It wasn’t meant to be this way. When Bristol City beat a number of Championship clubs to the signing of a talented 21-year-old winger from Oxford United five years ago, it was something of a coup in terms of their model.
Acquiring young talent, from either within their academy or lower down the pyramid, with high ceilings who could be developed into proven Championship performers which would then be beneficial on the field and then potential off of it, with regards to the transfer market.
He was a bright, intelligent footballer, keen to learn and with the sort of polite and well-mannered personality the Lansdowns love to promote at their sporting institutions. If you were creating a prototype of what the Bristol Sport concept of a footballer would be, it would be very close to O’Dowda circa 2016.
