Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson has revealed the club are "working hard" to try to hang onto their best players but has said they must be careful not to suffer a familiar mistake concerning Han-Noah Massengo and his contract.
The 20-year-old Frenchman has been a regular in Pearson's side this term and continued to show what a bright talent he is – featuring 30 times.
Massengo will enter the final year of his City deal this summer and is yet to agree new terms despite the club reportedly offering him a new contract in January.
The Robins have been stung by players running their contracts down and leaving on a free in recent years, most notably with striker Famara Diedhiou, and it seems the manager is determined to ensure that they avoid suffering the same fate again.
Speaking to the Bristol Post, he raised the issue posed by Massengo's contract and its 2023 expiration.
He said: "Han-Noah Massengo, for instance, what we can’t do is get to a point where we’ve been in this situation before as a club, and that is players' contracts running down and end up speculation about whether they want to stay, whether they don’t want to stay; it creates more negativity than positivity.
"We are working hard and continue to work hard to hang on to our best players, because that is how we will progress as a football team.
“But what we can’t do is ignore market forces and that is if players or their representatives are being very stubborn about it, then there becomes a threshold where you have to start thinking about getting the best price that you can for that talent.
“Because otherwise the investment you make in them, both financial and time, is one that somebody else is going to benefit from.
“That’s not to say that players are going to stay or going to go, that is me having a business head on and saying, ‘we have to protect our own interests’.
"But, in the meantime, the Han-Noahs, the Alex Scotts, the Antoine Semenyo - and there are more - who will attract interest from other clubs, we want to keep them wherever possible.”
Massengo has been linked with a move away from the club this summer already, with both Leicester City and Southampton said to be keen on the midfielder, while in January, Sky Sports reported that Bundesliga club Freiburg were willing to pay up to £6 million for him.
The Verdict
Pearson is clearly a pragmatic manager and it seems he's determined to ensure that the Diedhiou situation is not repeated.
Losing the striker for nothing was frustrating for the Robins, particularly given it came at a difficult time financially.
Given the money spent on Massengo in 2019, reported to be £2.7 million potentially rising to £7.2 million, allowing him to leave as a free agent would be really poor business for the South West club.
That means should a new contract not be agreed ahead of the summer, City may feel they have to consider offers for him in the upcoming window.
Supporters will not want to see Massengo depart but cashing in on him in a few months' time would be better than seeing him leave for nothing in 2023.