Bristol City in talks with Man United, Man City and top Premier League sides over potential loan link-up The club are speaking to the biggest names in English football to develop future relationships Bristol City chief executive Mark Ashton has revealed the club have been speaking to “a number of top Premier League clubs” following their Carabao Cup exploits. The Robins famously defeated Manchester United to reach the semi-final stage and battled bravely with Pep Guardiola's Manchester City before succumbing to a 5-3 aggregate loss. However, it's clear that the run has opened up new doors for the club. Ashton told BBC Radio Bristol: “In the last 14 days I have been with Man City and Brian Marwood, Ivan Gazidis at Arsenal, Ed Woodwood at Manchester United, Tottenham, and Chelsea. “It’s about building our network and our relationships so if the right player becomes available those clubs understand how we play and how we treat players to put ourselves in pole position. please log in to view this image England's Tammy Abraham (left) and Germany's Antonio Rudiger (right) battle for the ball “If there was a Tammy (Abraham) type deal out there where both parties can really benefit from it and the player could then we are in a good place.” He added: “It’s not just Man City, we are talking to a host of top Premier League clubs about what we are trying to do here, and we will continue to build those relationships.” "Not only do we talk about the players, we also talk about the business and the Bristol Sport group. "These clubs want to work with stability and Steve Lansdown brings us this. It's hugely important for us and give myself and Lee a great platform to work with." please log in to view this image Bristol City owner Steve Lansdown CBE, Head Coach Lee Johnson and CEO Mark Ashton at QPR Asked about whether he could see a loan arrangement with Man City after the impressive performances in the Carabao Cup, Ashton explained: "We've had the same discussions with Man United. "They have to have the right player at the right time, the worse thing we could do is take a player because it looks sexy from the outside. "What Lee doesn't want to do is take a player who doesn't fit and then he might not get game time because overnight we'll burn that relationship. "It's about selecting the right player, at the right time. Man City have been great, we had some very kind words from them and they run a very professional ship." The Robins reaching the latter stages of the Carabao Cup provided the club with huge financial reward. The televised fixtures against the Manchester clubs brought in audiences from around the world and generated extra revenue, which Ashton believes the club can use to continue to progress. please log in to view this image Lee Johnson applauds the fans after the Man City loss He added: “Without going into exact numbers, it is a substantial amount of money, but remember we split a lot of that with the away clubs because of the cup competition rules, but yeah we have done well out of it. “It helps the TV revenue that comes with it and in the latter stages, but it’s important that we do that because we have an owner that consistently backs us financially and it’s nice to have the opportunity to put something back into the pot.” He continued: “When we dipped into the transfer market and in this window, again our owner has been there and supported us financially so it’s good for the business, good for the club and good for the brand. “It’s been a great opportunity to promote this club and this city to a worldwide audience.” https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/bristol-city-talks-man-united-1141607
Seems like we have a good team on and off the pitch.....can only be a good thing. As a club, I've not known us in such a good hands.
I know its been said before, but what a difference a year makes!! Everything seems to be coming up roses and long may it continue.
Nice words. Hopefully we will see some evidence, or it will be a footballing equivalent of the ‘special’ relationship we have with the US - bigged up by the UK and laughed at by the USA. Interesting about the TV money - I was talking about that only last Sunday. We have been on TV more this season than I can ever remember since I discovered Bristol City and we are only half way through the season! I would love to know how much we have earned from that.
The $64,000 question, and it's one that none of us can answer with any certainty. In terms of TV revenue, we must have made a hell of a lot of money from it this season, plus the increased gate receipts from the 3 x Man U and Man City games.
NO and the reason why ..... we would have changed manager, binned all the effort of 2 / 3 previous transfer windows, gone against the "we have a plan and need time to put it all into place" which would / hence resulted in a stable team. Not to say the money it cost for the past a year or so prior, that would now be on its 800th trip up and down the muddy old River AVON. I don't know hard peeps like one for found it to keep on board last season, but unless we got hammered by 2 goals or more I was happy to go along with the plan. My provisio then was should we run out of games to secure the points for safety then I would reconsider, but the likely hood was I was prepared to go down and come back up, under Lee's leadership and that of the team. I think at one time there was a point made by SL he would back LEE should we gently sink! ? ? although we were losing games, coming out of the gate were comments of we are still on course to try and endeavour to reach the end of the plan, Lee wasn't doing anything "wrong" in so much as results were not going our way but we were not in an out of control spiral............ Will we be in the prem next season? I am in hope of that but although we are having a good season and still on the build, we will need 3 victories to attain this, the third being at Wemglee!
and the gates we have above 18,500! I think when published our financial year for this season might just show a profit!
Possibly because isn't the idea that the head coach comes and goes and all the structure behind it stays? if Bristol City are dedicated no matter who is in charge of the first team to bringing players on in theory a Man City Chelsea would still be interested???
In my opinion "No" reason similar to JG2's. No one was out there to replace him that would deliver any better. The majority of the games we lost, was only by the odd goal, quite often a mistake by an individual player. The style of football that LJ was trying to input, even with the caliber of players we had looked promising. One could see that LJ had and has a good football brain. He needed the chance to do it his way, his players and his staff. I think a guy that can take the amount of stick received as a player and then as a manager, who could still act sensibly with such determination and self belief is a thumbs up in my book. What ever happens this season, I wouldn't be looking to replace him anytime soon.......Unless Pep wants the job!!
That's the theory.....rarely happens though! It's a guess, but I think we would have got relegated.....That's of course only my opinion!
The increased average gates and overall operating revenue should hopefully help us with the Financial Fair Play rules too.
Happens at lots of clubs now. Makes sense that a club can still function properly if one person leaves. SL would still be doing similar to what he is doing Lee Johnson or no.
I believe the owner and the manager needs to be reading from the same hymn sheet to create success, (LJ & SL currently) more often than not that doesn't happen. And if you are right We would have been in the Premier years ago.... I'm interested in all of these clubs you mention,Plenty of clubs that are currently struggling in the Championship recently in the Premiership chopped & changed the manager thinking it would improve them but hasn't or didn't..
I think that was more to do with the type of football we tried to play that interested Pep & Man City.....and that is down to LJ
And a good job SL & supporters like me stuck with LJ...people who know me, know how much I liked the way the club was going & that LJ & his staff would turn it around.
Academic really , we didn't sack him , and we are where we are . Don't get me wrong I'm really happy with where we are and with the type of football we play and on hindsight keeping Lee was a master stroke , but we will never know what would have happened had the decisions gone the other way , as others have said I believe SL would have chosen someone else who was prepared to follow the same methods, and who knows we may have been runaways leaders had we taken that route , the point is we will never know.
