Lee Johnson explains why he sent Bristol City's Wes Burns on loan to Aberdeen rather than Scunthorpe. Bristol City boss Lee Johnson has explained the reasons behind his decision to send Wes Burns out on loan to Aberdeen rather than Scunthorpe United. When Burns signed a contract extension and was immediately made available on loan in June, Scunthorpe chairman Peter Swann went public on his desire to bring Wales international forward Burns to Glanford Park. Yet despite a good deal of chatter on various transfer rumour forums, Academy product Burns eventually joined Aberdeen on a season-long loan. Johnson today spoke for the first time on why he felt the Scottish Premier League offered a more suitable platforms for one of City's brightest young prospects to further his development than League One. "There was a lot of talk about it and it was certainly an option," recalled City's head coach. "Their chairman came out and said they were interested in Wes on a permanent deal as well as on a loan, but that was not something we were interested in entertaining, because we wanted to keep Wes. "There was an option for a loan, because we could see Scunthorpe were going to be a good team in their division. "However, Scotland offered an opportunity for Wes to play in Europe and thrust himself into a bigger shop window. "Obviously, there are bigger games, higher profile games against the likes of Celtic and Rangers in Scotland, and we felt that was what Wes needed at this stage of his development. "We wanted to know could he handle being at a big club on a big stage in big games. Because we needed to see that, it tipped the balance and we decided to send him out on loan to Aberdeen instead." Burns scored on his debut for Aberdeen in a Europe League tie against Ventspils in July, since when he has made three appearances in the Scottish Premier League and another in the League Cup. City's head of youth recruitment, Brian Tinnion, is in regular contact with Dons manager Derek McInnes, the Scot who handed Burns his senior debut in 2013. Had things worked out differently, Burns might easily have been in the opposition camp for tonight's EFL Cup second round tie between Scunthorpe and City at Glanford Park. Although the Robins will be expected to bring their Championship quality to bear on the situation, Johnson dismisses all talk of the Iron being underdogs. The former Barnsley manager has first-hand knowledge of Scunthorpe and he warned: "Not a lot of people will know what they are about. They have a really healthy, strong budget for the division, they have a lot of players of a good age who have been there and done it, they have a good manager who made some decent signings during the summer, they are moving to a new stadium and this will be a really tough game. "It will be a tough game for them too, but I know I know a lot about them and I know what to expect. "Scunthorpe is not too far away from Barnsley and I used to go and watch them a lot. This will be a really good game and to suggest it's a case of David versus Goliath is disrespectful to Scunthorpe. "They have started the season very, very well and I'm anticipating an intense end-to-end battle." please log in to view this image http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/lee-johnson-explains-why-he-sent-wes-burns-on-loan-to-aberdeen-rather-than-scunthorpe-united/story-29645802-detail/story.html
