This week saw Bristol City conduct their first fans forum of the season as the Robins look to improve their communication with supporters off of the field at Ashton Gate.
On the panel were first-team head coach Liam Manning, technical director Brian Tinnion, chairman Jon Lansdown, and first-team club captain Jason Knight with the quartet answering questions specific to their area of expertise.
Queries from supporters covered a variety of different topics including the Reds’ summer recruitment, stadium plans at Ashton Gate, how the club has progressed a year on from Manning’s appointment in the South West, how and why Knight was named club captain, and the age-old question, when will Bristol City get to the Premier League?
With the meeting between the supporters and the major decision-makers at Ashton Gate lasting well over an hour, covering every single point would make for an incredibly extensive read. The full fan’s forum can be viewed on the Bristol City YouTube channel here but we have summarised the major talking points from last week’s session that cover many queries fans have had over the last few years.
Tommy Conway offered a record contract for his age ahead of his Middlesbrough transfer
The Tommy Conway transfer saga feels an age away now, but as expected, the young forward’s exile from first-team training and subsequent move to Middlesbrough was brought up during Wednesday night’s forum.
Conway made the move to the Riverside after it became clear that he had no interest in putting pen to paper on new terms at Ashton Gate and while some have questioned the Reds’ decision to sanction his exit, it seems as though City did what they could to secure the Scotland international’s future.
Discussing the saga, Tinnion said: “When Tommy Conway has two years left on his contract and you start talking to Tommy saying, ‘we want to extend it’ and he’s got no interest in extending his contract, when it gets to a year left in his contract, you have to sell him.
“He’s old enough to make that decision, isn’t he? We offered him the highest paid, for his age, ever at the football club and he was not interested, not one iota. So with a year left on his contract, we have to sell him.”
When it was suggested Conway had no interest in penning a new deal because of a lack of belief in the current project at Ashton Gate, Lansdown was quick to respond that the forward was “getting bad advice.”
Ultimately, City were able to move the forward on for a fee that Bristol Live understands to be worth a potential £5million rather than losing him for nothing at the end of the season. In turn, that money will have helped fund the flurry of late incoming business in the second half of the summer transfer window at Ashton Gate.
However, it is clear that the Robins want to avoid a repeat of this situation in the future, with Tinnion insisting Manning’s squad have to get to the Premier League with players like Knight if they want to keep them in BS3 long-term.
New investment can happen at Bristol City with or without Bristol Sports’ involvement
The prospect of new investment into the red side of Bristol has been something that has been floated by the people at the top of the football club repeatedly over the last couple of seasons.
In the summer of 2022, Steve Lansdown told BBC Radio Bristol that he would be open to selling the football club if the right deal was available while he was looking for the right people to invest in the football club.
“I would [sell]. I think if it was the right deal, but I’m not [actively] looking to sell the club,” the City owner said. “I’m looking for people to come in and invest, but some people might want to come in and do the whole thing and then it would be another discussion.
“I’m 70 this month and the family has been involved for a long time and we can’t keep doing it forever.”
Although no new investment or takeover has yet occurred in BS3, Jon Lansdown insists that the prospect remains on the table and explained that any potential investor could deal with just the football club rather than the entire Bristol Sport umbrella if that’s what they were interested in.
“Not everyone is interested in everything right? If you’re talking purely from a football club point of view, if you want somebody to come and invest in the football club, for me, the perfect scenario is someone coming in, in partnership who can bring something we don’t already have.
“People have talked about Brentford and Brighton before where it’s come from betting and where it comes into recruitment, they’ve got tools that they use for those industries that are unique to them and allow them to identify players others haven’t.
“Anyone who can bring something that we don’t have and in terms of actual investment would be a welcome addition from my point of view, but like you say, different people will be looking at different things.
“For me, this is the club I love, we’re custodians of the club, it’s got to be right for the football so if I could make someone up that’s what they would be. To actually answer, yes, people can talk about different things.”
Brian Tinnion offers insight into foreign markets, City’s new recruitment methods and the impact of the HPC
This summer transfer window saw the Robins shift their focus in the market. While the likes of Scott Twine, Sinclair Armstrong, and Luke McNally arrived from Championship clubs, City opted to recruit from abroad with the likes of Fally Mayulu and Yu Hirakawa for the first time in a few years.
How successful that shift in recruitment model has been, only time will tell but the initial signs suggest that both foreign players have the skill to make a big impact in City colours in the short, medium, and long-term future of the club.
Although Tinnion didn’t delve into the in-depth details of the Reds’ recruitment, he did admit that the High Performance Centre, Manning’s approach, and Ashton Gate aided incoming business massively this summer.
“What you end up doing is you probably end up using two agents. You use one from this country and one from the country where you’re recruiting so that was a little bit different for us, but it’s really interesting to see how other countries and other people think, especially of us now.
“Once we’ve shown the facilities, shown them what we want to do, and they’ve come here, it’s amazing. I think we only had one, [Moussa] Sylla that we were really close to and missed out last minute, but every player that’s come and seen the facilities and talked to Liam, who’s given them a presentation on the football club and what we’re trying to do, they’ve wanted to come here.
“Sean [Gillespie] deals with a lot of it, but they’re really impressed when they come here and see what we’re doing.”
Manning and Tinnion insist academy pathway remains intact after summer transfer developments at Ashton Gate
As a result of the busy summer transfer window, there has been a lot less academy representation in the Robins’ matchday squads so far this term, barring the experienced cohort of Zak Vyner, Cam Pring, and Max O’Leary.
Elijah Morrison has come off the bench to make two appearances for the first-team, while Josh Campbell-Slowy has been training with the first-team having impressed with the Under-21s this season, but other than that pair, there doesn’t seem to be quite the same level of talent knocking on the door as there once was.
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Although Tinnion admitted it would be tough for academy players to break into Manning’s side in its current state, he insists the route into the first team will remain open for players, if and when they are ready to make that step.
“The level of the squad and the quality has gone up, so it is going to be more difficult,” the technical director explained. “We want now, but we also want the pathway don’t we? We want everything.
“It’s tough but we want to succeed and we want now so sometimes those younger players might have to fight that little bit harder and it might take that little bit longer. But we’ve looked after that for a long time now and we’ve always made that pathway available, but we’ve recruited good players and they’re going to have to be good to replace them.”
Manning added, “For me, there definitely will be a pathway and there always will. Playing against Leeds, I could have thrown many in ahead of Elijah for those last 15 minutes but it’s a testament to how he’s done.
“I think the players for me, you can throw them on the bench when they’re not quite ready which can actually be quite dangerous in that you build a false expectation or a false perception in their head.
“That for me is really important that is earned, players are ready for it and it’s not just a token. I don’t believe in tokenism, I think you have to earn it. There’s always a pathway and I’m not afraid at all to throw those young players in hopefully as you’ve seen.”