Nigel Pearson on Bristol City's £38m loss and how it will influence transfer decisions Nigel Pearson faced questions about Bristol City's £38.4million pre-tax loss for 2020/21 and the impact it has on his job Nigel Pearson says he is under no illusions about the tough challenge he faces at Bristol City after the club announced annual losses of more than £38million on Tuesday. The 2020/21 accounts make for difficult reading for the club and supporters alike, with issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the club hard and contributing to a pre-tax loss of £38.4m. There are off-field challenges for the Ashton Gate board to solve, and the figures are impactful on Pearson's work too ahead of the January transfer window. But the manager insists he is prepared for the challenge. "I’ve been aware of exactly where we sit for a while," he said ahead of his pre-match press conference ahead of Thursday's Championship clash with Queens Park Rangers. "How does it impact me? Well, it just means we have to be very mindful of how we manage the situation and I suppose in some ways, managing peoples’ expectations is always going to be one of the most difficult things, especially when we’re trying to go through a period where we’ve had a lot of change, both in terms of the management in my position over the past two years. "On top of that, a squad which, as I’ve said many times already, had a lot of players coming out of contract. "It’s a time of change, but what we can’t factor in is the impact that the pandemic has had. I don’t think anybody envisaged when the COVID situation first hit us back in March of 2020 that we would still be sitting here now, nearly in 2022, and we’re still dealing with current outbreaks and difficult situations. "The bigger picture for football is there are going to be some tough times ahead for many, many clubs. "What we have to do here is manage a way through that situation, but do it in a way where we are transparent with what’s happening because I think that’s important for our fans, but we still want to give them hope that we’ll come out of it OK. "It may constrain how we actually manage to rebuild the squad, but we’ll do it in a way that’s in the best interests of everybody because the most important thing is we keep going as a football club and give our fans some hope moving forward, but we’re under no illusions. It’s going to be tough." "Trading" is a common word used by City when it comes to working in the transfer market, with losses in recent seasons offset to a certain degree by big-money sales. The likes of Adam Webster, Lloyd Kelly and Josh Brownhill have all fetched significant sums from Premier League clubs with City's strategy of developing players from within reaping financial rewards. Pearson was asked if sales will be required in the January transfer window to improve City's financial situation. "That’s always a possibility and it’s something, as a manager, you’re always aware of," he replied. "We’re not actively looking to sell our most talented prospects, of course, and our owners’ vision for how we shape the club moving forward is that we have home-grown players. "One of our main aims as a football club is to produce players for us, not necessarily for other teams, but the realistic outlook on the same question will be we’ll have to make sure the decisions we make regarding players are done for the interests of us as a football club. "Of course, it’s a possibility." City sit 18th in the Championship table, eight points clear of the bottom three, and Pearson undoubtedly would want to strengthen his squad when the window opens on Saturday, but he said he has to manage supporters' expectations of what is possible in the market next month. He continued: "My view on strengthening the side is not collecting players, it’s about you only replace players if you can considerably improve what you’ve got and that’s the reality of it and that’s the best way, in my opinion, to build a side and that is not to be reactive to situations." "There are occasions that there will be a necessity to get extra bodies in, but at the moment our availability has been pretty good this season. "Again, I do recognise that how our public look at where we are might be slightly different, but to improve on certain areas of our squad is going to cost an awful lot of money. "At the moment, we’re not well placed to be able to do that and we’ll be to be very mindful of the bigger picture, and that is the losses we have announced today are ones that we have to be acutely aware of how we manage not just the present, but the future as well. "That’s part and parcel of my job as well. It’s to have a responsibility and accept responsibility for that situation." https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/nigel-pearson-bristol-citys-38m-6412786
A reasonably thought out reply from Nigel and I think we all understand the difficulties that he must face in regards to improving what has to be considered as a poor squad. We were warned that our financial report was going to be a bruiser and there it is written in blood red ink for all to see and wonder how it got this bad. Clearly Covid has been a huge drain for our club, and many others, but how truly sad it is to see the income generated by selling our top players for good money disappear in the fog never to be seen again. As many have said we didn't have the right plan to replace the outgoing lot with better players and here we are back in the mire trying to re-establish ourselves for the nth time in my memory with very little hope of achieving those mandates. My New Years wish is for someone to get off their asses and actually get us a whole squad of real footballers rather than a mixture of no-hopers and want to be stars who never fit the bill until they move somewhere else. The dross served up by Bristol City has been stinking out the joint for way too long and the various blame games may try and pinpoint the culprits but it serves no purpose until such time as we have a person on board who can translate the instruction manual. Nigel Pearson may be the best thing that has ever happened on the managerial front but it's whats behind him that he needs to watch carefully. We've all been here before and never seen any change yet and so I will enter 2022 with a big bite of apathy to dull my appetite for any future measurable improvement.
