Even in these early steps of what everyone hopes will be a long and successful Bristol City career, it appears Anis Mehmeti has brought something profoundly exciting and different to Nigel Pearson’s squad, while Harry Cornick should prove over time a smart acquisition in attack.
But, for the manager, perhaps the best piece of business conducted over the January window, wasn’t what was added to the team, but taken away.
Mehmeti’s purchase wouldn’t have been permitted without the sale of Antoine Semenyo to Bournemouth for an initial £9million - with Pearson letting slip the full package could be worth £11m "or whatever it is" - but City also had to speculate, but not to accumulate, quite the opposite in fact.
A minimal fee was received from Premier League Wolves for Dan Bentley, as he was in the final six months of his contract, but financial settlements had to be reached in the final days of the window with Chris Martin and Timm Klose to enable their exits.
In isolation, by moving that trio on, the Robins made a net loss, but the benefits in the manager’s eyes have been enormous with the squad left more focused collectively and driven towards a singular goal.
Not that Pearson had any personal issues with Bentley, Martin or Klose but none had been part of his starting XI for some time - the last man of that group to play any minutes for the club was Martin on December 17 - and appear to have had a negative effect on the rest of the group as they were effectively treading water ahead of anticipated summer moves elsewhere, rather than being in a position to contribute.
As professional as they may have remained throughout the process, it’s hard to maintain a façade of buying into the long-term future of a club you’re no longer part of. And, to some extent, as he celebrates his two-year anniversary in charge this week it echoes Pearson’s first season.
In the concluding months of the 2020/21 campaign, City had a number of first-team individuals on expiring deals - most notably Famara Diedhiou, Jamie Paterson, Jack Hunt, Tommy Rowe and Henry Lansbury - and it impacted the chemistry within, as individual priorities took over.
Pearson baulked at the suggestion that Bentley, Martin and Klose were “big personalities” in the dressing room, ever so slightly downplaying their roles to simple “experienced players”, even if Bentley has been club captain for the last 18 months. But he’s confident, more than three weeks on, it’s a noticeably happy camp at the High Performance Centre.
“The dynamics have changed,” Pearson said. “When you have individuals in the building who don’t really have the motivation to push on then sometimes those players can take up as much time. It’s like having disruptive kids in the classroom, the teacher can spend 90 per cent of their time dealing with one per cent of the population - waste of time.
"I’m not suggesting the players have been disruptive but when players know they’re not necessarily going to play, and they’re high earners, what’s the point? So it’s in our interests to change it to give them the opportunity of finding something themselves.
“To try and sell the idea that the best investment you can make is to get rid of some players is actually quite a difficult thing to sell, but it actually makes sense. The players we brought in, and the players who have gone for different reasons - all different reasons, they’re not in the same bracket - makes the place more driven, as much as anything.
“It just works like that. For instance, Chris has got himself sorted out at QPR, and he was a long way from the side and hasn’t been in a squad since Christmas; it’s nothing against Chris, it’s just where’s his opportunity? The same with Timm, he has opportunities to go on loan at other places and didn’t want to go, so time to move on.
“With Dan, he knew months ago he wasn’t getting a new contract. It’s easy for players sometimes to get on with it, but for a sustained period it’s difficult to be a constant positive influence when you know you’re not in the picture so the best solution is separation.”
Bentley represents one of the final members of the great salary spend of summer 2019 to leave the club - with Tomas Kalas and Jay Dasilva remaining and Han-Noah Massengo's contract being offset by his loan at Auxerre - while Martin was signed under predecessor Dean Holden and Timm Klose an emergency free transfer by Pearson 12 months ago to plug a hole in the squad.
Martin did earn a new deal last season, having activated an appearance clause in his contract, while an inability to reinforce the centre of defence last summer meant keeping Klose on a short-term agreement was a necessity in the circumstances.
But their departures, coupled with the arrivals of Mehmeti and Cornick has revealed a very defined direction in terms of the club's recruitment, which could be viewed as a sign of progression and a natural evolution of the team as Pearson enters year three.
"What we try to do is recruit players who fit the profile, and that is - like to work hard, have some pace about them and have got the ambition and drive to be successful," Pearson added.
"Outside of that, it doesn't matter if they're 6ft 3, 5ft 10, I'm not bothered. As long as they fit the profile of what we want and, that is, we need players with energy, who bring something different.
"I don't think we're going to be signing too many older, slow players, let's put it like that. Our side is very much about energy and hopefully athleticism. Pace and power is important but you have to see what's in the market and what we can afford. How teams evolve is based on what you need at any given time."
The extra cohesion and harmony within the squad of knowing they’re all pulling in the same direction, coupled with a more streamlined and uniform profile of player, have been contributing factors to City’s unbeaten run as the Robins have now stretched it to 11 games - their best since Lee Johnson achieved the same number from August to October at the start of the 2019/20 season.
While they are still a modest 15th in the table, their improved performances and results since Boxing Day, with the knowledge they’ve largely outplayed teams such as Preston North End, Norwich City and Sunderland, who are above them in the table, has given rise to the possibility of a late play-off run.
The gap on the top six is only nine points with 14 games to play but there are eight teams in the way and such are the permutations over the remaining 10-and-a-half weeks of the season, a lot has to fall the Robins way. Which is why they’re best-priced at 25/1 to make the play-offs by bookmakers, while FiveThirtyEight’s predictive model gives them just a three per cent chance of such a finish.
Pearson accepts it’s a credible conversation to have, for aspirational reasons and as a qualifier of their progress as much as anything, but he won’t be engaging in any boastful proclamations or targets over these remaining matches given how easily the Championship has a knack for biting teams and managers on the backside.
City experienced one such notable nip to the posterior this week having lost centre-back Rob Atkinson for the rest of the season due to a ruptured ACL following a largely innocuous-looking incident at Sunderland.
“We’ve gone 11 and dropped down,” Pearson added. “Had we beaten Wigan we could have gone up to 11th, and then we find ourselves falling places - that’s the nature of this league. And then sides at the bottom have got back-to-back wins. You can never underestimate what happens in this division.
“Finishing the season strongly? If you ask the players they’ll be talking about how many points we are off the play-offs, and I like the fact that they generate that conversation. My job is to try and manage expectations internally and externally.
“Do I think we can do that? Yes, I do. But I also know that this division is ruthless and relentless and we’ve talked about being a little bit thin on the ground and keeping your best players available. So why make statements that are there to be thrown at you if you don’t?
"Anything is achievable but the hard work that goes into keeping the squad fit needs to continue and we need a bit of luck too. Rob’s injury at the weekend was so innocuous but that’s how things can occur. It’s just an unfortunate event which has a lasting impact on the rest of the season for us.”
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