Bristol City CEO Phil Alexander has confirmed the club haven’t received any formal offers for prized asset Alex Scott but a plan has been in place since March to both deal with a credible approach that matches their valuation, and then react to his sale, should it come to pass in this transfer window.
Significant noise is building around Scott’s status at Ashton Gate following the opening of the transfer window last Wednesday with numerous national outlets and journalists offering various hints at his possible next destination with Bournemouth, Tottenham Hotspur and Wolves noted as the most likely landing spots.
City’s position has always been clear: with two years remaining on his deal, Nigel Pearson and Steve Lansdown are on record maintaining his baseline value stands at £25m and anyone wishing to purchase the 19-year-old has to meet that figure.
Reports have increasingly indicated that price tag is putting some of his suitors off given Scott’s age and lack of top-flight football. Not that any of that matters to City, in this window, at least.
Speaking to Bristol Live, Alexander has confirmed they’re yet to have an approach detailing any kind of offer, let alone one that matches the figure that could drive a sale and the message has remained consistent and aligned throughout the club hierarchy.
Clearly there is interest and an awareness of what could happen - albeit a challenge in itself forecasting what could transpire between now and the end of the window. For example, it's not known how much Wolves will reinvest of the £47m they're reportedly receiving for Ruben Neves from Al Hilal but the move to Saudi Arabia has come largely out of the blue.
“I mention it because he is so high-profile and there is a degree of noise but we have not had any formal offer, as it stands,” Alexander said. “We’ll deal with it as it comes and there won’t be any knee-jerk reactions. Decisions will be made in a solid way that everyone buys into, from Steve down to me, down to Tinns (Brian Tinnion) and Nigel (Pearson) and his team, and is the best thing for this football club.”
City have secured three new players in the market so far in Rob Dickie, Ross McCrorie and Haydon Roberts and there is an appetite for further additions with Alexander confirming other deals are being worked on. The chief executive refused to comment on specific targets, including Derby County midfielder Jason Knight, for obvious reasons, but did speak more generally about the window with reference to Scott and any other possible departures.
The midfielder’s future hangs over this window, given the potential significance of his sale, but the Robins’ work so far has been conducted independently of that particular subject, all the time with the preparation and planning put in place of what could happen and how they should pivot if it was to occur.
A transfer plan was presented to Steve Lansdown in March detailing desired targets, the financial parameters everyone will be working in, and the overall outlook of the market. That strategy included two very clear and distinct processes - one with and the other without the exit of Scott. City are currently operating based on the latter.
In short, it’s far from a given he does leave and the economic landscape isn’t such where they have to sell. But, at the same time, the club can’t be left having to make decisions on the fly if a satisfactory bid was to come in because, ultimately, every player has a price.
“That was in the plan,” Alexander added. “That was very much a part of our thinking - what ifs? And if you don’t do that you get caught out. We’ve got a good idea (of next steps).
“I can’t second guess what’s going to happen in the market, there could be some things that happen that we never even thought of, but it will be interesting.
"There’s absolutely no sense of panic in the camp or anything like that, quite the opposite, we feel we’ve got everything under control and in a good place. But things happen, so we’ll wait and see what goes on until the end of August and then we can relax a little bit.”
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