Antoine Semenyo will be in the Bristol City squad against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday but Nigel Pearson concedes the uncertainty and speculation around his future has had an impact on the forward after the club rejected offers from Bournemouth and Burnley.
Bournemouth failed with two bids on Thursday, with the second worth £10million as City have stuck steadfast to their valuation of the 22-year-old, which is believed to be in the £15m bracket.
Burnley’s interest in Semenyo was first reported by Bristol Live on January 4, and Vincent Kompany’s desire for another striker has seen them make an approach earlier in the window but like the Premier League club, they’ve been knocked back.
Semenyo has been in excellent form for the Robins, with three goals and an assist in his last four appearances and in many ways holds the key to City’s own transfer activity as a notable sale would allow Pearson to strengthen himself but the manager has remained resolute over the club’s position.
“You’ll be aware of lots of stories that have been out there,” Pearson said. “The clubs have received offers for Antoine and enquiries about other players but as we sit right now, there’ll be nothing happening this week. Whether that will change next week remains to be seen. Antoine will be in the squad for tomorrow.
“He gets absolute clarity from us and, as his manager, I’ve had many conversations with him right the way through from the summer with him being injured, build up to the World Cup and, of course, speculation about the window.
"I’m as transparent as I can be, I always keep him up to speed with how I see the situation and we see it as a football club. We try and be as open as possible but, of course, one of the factors that people don’t always necessarily take account of, in the way it really works, is the feelings of the player so it’s difficult for young players, who are ambitious when there is, not just speculation, but actual, real interest and there has been.
“We’ve received offers of a fashion from Bournemouth and Burnley too. And there is speculation about other clubs. It can be potentially very unsettling for players and that’s why I very much believe in being as frank and open as possible.
"Antoine is a young man who’s had a pretty good couple of years now, on a personal level in terms of breaking into the side and showing not just potential but his ability to perform at a very good level. The one thing he’s working harder to do now is scoring more goals and, like many forwards, he’ll go through spells of achieving that but even when he’s not doing that he’s still a real handful.
“We know we’ve got a talent in Antoine at the club but we need to protect our interests as a football club and if we get to a point where a deal is accepted that it’s done in the right way. Until that point, Antoine is our player.
“What I would say about him is he’s a really honest player, honest person and he’s dealing with it as well as he can but speculation can be unsettling.”
Pearson admits that if City were in the process of sanctioning a sale then he wouldn’t be involved in the matchday 18, for obvious reasons, but given nobody has presented an acceptable bid yet there remains every chance Semenyo will remain at the club until the end of the season.
With 11 days of the window still remaining, and Bournemouth and Burnley’s needs both very pronounced - surviving Premier League relegation and achieving promotion from the Championship, respectively - there’s every chance that their interest could lead to further approaches next week as the January 31 deadline approaches.
But as Semenyo remains a player under contract at City, Pearson will continue to use him on the pitch, starting with Blackburn on Saturday.
“It’s something that’s been discussed and if the deal was close to being done then I think that would be the bigger problem but, as we stand at the moment, that’s not the case and I think it’s important that, as I’ve said, I’ve spoken with him and I’ve been as frank as I can be and also a realistic as I can be,” Pearson added, when asked if he’d consider leaving Semenyo out against Blackburn.
“The realism that’s involved in situations like this would be, for instance, speaking to a player and saying, ‘look, you have to get your head around the fact that something might not happen in this window’ and that is a possibility of reality.
"But, of course, if a deal materialises which is acceptable to both parties, that’s a critical part of this. I’ve dealt with players who are not entirely happy in the past and it’s a part of football that you have to be able to work with players who have been unsettled.
"But clearly it’s in everybody’s interest, for all parties, to be engaged with what you’re trying to do and that’s we want all players to play well for us and be successful for us. We want to keep our best players, but it’s not always possible. So we’ll see where it goes and until we get to a point where our valuation is met for a player, then they remain our player until that changes.”
Bournemouth’s approaches were conducted in a very public sense, reported across multiple outlets - both when they were made and subsequently rejected. And although he fell short of fully indicating that was done as a means to unsettle Semenyo, and potentially push through a sale, whether that be this week or next week, Pearson did highlight Burnley exemplary behaviour earlier in the window.
“I’ll be absolutely honest with you, I’m not somebody who will trawl it and find what’s what. I like to be updated but I like to be updated with facts and I’ll get my facts from the people I work for. So my point of reference is us, and speaking with Richard (Gould, CEO) and I spoke to Jon (Lansdown, chairman) today too. It’s important to try and make sure you have relevant facts to work with,” he said.
“How clubs do their own business is up to them. As far as I’m concerned, we as a football club try to be as transparent as possible, and like to go through official channels. But, of course, football changes and clubs work in different ways and so, for instance, I’ve already mentioned Burnley and the Burnley to Richard (communication) was done club to club, and that’s really how it should be done.
"But, of course, increasingly now there are third parties involved and sometimes clubs choose to go down those channels. That’s all I’m going to say. It differs from club to club. Am I being judgemental about other people? It doesn’t really matter what my own views are, what remains the same is, as a football club, we need to get the right deal for us if we are going to part with our best players and that’s really the bottom line.
"So how you want to interpret what I’m saying is there are different ways of achieving the same outcomes. I think whatever happens there has to be an element of respect and appreciative thinking and understanding of how people work.
"We try to do things the right way and what we believe is the right way; we have to protect ourselves first - Antoine is in the middle of it, and he’s the one who potentially suffers because of it.
"But, like I say, the ways to overcome that are to be as open and understanding as possible but also players have an obligation to honour their contracts.”
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