"Frustrating" - Bristol City transfer envy raised amid Sunderland, West Brom and Middlesbrough business | OneFootball

It was a quiet January window at Ashton Gate

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…

Bristol City’s January transfer window came and went without any action.

They had a few departures, mainly on loan, but there were no incomings to speak of for the Robins.

They’re going well in the second tier in ninth place, just two points off the play-off places, and could have used some reinforcements for the final push.

We asked one of our Bristol City fan pundits, Jack Buchanan, what he would have liked to have seen from his club over the winter window.

Speaking to Football League World, Jack said: “I think everyone wishes we signed someone who could just put the ball in the net really.

“Everyone looked for a striker in January. It feels like teams around us have got them. Jayden Danns going to Sunderland, Adam Armstrong going to West Brom as well as Will Lankshear and Kelechi Iheanacho going to Middlesborough, Emmanuel Dennis and Cauley Woodrow going into Blackburn.

“All teams in and around us, like just above us, that we're trying to chase into that top six, and we have overspent.

“We overspent in the summer, the club put out a statement earlier in the week, or last week, saying that they aimed to bring in four and ended up bringing in seven over the summer.

“So a pretty frustrating one from that front that we didn't bring anyone in other than getting the extra year on [Mark] Sykes and um and tying [Yu] Hirakawa down to a permanent, but I think if we had got a loan striker in from somewhere, I think that could have really, really helped us for the rest of the campaign."

The Robins needed firepower

A quick look at Bristol City’s top scorers shows a lot about what they needed to really challenge the top of the table.

Winger Anis Mehmeti is currently the top scorer with nine goals, with a heavy reliance on ageing centre-forward Nahki Wells, who’s netted seven.

Much of the Robins’ summer overspend went on striker Sinclair Armstrong from QPR, a reported £2.5million fee, and he has so far started just 10 games and scored three goals.

Armstrong is still young at 21 and could develop into a top-class player, but questions may be raised on the fee, given that the Ireland youth international had a very similar record for his former club in the same division.

Given the financial state of play at Ashton Gate, it seems a big gamble in hindsight to put so much money into a prospect, rather than a proven striker, and it has ultimately led to a reliance on Wells, with little wiggle room to bring in extra firepower in January.

It’s a shame because, despite that, the Robins have got themselves in a great position in the league to challenge for the play-offs, the question now will be whether they have enough in the tank to get them over the line — especially, as Jack points out, given that the clubs around them all seem to have strengthened.

If City do fall off over the second half of this season, reassessments may be needed for the decision-makers at Ashton Gate about how they handle transfer windows and budgets going forward.