If Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson is to make any further additions to his squad in the final few days of the summer window, it’s highly unlikely that Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Fisayo Dele-Bashiru will be one of them.
A report by the Sheffield Star last week stated that City were one of several clubs monitoring the 21-year-old’s situation at Hillsborough with Dele-Bashiru out of contract next summer and no current prospect of a renewal likely.
He was left out of the Wednesday squad on Saturday as the Owls beat Forest Green Rovers 5-0, with pre-match conspiracy theories circulating that it could be due to an impending move, however manager Darren Moore later confirmed he has a hamstring injury.
Speaking in the wake of City’s 3-3 draw at Blackpool, Pearson distanced himself from any apparent interest in the player, grinning as he referenced former City midfielder Tyreeq Bakinson, now with Wednesday.
“I’ve never lodged an interest in that so I don’t know where that has come from,” Pearson told Bristol Live. “Maybe it’s Tyreeq’s agent getting busy.”
There is significant interest in Dele-Bashiru elsewhere in the Championship with Saturday’s opponents Blackpool having two bids rejected earlier in the window, as reported by Lancs Live, while Moore intimated that an unnamed player’s representative was trying to force a transfer through.
“It is part and parcel of football,” Moore said. “As long as the players remain professional and keep that consistency, that’s what I believe going forward. When advisors come to me and notify me that players are available, I go straight to the manager and ask if the player is available.
"There was an incident two weeks ago where a player came up, a very good player who would have been excellent for us. I went straight to the manager and he said no chance. That’s how I work. As I understand it, where we’re concerned here, that’s not been the case.”
As it stands, City’s week in the market is likely to be a quiet one, outside of a few loans out and potentially into the club, but activity will essentially be dictated on whether a Premier League club makes a significant, and tempting, bid for any of the Robins prized assets, namely Antoine Semenyo or Alex Scott.
There is undoubted interest in the pair across the top-flight but City’s high valuation of both, coupled with their lack of Premier League experience and the fact that any buying club would essentially be paying north of £15m for a project, rather than an individual who can make an instant impact, is rendering any deals in this window increasingly unlikely.
A report from the Sun’s Alan Nixon on Sunday detailed how Semenyo is in the process of changing agents, with Bristol Live understanding that the City forward is set to be represented by his father, Larry, having ended his four-year partnership with Tony Finnegan who had helped guide him from his early days at SGS College into the City academy and onto the first-team.
As Pearson admitted on Saturday he’s relaxed over the situation because it’s largely out of his hands unless an acceptable offer is forthcoming. The same, of course, can be said for Scott.
"I'm not worried about anything like that. What's there to worry about?" Pearson said of Semenyo. "It's not in my control. It will be expensive if somebody comes in."
One low-key addition that could be added to the Robins squad is former Cardiff City defender Sol Bamba who continues to train at the High Performance Centre and with a decision expected in the coming week.
Bamba is a free agent so there is no pressure to offer him a contract, if that is the intention, before Thursday’s 11pm deadline, but having been with the group for two weeks now, Pearson and his staff should have an idea by now as to what he may or may not be able to offer.
Pearson would like to have another senior centre-back in his squad with just four fit at present - Kal Naismith, Rob Atkinson, Timm Klose and Zak Vyner - while Tomas Kalas is yet to recover from his summer knee trouble, which doesn’t allow for much competition nor flexibility in selection.
Bamba did make 24 Championship appearances for Middlesbrough last season, 18 as a starter, and carries a wealth of experience, so could be viewed as a common sense and low cost option as a sixth option in that area of the field, which could then permit Ryley Towler to leave on loan before Thursday.
The decision is likely to depend on how Bamba has performed in training coupled with the prospect of whether Pearson will be able to make any additions in the market which, as mentioned above, will be linked to sales.
“He’s training with us and you know I don’t get involved in speculation but nice try anyway!” Pearson said, with a grin at Bloomfield Road when asked about Bamba’s status at the club.
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