The digital breadcrumb trail leading to Joe Bryan’s anticipated confirmation has apparently begun with Ashton Gate posting an innocent image of the Lansdown Stand bathed in sunlight on Wednesday morning and the obvious link made between that structure and the presence of new signings on its roof.
If and when it happens you can be sure the Bristol City media team and Jon Lansdown's PR wing Fever Pitch have something special in store (and we use the word “if” because it still remains that until he’s pictured in a Robins shirt again), although the deal is some way down the line, to the point it would take something catastrophic for it all to collapse.
The prospect of the city’s (small and capital C) proudest sons returning to BS3 has certainly enlivened a typically dull post-season period in which players not competing in the top-flight or play-offs are on holiday, along with senior staff members looking to capture some R&R before the transfer window begins in earnest.
It’s impossible to ignore the considerable emotional narrative of Bryan donning red once again, five years after making the journey to London town where he achieved two promotions with Fulham, played in the Premier League and established himself as a cult hero to Cottagers fans.
There will be City fans of a certain age who will have watched Bryan’s rise through the ranks in accordance with their own early journey as a supporter which followed a period of progress, development, excitement and missed opportunity; just as the Robins felt they could taste the play-offs or promotion, Bobby Reid and Bryan were sold and so began the steady decline and subsequent rebuild years later.
Of course, that’s not wholly true as the 2018/19 was as high as a goalscoring chance overall after City finished within four points of a Derby County side who, in effect, cheated Financial Fair Play to make the play-offs and six points of Aston Villa who posted losses of £70m for that campaign alone.
But Bryan holds a special affinity for being one of the poster boys of the modern conception of City that began to permeate into the wider football atmosphere whereby the Robins became admired for what they were, what they stood for and where they planned to go.
Unfortunately, a lot of that has since been reduced to resembling PR puff, and ammunition for Rovers fans. But away from that, on a very simple level Bryan was one hell of a player who lifted many a supporter out of their seat and produced on a regular basis that intangible and often indescribable mix of elation underwritten by pride.
Such a rush is, to all intents and purposes, a drug and the concept of that being once again part of a Saturday afternoon or Tuesday night undoubtedly readies the endorphins.
However, instead of delving further into reminiscing about what Bryan was, for the club in 2023, it’s kind of irrelevant outside of the obvious excitement it’s likely to create. Because the important thing is what he is now. And we know that because Nigel Pearson has already told us.
There’s often an element of amateur sleuthing required when it comes to the City manager’s public messaging and he often leaves Easter eggs here and there of which the relevance doesn’t become totally clear until a few weeks or months down the line.
Over his two-and-a-half years in charge at Ashton Gate, Pearson has never spoken about an individual in contract at another club, outside of Elliott Moore last summer which proved to be a slightly bogus link in the first place.
But when asked about Bryan last month, while remaining slightly reticent, relatively-speaking he said a fair bit about a player who was, and is, still under contract at Fulham: "For somebody like Joe Bryan who has been here before, let's be absolutely clear, the only way that we would be interested is - it wouldn't be a sentimental journey. It would be one in which if he's very keen to be a success here then obviously that's an important aspect of it.
That’s something said by a manager who either really wants to sign a player or doesn’t at all and therefore is comfortable using them as a symbol for a much wider message. We can all be pretty confident that Bryan fits the former category.
"We only want to go out there and bring players in who are hungry for success and want to improve us as a football club and themselves individually so all those things remain the same."
This week on BBC Radio Bristol he held back from expanding on the identity of the two players who City are close to wrapping deals up for, but that’s because, in a way, he’s already done it… at least, 50 per cent of them. And Pearson is not a man who enjoys having to repeat himself.
But that statement, while offering another sizable morsel to the breadcrumb trail leading to Marina Dolman Way, does also deliver an underlying message behind the desire for Bryan’s signing which, if we remove the emotion and history from it all, does run slightly contrary to the majority of City’s transfer strategy under Pearson.
“Young and hungry” has been the theme, outside of prized lieutenants Andy King and Matty James, with the Robins looking for value from League One and a feeling that more of that will continue into this summer, Pearson’s fifth transfer window as manager.
However, while Bryan may eternally look 22 (and that year spent kicking back in the cafes and sunshine in the south of France will do more wonders for his boyish complexion) he can’t do a lot about the natural passing of time and the wear and tear on his body.
That being said, he’s not played an awful lot of football over what have been his peak years as a professional. Yes, there have been injuries, most notably an Achilles not long after his debut and a fractured hand last summer, but outside of the odd sporadic knock, 48 appearances over the last three seasons mean, he is, in many ways, younger than his age indicates. But what matters to Pearson is the second attribute - the hunger and desire to be better and improve those around you and the club itself.
And City are in a unique place when it comes to that concept and Bryan. Although by the time he left Ashton Gate there was an increasing acceptance he would go, he still departed with the heaviest of hearts.
This was his childhood club, who he had turned his schoolboy dreams into a reality and got them within striking distance of the Premier League only to fall just short. He will feel a tinge of responsibility for being part of that, and more than a pang of regret he wasn’t able to correct it the following campaign as by that stage he was wearing black and white and having to stop Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah in full flow.
Unlike Cardiff, Swansea, Blackburn or Stoke, City’s emotional pull is more than just being “his club”, they’re his club who he wasn’t able to quite get over the line with. Having experienced it twice with Fulham, the desire and the opportunity to replicate those feelings but in red can only be an immensely enticing opportunity.
The fact he would arrive as a two-time Championship promotion winner is also undoubtedly a big tick in the box for Pearson as a cursory glance throughout his squad reveals James, King, Nahki Wells and Kalas as the only individuals who can include that on their CVs.
Whatever the talent in the building, asking an entire group of people to do something they’ve never done before and expecting it to succeed is something of a reach. Having those characters mentioned plus somebody like Bryan makes an enormous difference to a dressing room.
This is all, of course, before we discuss his ability as a footballer which, admittedly, was touched on earlier. We know all about that left-foot that can be substituted for a magicians’ favoured prop, of which its potency is unlikely to ever dim and while prolific crosses, the Robins accuracy into the box isn't as efficient as their manager would like it to be.
But Bryan gives the Robins numerous options down the left flank where the thought of him interchanging and exchanging positions and roles mid-game with the latest left-sided star out of the academy (with a nod to Cheltenham Town), Cam Pring, surely only heaps on the gravitational pull for Robins fans.
There’s also the potential for Bryan to migrate into a central midfield role; he has the technical smarts, the passing range and the defensive tenacity to potentially be moulded into an option in an area where City lacked numbers.
All of the current centre-midfield department are right footed by design, with the injured Ayman Benarous the exception, and adding Bryan creates some tactical balance in that area of the field whereby Pearson could field a three-man group or even shift him higher up the pitch in a 4-2-3-1. The diamond system continuously deployed towards the end of last season also appeared slightly misshapen without a natural left-footer on that side.
There is a Joe of the Robins-side to it all, but the sentiment, however strong, will strictly be reserved for supporters because as Pearson-driven decisions mean Bryan will almost exclusively be signed for reasons far beyond nostalgia; a concept he’s never comfortable indulging in when it’s his own career, let alone anybody else’s.
It is merely an added bonus at the start of a transfer window that City believe can successfully lead them into becoming a promotion-challenging side.
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