Bristol City owner Steve Lansdown believes Robins fans have “a lot to look forward to” as he prepares to embark on the 25th year of his association with the club.
Lansdown first joined the City board in 1996, his influence and financial backing growing over the decades before becoming majority shareholder in 2007. To date, the Bristolian billionaire has invested £214million of his personal fortune in the club but with the ultimate goal of Premier League football eluding the Robins.
Despite finishes of 17th and 19th over the last campaigns, City have sold in excess of 13,000 season tickets for 2022/23. A major source of pride to the owner, and what he believes is a driver of the impressive levels of interest are the arrivals of new signings Kal Naismith, Kane Wilson and Mark Sykes, coupled with the growing number of academy-produced players making the transition from Under-23s football to the first-team.
Since Nigel Pearson was made manager last February, a raft of academy products have made their debuts, while Antoine Semenyo and Alex Scott are now bona fide stars in the Championship.
That pathway has also been a personal wish of the 69-year-old throughout his time at the top of the club and although he noted “it’s taken longer than we expected to get where we are”, he insists City are “doing things in exactly the right way”.
“We’ve got the best facilities. I always said I wanted to play at the highest level in the best possible surroundings and I think we’ve got those surroundings,” Lansdown told Robins TV, with reference to Ashton Gate and the Robins High Performance Centre. “We’ve got one more level to go to be at the highest level we can play at, hopefully those surroundings can get us there.
“We’re developing players, we’re recruiting at a young age, we’re recruiting players that have value in the transfer market and we’re building and we’re building and we’re building and the exciting thing this year is we’ve had a number of early signings that has captured the imagination of the supporters, that’s helped in the season ticket sales, I’m sure.
“You look at that with what we’ve brought forward with the likes of Alex Scott doing his stuff for England Under-19s at the moment. That potential that’s coming through, we’ve got a lot to look forward to.
“The transfer market in a way is beyond clubs like ours now. It’s for the Premier League to go and spend the money. We have to go and find players in different ways, our recruitment has to be sharper and better and it’s definitely very, very good.
"The team are working very hard on analysis and scouting the players and when they come in the coaches are working very hard to develop them and get them better and get that right culture and togetherness which breeds winning football teams.
“You never can tell what’s going to happen in a season but at this moment in time we’re all optimistic and have good cause to be.”
Lansdown concedes City have, at times, tested the patience of their fanbase over the last two seasons with underwhelming finishes coupled with a troubling financial situation, which has seen the club post record losses of £38.4m, as Covid destroyed the transfer market outside of the top-flight and therefore the business model on which his vision of City was built on.
Pearson has been part of a considerable cost-cutting exercise to bring the wage bill down to more sustainable levels, while trying to keep City competitive and with enough signs of progression to maintain a sense of ambition at the club.
“There’s no point being in the game if you don’t want to aim high. We want to win every game of football, that’s what we’re here to be but also be part of the community.
“But the community wants success and we feed each other - that’s the key to it,” Lansdown added. “It’s hard as a supporter sometimes to follow a team because you have to go with the ups and downs and there are quite often more downs than ups.
“But I feel we’ve had a couple of difficult periods - one led by Covid, but the other coming out of it last year where the form was spasmodic, I suppose is the best way of describing it. But we finished well and we’re moving in the right direction. That’s all we can keep doing. As long as we progress again next year and play some good football, I think everybody should be happy.”
READ MORE
Bristol City's interest in midfielder cools with Cardiff City, QPR and Stoke in the running
Bristol City's transfer priority takes a turn but signing a striker will prove a difficult task
Bristol City have the easiest start to the new season among their Championship rivals
SIGN UP: For our daily Robins newsletter, bringing you the latest from Ashton Gate
