating’ fans to come back for the next home game. If the players in particular plus the manager and coaching staff aren’t motivated to perform, concentrate and put on a great show in those circumstances then we’re really screwed
Next home game is Luton, what's the betting the gate is below 20000, 20% down on Yesterday, that will blow a big hole in the bank account and should wipe out some of the complacency, it won't and we will just grin and bear it,as usual.
I don’t see it as poor Nige.. he’s an experienced manager, knew and knows the situation. Players have come and gone before he arrived and after.. yer I see more or less exactly the same problems throughout.. with his knowledge and so say know how, imo he/we should be seeing a difference.. I’m not seeing it, in fact I’d say we taken a few steps back to what we had.. NP comes across in interviews of having everything under control, but the reality is far from it, again imo.. unless he has some magic wand that we don’t know about, I don’t see it going on for too much longer.. I’m worried he’s another one stuck in his ways..
Unfortunately losing a match after leading has become our sad lot in life and I can't see anything from NP that can change the status quo. We are disorganized to say the least and it's the job of the manager to put things right and again I haven't seen that capability in NP over his tenure and in fact I think we have gone from bad to worse. Several years ago a certain person claimed he needed 3 transfer windows to put things right enough for us to achieve success and after using many more he missed the mark. My question is how many more will NP need to fix the rot or is he like previous managers who will never meet the remit without gobs of cash and the luck of the footballing gods to achieve even parity with the much better outfits than us in an extremely competitive division? It has stuck out in my mind for far too many years now that football doesn't ring too many bells down at Ashton Gate so why don't you try most other sports within the same framework and put the original money maker on the back burner to slowly dry up. How on earth can we expect any decent players to rub their hands at the prospect of being transferred to Bristol City and on the same trend how do we hold on to our good players without being forced to sell supposedly due to our financial situation? Being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea combined with ripping your nose off to spite your face seem to be the edicts of Bristol City without a real thought in the direction of how to run a successful football club. The same old questions will continue to haunt us unless someone decides to chuck out our current script and write a whole new plot but don't hold your breath too long.
I’m reminding myself that we are only 2 games into the season, but I’m worried that we are still making the same mistakes we were doing last season despite having months to work on them. I’m also concerned that Nige opts for the same formation - memories of Cotts’s stubborn tactics a few years back.
I look at NP's reaction from the bench during the match and his comments post match and I don't see desire in his body language that convinces me he is totally on board. The last time I saw the same body language was back when Steve Coppell was being interviewed after being hired to be our new manager and we all know where that went downhill quickly. Why are we still getting the same verbal positivity followed by shocking decisions and excuses all these years later because it can't be a coincidence but rather just abject apathy at all levels. I can never see our status quo moving on any time soon unless it is down to League One.
I also don’t think that NP is the type of manager that you could give a blank cheque book to, I’m not sure he’d have a clue of what to do with it.. not sure it’s his way.. being able to make the most of what he’s got is his goal… just doesn’t seem to be working for him here.. if I was SL & co, I would give him 8 more games to see a vast improvement and if there isn’t I’d be looking elsewhere as a replacement..
If the worst comes to pass and Nige gets sacked, what then ? We’ve tried all of the permutations over the last few years from managers with some experience, to mangers with no experience, and finally to the current manager with loads of fairly successful experience. And as of now there has been little to cheer about. Yes Covid has played its part but we still appear to be going backwards with the same people running the club For me they are still a major factor in our lack of direction and success due to many bad decisions over the last 20 years or so.
I don’t think anyone on here wants Nigel sacked (yet) - but things have to change. COVID played its part - but it hit ALL clubs, not just ours, so that’s no excuse in my book. LJ/Ashton are long gone - yes we were stuck with some high earners - but Palmer has gone and we’ve shed others off the wages bill. I would say Kalas is probably now our biggest earner but he’s injured - and I would expect the club to have insurance to cover injuries to players. Nige is into his 3rd season with us and he should know by now what our strengths and weaknesses are - yet we seem to be making the same mistakes time and again as if nothing has been learned at all. As I said on another thread it’s early days - only 2 games in - but if we deploy the same squad in the same formation every game we can expect the same results.
It’s a good point you’ve made and I’m not sure where the answer is.. Sometimes I think it’s one of those, enthusiastic manager comes in, gels with players, players gel and ooze with confidence, hit a good run and it happens.. Then we wake up!!!
I 100% agree with this. So many on here are using this as an excuse for NP. Nobody has much money to spend in this division not just City, yet we are struggling more than most, and some on here make it sound like we were the only club affected by COVID.
I would not call NP, enthusiastic... I'm not sure he inspires many of the players tbh; hence we never got the dead cat bounce when he was appointed, or since!
Didn't Neil Warnock when at Boro bemoan the fact that City had sacked their manager. All because Pearson was sat in the stand at Boro prior to his official appointment and Colin forecast (correctly) of the dead cat bounce. Nothing lasts, as 1For pointed out, even Holden won his first 4 games. On reflection, I'm even more concerned that we didn't sign a striker when Semenyo got injured. As I said back then if we didn't we may well be beyond help by he time he's fit again. Until Kalas is fit I presume Pearson isn't playing a back 4, thus relegating Vyner to the bench, because Da Silva is not up to playing LB. Kalas and Semenyo can't return quick enough.
I think NP likes the 3-5-2, even though we don't seem to have the players to make this formation effective right now (if at all). I think you blame Vyner too much, there are plenty of other issues in defence, all 3 Sunderland goals are attributable to bad defensive play. I have said many times, that it's not just Vyner. He actually did OK, and as someone else stated, he has 2 assists this season.
Supcon72 - Fair play. On every goal there is at least 3 mistakes leading to a goal. Afraid Vyner is too slow, and can't turn quicker enough to play as a defender. He's a plodder and will be dropped soon as Kalas is fit. Ok he has 2 assists but ffs at the back he's a disaster waiting to happen. Ps - When Pearson arrived he said he preferred playing a back 4.
