"Absolutely fantastic" - Bristol City praised for historic Preston transfer pick-up | OneFootball

Josh Brownhill is still fondly remembered by Bristol City supporters

Highlights

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Having returned to the Championship for the 2024/25 campaign with Scott Parker's newly-relegated Burnley side, Josh Brownhill has been identified as Bristol City's most impressive bargain signing in recent history over four years on from his departure.

Although the Robins have seldom threatened to compete above the stable, if somewhat mundane comfort of mid-table mediocrity in the Championship, they have developed an undeniable expertise in developing young talent before returning significant profits.

Bobby De Cordova-Reid, Joe Bryan, Antoine Semenyo and Lloyd Kelly all serve as homegrown examples of City's renowned ability to nurture their very own, whereas the likes of Adam Webster and Alex Scott were also sold on for massive fees to Brighton and Hove Albion and Bournemouth respectively after progressing tenfold in the red quarters of Bristol.

Josh Brownhill was a Bristol City transfer bargain

With such a profit-based recruitment philosophy, they have clearly had their fair share of transfer coups in years gone by but perhaps none have been greater than Brownhill.

Brownhill signed for the club from Preston North End on a free transfer in the summer of 2016 and spent three-and-a-half years at Ashton Gate, where he enforced himself among the finest midfielders in the Championship before moving on to Burnley for a reported £9m fee in January 2020 - where he's only proved further how much of a good signing he really was for City.

That is echoed by Football League World's resident Robins fan pundit Tom Sandy, who believes Brownhill to be the best bargain signing that the club have made in his history of supporting them.

"The player that I think has been the biggest bargain signing since I've been a fan of the club, I'm going to go for Josh Brownhill back in 2016," Tom explained to Football League World.

"I believe we signed from Preston on a free transfer and he immediately walked into the side, he was a brilliant young player when we signed him. The impact he made, he obviously went on to captain the club before he left in January 2020.

"He was a brilliant player. He was one of the best midfielders we've had, I think. He's one of those players who you have a real connection with as well, really rooted for him to do well and continued to do that when he went to Burnley, obviously a big Premier League move for him.

"One of the best parts of the signing is the money we got for him, I believe we got around £10m for him and you can see how well he's done for Burnley, he's gone on to captain them. That season when we sold him he was far and away our best player. He was fantastic. He scored a brilliant goal against Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup third round, where he capped off his performance for us.

"He was absolutely fantastic and he's probably one of my favourite players we've had play for us."

Josh Brownhill's Burnley success reflects well on Bristol City

Similarly to the vast majority of assets that Bristol City sell on for significant sums, Brownhill has simply gone from strength to strength at Turf Moor.

He showed no teething problems whatsoever in the Premier League and instantly adapted, becoming a first-team regular for Burnley. He's never looked an inch out of place in the top-flight and he also played an inspired role in the Clarets' title-winning 2022/23 Championship campaign by scoring seven times and laying on a further eight assists.

The 28-year-old registered four Premier League strikes last season and was one of a small selection of Burnley players to have left the division with his head held high, while he's already opened his account for the current term by scoring in their 4-1 victory over Luton Town on Monday evening.

Should Burnley realise their ambitions and return to the Premier League at the first time of asking this year, Brownhill will surely be pivotal towards exactly that and City can continue to look back in pride at what he's gone onto achieve.