Bristol City: Robins bolster ranks for play-off push but Anis Mehmeti's cut-price sale remains painful sting at Ashton Gate
Bristol City strengthen with Delano Burgzorg and Seb Naylor but losing Anis Mehmeti to Ipswich for just £3m exemplifies cycle Robins must escape to progress; watch Bristol City vs Derby live on Sky Sports Football from 7.30pm on Friday, kick-off 8pm
Friday 30 January 2026 11:30, UK
It is a fate of Bristol City's own making that the final weeks of January may prove among of their most significant in recent years.
Not because of facing play-off rivals Derby, live on Sky Sports on Friday, though that will play its part.
The Robins have found themselves at a crossroads, and not for the first time in recent years. On the surface it concerns the state of their transfer window, but more deeply about their position as a club.
With a guaranteed £15m entering the Ashton Gate coffers during January, head coach Gerhard Struber has had to wait until the final five days of the month to see how it will be re-invested.
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"I have a belief that our office will make the right things in the next few days," he said at the start of this week. "This is my big hope, and this is also my expectation. I hope we leave the frustration behind us and we think in more of a good mood."
The Austrian's frustration has been subtle but growing. City waited until the dying embers of the window to see a squad which had lost five players with first-team experience, potentially seven by Monday's deadline, significantly strengthened with Delano Burgzorg and Seb Naylor finally joining on Thursday evening. There are hopes Slovenia international Tomi Horvat may yet add to their ranks.
But the greatest issue facing the Austrian boss, and City as a club, has been the loss of 25-year-old top scorer Anis Mehmeti to promotion hopefuls Ipswich for a guaranteed fee of barely £3m, a move only sanctioned to avoid him leaving for nothing when his contract expires in June.
It is a situation Bristol City have found themselves in before and a cycle the Robins must at some point escape.
The club have aims of joining or even pipping the Tractor Boys to a Premier League spot next season but a £2m profit on an asset they have spent three years cultivating will do little to accelerate those aspirations. Only four players have made more goal contributions this season across the Championship this season.
For a player with his best years still ahead of him, and in an era where a League One club can spend £15m on a striker, Mehmeti's cut-price price tag leaves a bitter taste in the mouth for Bristol City fans, their head coach and presumably the hierarchy who had worked hard to bring him to Ashton Gate from Wycombe three years ago.
All Championship clubs are selling clubs. But Mehmeti has become the latest in an increasing line of players not departing just to advance their careers, but to make sure the club is not left empty-handed.
Bristol City's aspiration is clear to see; buy young, rough diamonds and polish them into valuable assets and follows in the footsteps of the likes of Brentford, Bournemouth and Brighton who have used that model to propel themselves to the Premier League.
City have a way to go to emulate that trio. While their talent identification stacks up, their retention does not. For nearly a decade now they have been forced to sell off their most valuable assets, sometimes well below market value, after watching their contracts run down to a critical point. The Robins have still yet to convince their star players that they can realise their Premier League dreams without leaving.
Mehmeti joins a list dating back to the departures of homegrown duo Joe Bryan and Lloyd Kelly almost a decade ago, with Tommy Conway also on the list as well as Antoine Semenyo. An £11.5m sell-on following his Man City move this month does provide some consolation regarding the latter.
Mehmeti could have been the poster boy of Bristol City's strategy. In three years the club have turned him from a technically gifted player with little end product to one of the Championship's most productive attackers.
Instead they will do well to replace his output for anything like that price - or have to spend a couple of years nurturing the next Mehmeti first. Without Horvat, whose pre-agreed summer arrival they are attempting to expedite, he may not have a direct replacement at all.
The next iteration of this cycle will shine a light on where the club goes from here. Their 24-year-old skipper Jason Knight has blossomed into one of Championship's most industrious midfielders, but his contract is up in 2027 and there may well be growing interest in the City skipper this summer.
Adam Randell, a £750,000 signing from Plymouth last summer, has shown signs of following in his footsteps. He is tied down until 2029, at least.
When owner Steve Lansdown stepped down as chairman in 2011 he spoke of his desire to create a "self-sufficient" business model at Ashton Gate.
But almost 15 years on, it remains little more than an aspiration. Struber's wishes have been fulfilled, for now. But even the lateness of City's incoming business, much like their handle on their current players' contracts, feels concerningly reactive.
Watch Bristol City vs Derby live on Sky Sports Football from 7.30pm on Friday; kick-off 8pm.
