Nigel Pearson says the January transfer window is further evidence of the progress Bristol City are making to improve the competitiveness of the squad while reducing the wage bill.
City allowed eight players to leave in total, including the likes of Joe Low and Dylan Kadji's loan deals, while bringing in three new players in Nikita Haikin and the deadline day deals of Harry Cornick and Anis Mehmeti. The club raised an initial £9m through Antoine Semenyo's sale, allowed high earner Dan Bentley to join Wolves and came to an agreement to terminate the contracts of Timm Klose and Chris Martin.
Han-Noah Massengo also joined Auxerre on loan until the end of the season which will take him to the end of his deal. Out of the nine who departed, whether permanently or on loan, only Semenyo was featuring regularly for the first-team.
It's been a long process of trying to steer the club back on the right tracks financially. Richard Gould, who left his role as CEO this week, said the progress for the financial reset stands at 70 to 80 per cent following the damning effects of the Covid pandemic.
The club's latest accounts for 2021/22 revealed losses of £28.5million which remain £10m better off than 12 months prior. The reduction in player wages contributed to that with the club spending £26.9m on salaries during this financial year compared to £31.5m in 2020/21.
"What has happened in a short period of time is the fruits of some really hard work over the last 18 months," Pearson said, reflecting on the transfer window. "It’s a difficult story to tell in a way where people don’t think you’re trying to put wool over their eyes.
"The reality is we are trying to make the playing squad more competitive amongst themselves and make it a fairer wage structure and also reduce the costs so we don’t have to sell our best players.
"The board have been brilliant and very supportive. Jon (Lansdown) was very much involved in meetings we had during this week and he’s enjoyed himself and been a part of the process.
"A month ago it was doom-and-gloom and we’re a month on and results do that, but also it’s good for the morale of the people who work here to see we are more visibly moving in the right direction. We know we are moving in the right direction but we need evidence of that and this window has accelerated the type of business we were trying to do in the summer.
"It’s been possible to do it now because of Antoine’s move and it’s allowed us to explore doing things earlier. It doesn’t mean it’s always going to be the case.
"We’ve got players coming in who really want to be here and bring different dimensions to the squad which is really positive. Of course, we’ve solved one or two of our conundrums in terms of our outgoing players. It’s been all-in-all positive."
City were hoping to bring another central defender in Jake O'Brien while they pursued left-back Jack Currie from AFC Wimbledon. Despite lodging four offers, the League Two side wanted to include a loan-back clause which would have prevented Jay Dasilva from moving to Coventry.
Pearson hints that the club could step up their pursuit of the players over the summer should they be available but concedes a lack of defender could leave them susceptible should they have to deal with injuries. "The ones we can’t or haven’t been able to get closer to achieving we can revisit at some other point if necessary or we move on to other targets," Pearson added.
"We know we're one player light in the centre-back position but we have Kal Naismith who can play there, George Tanner has done exceptionally well when he's played there, Cam Pring too, it means that Tomas Kalas is now really engaged and massively looking forward to getting back because there aren't loads of players blocking his route back.
"The danger is that we are a bit thin but I would rather work with a group of players who are absolutely desperate to play than have two or three more who don't have that desire to play. That's an important factor to recognise too.
"We’ve been able to settle with both Timm and Chris as well which is positive for all parties. The loan deals we’ve done as well, Han-Noah’s loan goes on into June and it means we’re not going to see him again but we are still able to have control over the compensation situation.
"It makes financial sense for us to do certain deals in a way that frees up some funds but keeps the international mood in the camp as positive as possible."
Pearson did admit that they had one or two late offers for players on transfer deadline day, mostly on loan although their resolve wasn't tested in keeping Alex Scott at the club. He said: "Only in the sense where people were interested in loans for our players but nothing came in of... if you're talking more about Alex Scott there was nothing in that regard.
"On the last day, it is crazy how all of a sudden within the last four or five hours of it being over there are still people coming in with bizarre ideas of what they think are good moves for us. We resist those just because it is important for us to keep the balance here correct and add in the right way."
SIGN UP: For our daily Robins newsletter, bringing you the latest from Ashton Gate
READ NEXT
