Bristol City aren’t in a hurry to start contract negotiations with Nigel Pearson, with the Robins’ pre-season target of a play-off push seemingly the barometer by which the manager's future beyond 2023/24 will be assessed.
Pearson is entering the final 12 months of the three-year deal he signed in April 2021 with expectations heightened as to what City are capable of in 2023/24. Slow but incremental improvements over his previous two seasons - finishing 17th and then 14th - coupled with a developing squad full of young talent and encouraging start to the transfer window means optimism abides around the Robins once more being considered play-off challengers.
Having successfully rebuilt and restructured the squad amid challenging financial restrictions, admiration for Pearson within the fanbase is once again high, after the nadir of the defeat to West Brom on Boxing Day 2022, in which a group supporters chanted for him for him to be sacked.
