At least one striker will be available for Bristol City, and the Robins are making every effort to select the best candidate.
In order to address their offensive deficiencies, Liam Manning acknowledges that Bristol City is wrapping up their roster for what looks to be an important summer transfer window. The club hopes to sign a physically strong, athletic, and influential No 9.
With their 19th-ranked offence and fourth-best defensive record in the Championship in terms of goals surrendered, City provides a fairly clear analysis of the specific areas of the club that need to be improved for the upcoming campaign.
With just five games left in the season, Manning is becoming more involved in the recruitment process as factors like likely price are now being discussed. Technical director Brian Tinnion announced shortly after the January transfer window closed that the target for the summer is “a physical striker, a No9 with a presence but we don’t want to lose the running; we don’t want them to be a big striker who can’t run.”
“We’re looking at profiles,” Manning said. “We’re doing our work on that side of it and there are more meetings that need to happen to see what we can do and what that looks like. It never stops that, to be totally honest, it’s just my level of involvement increases as we get closer to a window.
“When January shuts, all my energy is into the team and you get closer to the end of the season and in the last month we’ve had numerous meetings with the recruitment lads. They do a good job of getting information across to us, so we’re constantly watching video and doing background checks and trying to get up to speed with that.”
Tommy Conway and Nahki Wells have shared striking duties over the course of the campaign with 14 goals in all competitions between them, but while different players in their own right and, at 21 and 33, opposite ends on the age spectrum, the duo still possess a number of shared characteristics around their physical profile and strengths and weaknesses.
Manning has been largely wedded to fielding one striker, which has meant that however starts out of the pair, the other often replaces them during a game, which brings an element of continuity, but City seek an individual striker who can alter the dynamic of a game and how the Robins attack.
There is the additional caveat of Conway’s future being increasingly uncertain as he approaches the final 12 months of his contract and no indication he wishes to extend it after several months of talks, which may mean City need more than just one striker this summer.
“I’ll take Haaland, if you can get me him,” Manning joked. “For me, what you want in the squad is blend of profiles. Someone that’s powerful with an element of explosiveness. Nahki and Tommy are great and excellent in terms of the profiles they are, of movements, taking up positions and linking up play but I think in terms of having that option where if you need to bypass the press or physicality, that costs, but we’re seeing what’s out there.
“I don’t think there are a huge number of profiles, and that’s the challenge. The market and now being able to go abroad, that becomes an interesting option purely from a cost perspective, so we’ll do our work and see what we can find.”
As noted by Tinnion last month on BBC Radio Bristol, the dearth of the ideal type of striker in the English pyramid, as clubs increasingly look for mobile, nimble attackers who aren’t exactly the prototype of what a No9 is, will likely mean City look to foreign markets for the solution.
That’s also coupled by the affordability of looking overseas, while the softening on restrictions in the transfer market imposed by Brexit means that clubs can sign up to four overseas players per season who do not meet the points requirements of the international visa system.
Prior to Dire Mebude’s loan in January, City hadn’t signed an outfield player from outside the United Kingdom since Rodri’s short-term free transfer in 2019, but making moves outside of established borders brings additional challenges beyond whether the player is the right fit in a tactical sense.
Ultimately, they have to settle in the area, in a country they’re likely to have not played or lived in, plus securing the relevant personality checks on individuals in various countries and their suitability is often more complicated.
“There are a huge number of factors that go into it; how are they going to settle, how are they going to adjust?” said Manning, who spent time in New York with the City Football Group and worked with a multi-national squad at Lommel in Belgium. “We do the same work on players that are already playing in England. Wherever they’re from, you have to go into that level of depth, hence the conversations that have been going on a while.
“I worked abroad and worked with many different nationalities, which helps, because I have an appreciation and understanding of what it’s like to transition from country to country and how that looks, how long that can potentially take and what things make it easier and smoother.”
With Blackburn Rovers at Ashton Gate on Wednesday and Huddersfield Town the visitors to BS3 on Saturday as the Robins begin the five-game countdown to the end of the season on May 4, talks are also increasing over the futures of those already within the City squad.
Invariably there will be departures this summer, whether that be Conway due to his contract situation – although the club remain hopeful a resolution can be found – or anyone else that may have to be moved on to make space for incomings as they’ve indicated they don’t quite fit the way Manning wants to play.
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