Liam Manning has revealed that there hasn’t yet been a significant change in the situation between Bristol City and Tommy Conway but that “bits are going on behind the scenes.”
The striker has been forced to train with City’s Under-21s having rejected their latest contract offer with the 21-year-old now in the final year of his deal with the Robins. Conway has been back at the HPC for almost a fortnight now having been given an extended break after being part of Scotland’s Euro 2024 squad alongside Ross McCrorie, although neither player got on the pitch.
That has meant that the academy graduate, who scored 12 goals for City last season, has played no part in the Robins’ pre-season friendlies this week against Newport County, Aldershot Town and Cheltenham Town and isn’t expected to be involved in this afternoon’s meeting with Exeter City at the HPC.
This does suggest that an exit from BS3 this summer is likely with Manning admitting last week that he is keen for the situation to be resolved as soon as possible.
Asked for an update on the situation with Conway and if anything has changed after City’s 3-0 win at Cheltenham on Friday evening, the Robins head coach said: “Not at the minute. Tommy’s coming in every day, working hard and doing what he needs to do. The staff are looking after him. There are bits going on behind the scenes but nothing is done as of yet so nothing at the moment.”
The 38-year-old also admitted that he would like to see City sign another player or two before the transfer window shuts on August 30 with over 1,000 travelling Robins supporters getting their first in person glimpses of new additions Sinclair Armstrong and Max Bird at Whaddon Road.
Armstrong, who joined from QPR earlier this month, scored after just 40 seconds to hand City the lead against Cheltenham while Bird played the full 90 minutes, having returned to former club Derby County on loan for the remainder of last term after signing for the Robins in January.
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As well as the duo, City have also signed another striker in Fally Mayulu from Rapid Vienna and Japanese winger Yu Hirakawa on an initial loan deal from Machida Zelvia. Mayulu is expected to feature in the friendly against Exeter while it is currently unclear when supporters can expect to see Yu in action after he was forced off of Japan’s Olympics opener against Paraguay on a stretcher with an ankle injury.
“[We’re] constantly working at it,” Manning declared. “It’s something that me and Brian [Tinnion] were chatting about on the pitch before tonight. It’s been a full on window I think, to be fair. The volume of players might not look high but to get the deals over the line with the amount of competition. You go in for somebody and there’s six, seven, eight clubs from the Championship competing for that player.
“I’ve been delighted with the ones that we have managed to get. We’ve gotten them ahead of other Championship clubs which is always good for us. But I still think we need to add one or two before the window closes.”