What Lansdown, Ashton and Johnson have said About Summer Transfer Plans

What Lansdown, Ashton and Johnson have said about Bristol City’s summer transfer plans
The power brokers of Ashton Gate has discussed how the Robins will attack the summer window.

Following the disappointment of not making the play-offs, Bristol City must now turn their attention to the summer transfer window and look at how they can improve their squad to make sure the same mistakes don’t happen next time around.

After a brilliant start to the season which saw City in the top three and make the Carabao Cup semi-final, beating Manchester United along the way, The Robins’ season derailed slightly at the wrong moment as they drifted away from the play-offs.

Manager Lee Johnson, Owner Steve Lansdown and CEO Mark Ashton will be disappointed with how the season has ended but have all spoken about the summer transfer plans for the club and how they can continue to improve in the long run.

Lansdown has spoken about sitting down with both Ashton and Johnson to discuss those plans in more detail and get the ball rolling fast with the summer window ending much earlier than in previous seasons.

The transfer window will now shut on Thursday, 9 August at 17:00 BST after EFL clubs voted on the proposals. The window usually used to shut on August 31st, therefore The Robins will have to start their business early if they are to make some quality new additions to the squad.

Lee Johnson
The Bristol City head coach gave his thoughts about the upcoming transfer window and what Robins fans can expect to happen in the coming months before the Sheffield United game last Sunday. This is what he had to say:

Could it be an exciting window potentially with the club able to spend?

"Absolutely. I think we've got ourselves in a position - and that's the beauty of it - where what we've done over the last few years is create real value in the squad. We created value in terms of raising the profile of the individuals, we've created value in the squad via our improved league position and we've created value in the players from coaching them to be better than they were originally.

"What it means is that if a player leaves us then it will be on our terms and that money will be able to be reinvested to make the club better, which is probably me articulating it better than I did last time [when we asked Lee Johnson two weeks ago], given the headline.

"And that's the key. In any team you get icons and idols and everybody looking at them. But it doesn't mean that next year there won't be a new icon if we did lose someone.

"And I'm not saying we will. The players who are out of contract [in 2019] we'll be in talks with if not already then we will be pretty much. So therefore we could step into next season with exactly the same squad as we've got this season.

"If we don't we've got to see it as an opportunity to tweak the Rubik's Cube if you like to make sure we become even more efficient in our play and have got more quality and particularly to bring in the right characters to communicate as leaders that absolutely help the young players flourish.

"Because what I'm really pleased with, what we've already got is all the way down to under-16 level we've got at least one or two players in each position who could become Championship quality, regular players.

On the shorter window...

"Without a doubt it will make it frantic - the time will be reduced and more than likely I'll be in the pool with my headphones on, hands free and taking calls.

Same transfer policy as before? Value from abroad or tried-and-tested from the Championship or lower league shopping?

"I think you look at every situation on its merits - what you've got in the squad. What's below the squad. You're very conscious at this club to not block up a pathway. The situation will be determined by the big picture and we'll make as many right decisions as we can within our resources with the way the owner sets the tone for the way he wants to move forward and I'll do that to the best of my ability with the recruitment staff.

Steve Lansdown
Bristol City owner Steve Lansdown spoke to BBC Radio Bristol ahead of the Sheffield United game last Sunday, speaking about the latest potential departures and transfer plans.

This is what he had to say:

Is there a strategy with Bobby Reid and Joe Bryan this summer?
We have a strategy.

We have set figures in our minds that we are prepared to accept.

You have to take into account what the players want and what their desires are and balance the two together.

We're in a position where I think the squad has a great value about it and we need to extract that value. That value needs to be reinvested into the squad to build for the future.

Do Bobby and Joe have one more season on their contracts?

They have one more year on their contracts.

Some players, I don't think it's within these boys characters, to be honest, but I've had it before with other players that they will stick it out and run their contracts down then there is no value to the club.

Then they take all the value out of it or their agents do. You have to balance it up and there have been deals we have done in the past that we had to do.

We're in a position now where we pay pretty decent salaries. It's not in the top six in the division I have to say but we are pretty good.

We're growing all the time with Ashton Gate hopefully having sold out attendances next season and we can put that money back into the team.

Will you increase your top-line basic pay to attract better players to the club?

I don't think we need to do this.

I think we are up there. You look at the likes of Villa, they are paying the top-line salaries to all their players and that seems to be a minimum.

That's the difference we have to compete with all the time and, of course, clubs with parachute payments.

Will you look at your scoring network in the summer on a review?

We do that all the time. There is always room for improvement and we will look at how we assess these players.

How we came to sign these players and why we didn't sign others we could have signed.

We have to be harsh with ourselves and to be our own worst critics.
We've had a great season and people keep coming up to say thanks for a great year but I feel that we haven't quite done what have should have done.

Mark Ashton
Bristol City CEO Mark Ashton spoke about certain plans the club had on their recruitment plans in an interview with the club website back in February.

This is what he had to say regarding the plans if City remained in the Championship:

"It's business as usual. We have a very set process of doing recruitment on how we identify talent and that will remain the same.

"And come the summer wherever we'll be as prepared as we possibly can be.

“The Championship plan will be very detailed because that's the pond we've been fishing in and that's where we'll probably be recruiting our players for.

“We do our homework, we're professional and there's a professional team in the recruitment department now and we'll make sure wherever we are we'll be as prepared as we possibly can."

Ashton went on to confirm that the club are set up for the long term and are not specifically targeting promotion this season.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/what-lansdown-ashton-johnson-said-1559770

 

This is what our 3 main men were saying about our plans for the transfer window a few weeks back.
(Bullet points only)
* Manager Lee Johnson, Owner Steve Lansdown and CEO Mark Ashton will be disappointed with how the season has ended but have all spoken about the summer transfer plans for the club and how they can continue to improve in the long run.
* Get the ball rolling fast.
* We have a strategy.
* We have set figures in our minds that we are prepared to accept.
* It's business as usual. We have a very set process of doing recruitment on how we identify talent and that will remain the same.
* And come the summer wherever we'll be as prepared as we possibly can be.
* We do our homework, we're professional and there's a professional team in the recruitment department now and we'll make sure wherever we are we'll be as prepared as we possibly can.

When you read this article they seem prepared and organised for current transfer activity.