Nigel Pearson insists the decision to let Han-Noah Massengo leave Bristol City on loan in the January window was not strictly motivated by finance as the midfielder had made it abundantly clear he no longer wanted to be at the club and it was a waste of everyone’s time keeping him part of the first-team squad.
Injuries to Joe Williams, Kal Naismith and potentially Matty James - who faces a late fitness test for Saturday’s Championship clash against Blackpool due to an ankle issue - has left Pearson’s resources in central midfield desperately thin.
That’s given rise to the theory that allowing Massengo to join Auxerre on deadline day unnecessarily reduced the manager’s options ahead of the second half of the Championship campaign in which injuries and suspensions are often more pronounced.
With Auxerre paying the final six months of the Frenchman's contract in full, the transfer unquestionably made financial sense, but there was far more to it than just the balance sheet as the 21-year-old - who hadn’t made a league appearance since October 8 - had made his intentions clear as far back as the end of last season.
Massengo followed fellow fringe squad members Timm Klose and Chris Martin, plus defender Ryley Towler and goalkeeper Dan Bentley, out of the door towards the end of the window which streamlined Pearson’s squad, and he believes delivered benefits beyond it being a money-saving exercise.
“Let me clarify what happened, it’s my decision,” Pearson said. “I want them out. Do you think I’m going to waste my staff’s time by keeping players in?
“We played Huddersfield the other night. I remember the last game of the season against Huddersfield with Han Noah Massengo waving goodbye to everybody. A player who didn’t want to be here, do you think I’m going to waste my staff’s time by making them look after a player just on the off chance we might have a few injuries? Not a chance.
“I don’t want players here who don’t want to be here and I don’t want players here who don’t offer positive things to the squad. It’s not just the three players that we got in January was good business, the players we got out was brilliant business.”
Should James not pass his fitness test, Pearson’s senior central midfield options against the Tangerines are essentially Andy King and Alex Scott with Andi Weimann likely to come into the equation in an advanced role, or teenager Omar Taylor-Clarke could make his full debut.
Resources in defence are even further stretched with only one fit specialised centre-back in Zak Vyner following injuries after the January window to Rob Atkinson, Tomas Kalas and, as mentioned, Naismith.
For now left-back Pring is deputising with right-back George Tanner also having played the position earlier in the season. City surprisingly sold Towler to Portsmouth for a low six figure fee after his promising loan at AFC Wimbledon, where he has enjoyed a positive start to life in League One, highlighting the possibility that he could have been a useful squad player for the Robins at this stage of the campaign.
But Pearson, who granted him two appearances under his management - at Swansea in 2021, soon after his appointment, and then against Millwall in which he was substituted at half-time - has reinforced the message at the time of Towler’s sale that the Bristolian wasn’t part of his first-team plans, even in the event of an emergency.
Klose’s 12-month stay in the West Country was also terminated with the veteran Swiss defender, who hadn’t played since the League Cup defeat to Lincoln City in early November, returning to his homeland.
“I’m really pleased for Ryley, it’s a great move for him, it’s the type of move he needs, but Cam Pring and George Tanner would probably still be ahead of him if he was here,” Pearson added.
“Timm Klose has lost his drive. Chris (Martin) couldn’t get in the side. Han Noah Massengo didn’t want to be here. They are great moves for us. It saves us money and it gets people out of the building who don’t want to be here.
“I got the freedom to keep them if I wanted to, that wasn’t a problem, but I didn’t want to keep them because it wastes my staff’s time.
“And I don’t want senior players training with the youngsters, either, because none of them were disruptive at all, but that was in January. You’ve got to get to May and it’s not a healthy situation.”
One player who could come into the equation in a defensive sense is Duncan Idehen who became part of the first-team set-up towards the end of last season, making his debut against Derby County, but after an unsuccessful loan at Carlisle United at the start of this campaign, has found himself back in the Under-21 set-up.
Idehen started for and captained the Young Robins on Tuesday in their 0-0 draw with Millwall at Ashton Gate, a few hours before the seniors played Huddersfield Town in the Championship, a potential sign as to how far he sits down the hierarchy.
But the 20-year-old, who is under contract in BS3 until summer, trained with the first-team on Friday for Pearson to get a closer look at his development, 12 months on, and there could be potential for greater involvement before May.
“He’s trained with us,” Pearson said. “He’s not trained with us for a while so it was important for us to get him back into the fold, just to see where he’s at. If you cast your mind back to last year - making his debut at Derby and his hilarious interview afterwards…
“He had quite a rapid introduction to the first-team environment and then things didn’t really happen for him in pre-season. That’s how a lot of people’s careers actually go - you have to deal with some disappointments at some point so we’ll see how he is.
“But I don’t want to put too much pressure on our young players because a lot have made great strides this year because they’ve come into a safer environment. One of the problems you’ve got when you have injuries and people start talking about, ‘oh, you could play him or him’. I could do that but there are other considerations and that is, I don’t like damaging players.
“What I don’t want to do is build added exterior pressure on youngsters. We’ve had some who have made their debut who have had a difficult time - Joe Low against Lincoln but in the future he’ll be able to draw on that, and he’ll use that.
"Ryley, Millwall at home, had a tough first half and those type of things can be a damaging experience for youngsters if it’s not managed well. So there are lots of things to consider and we always try and do it with the player’s benefit in mind.”
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