Liam Manning has admitted he is not expecting any movement in or out of Ashton Gate ahead of Bristol City’s clash with Coventry City this weekend.
The Robins are yet to make any additions to their first-team squad this month, with the only real activity at the High Performance Centre so far being the return of Ephraim Yeboah who cut short his loan spell with Doncaster Rovers in December.
City aren’t expected to be too busy this time around having invested heavily in the summer transfer window as they secured the signatures of Scott Twine, Fally Mayulu, Sinclair Armstrong, Yu Hirakwa, George Earthy and Marcus McGuane. Those six additions were joined by January signings Max Bird and Josh Stokes who were signed last winter but only made the move to the West Country at the end of the season.
Although Manning has admitted that he is keen to bolster his ranks if possible this month, he insists that no deals are close to completion at this stage despite conversations continuing behind the scenes.
“Unfortunately not, not at the moment,” Manning replied when asked if any outgoings or incomings were expected before Saturday afternoon’s game.
“There’s conversations at the minute in terms of what’s possible and what’s not possible. I have my ideal, I’m not the one that ultimately puts the money in and I totally respect that as well. I think it’s a case of seeing how the conversations go and what’s possible.”
Last January, City made just three signings in January. Twine and Dire Mebude made the move to Ashton Gate on loan until the end of the season and Adam Murphy completed the permanent switch to the South West from St Patrick’s Athletic.
While the Robins haven’t been frequent users of the loan market in the past, particularly during Nigel Pearson’s tenure as manager, Manning has not closed the door on making temporary additions this month even if he insists the final say isn’t his.
“I would personally,” the 39-year-old replied when asked if he would consider a loan signing. “Like I said, it’s not ultimately my decision in terms of what we can do. Again, we have to get a little bit more clarity on that I think in terms of what’s possible.
“The lads are ready to go, the recruitment department does a terrific job and are trying to work for now as well as the next window but ultimately we have to see what we can do.”
After a few quiet transfer windows following the Covid-19 pandemic, clubs near the top of the Championship have shown signs of spending heavily again in the last year or so. Manning has repeatedly insisted that the Robins are not in a position to spend recklessly and the 39-year-old has once again aimed to manage expectations ahead of the second half of the transfer window.
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Of course, the focus will be on who, how and when City make additions to the playing squad this month but the Reds’ boss believes his team are in a good position to be competitive for the remainder of the campaign in their current state.
“It’s not always about adding,” Manning said. “I think if you look at what we’ve done with the squad this season, it’s about how do you best keep that together and try to keep as many fit and available and work with what we’ve got.
“Ideally, what you don’t want to do is lose a load because I do think when you look at it, it’s in a good spot. If you are going to add, it has to be the right one that you think’s really going to give you a push in the back half of the season, or whether it’s beyond that. You also have to be realistic. When you look at some of the movement around us with some of the investment from some of the clubs, the Championship’s back to spending quite a bit of money so again, we have to manage expectations off the back of that as well and see what other clubs are doing.
“For me, I’m really pleased with the group that we’ve got here and I think it’s about making sure we control what we can and that’s making sure we’re best prepared for Saturday.”