This article is part of Football League World’s ‘The Verdict‘ series, which provides personal opinions from the FLW writers regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Bristol City have turned down an offer for forward Antoine Semenyo.

As per BristolWorld, the Robins have rejected an offer of £9 million pounds for the 22-year-old.

Semenyo impressed in the 2021/22 campaign, scoring eight goals and registering twelve assists in 31 Championship outings.

With one year left on his current deal, Bristol City are in a stronger position with regards to his transfer than it seems, with the Robins reportedly holding the option to trigger a further year.

With that being said, we asked our writers here at FLW whether or not they thought the Robins were right to reject a £9 million pound bid for the forward, and what they thought Bristol could demand for the 22-year-old this summer.

George Dagless

Bristol City are well within their rights to be turning this bid down, and I expect them to be holding out for perhaps nearly double before thinking about letting Semenyo go.

He is clearly a very good player that is going to get even better and Bristol City will want that fact reflected in any fee they receive for him.

They know that supporters would have been pretty miffed if he'd gone for less than £10m and I think they'll be looking for something like £15m before entertaining the idea of his exit.

He's a player that would be hard to replace and so the Robins naturally want to try and get as much money as they can in before potentially having to undertake that task in this summer's transfer window.

 

 

Declan Harte

That is a big fee for Bristol City to turn down, but Semenyo has shown he is talented enough to warrant a higher sale.

A bid closer in the region to £15m or even maybe £20m will be needed for the Robins to consider a sale.

The 22-year old has continued to improve year on year and had a superb 2021-22 in which he bagged eight goals and 12 assists for the side.

Losing that would be a big blow to the team’s chances next season, so £9m doesn’t really cover his importance to the club.

It was the right decision to make at this stage, with much greater offers needed to sway City into a possible sale this summer.

Carla Devine

I don’t think you can argue with Bristol City’s choice to turn this one down.

Semenyo is one of the most important players at the club and will be a key part of their side next season.

More importantly, the Robins are under no pressure to sell their player at the moment. Whilst he only had one year left on his current deal, City have the option for another year on that essentially meaning he has two years left at Ashton Gate.

Although they may not be in the best financial position, it’s right that Bristol City aren’t letting other clubs take advantage of that and underpaying for big losses.

A fee of £15million has previously been repo as the asking price and I think this is probably fair enough given the promise of the young player and the money they would need to reinvest to replace him.