Bristol City chairman Jon Lansdown has reiterated the club's ambition to reach the Premier League, claiming they could be open to outside investment to help them get there. 

Nigel Pearson has made it clear that he's looking to transform the Robins into a club ready to seriously challenge for promotion to the top flight over the next few years and the progress made under the experienced coach has been clear to see this term.

There's still a long way to go until City can be considered proper contenders, however, and Pearson will need the backing of the Lansdowns in future windows if he's to build a squad capable of reaching the Premier League.

Speaking on 3 Peaps in a Podcast, the Ashton Gate outfit's chairman reiterated the club's aspirations to end their decades-long wait for top tier football and discussed the prospect of outside investment.

Lansdown said: "When you put the building blocks in place, how do you take it to the next level? Do you need impetus from other people investing to do that? It's naturally what you think about when you care about something.

"For me, it doesn't mean it's necessarily imminent, it just means it's something we have to think about for the natural progression of the football club; you have to leave it in a better and more sustainable place then when you found it.

"You've got to have an open mind. If you can find the perfect partner to help you do that then why wouldn't you? That's probably more the point, we've probably reached that stage where we have a lot of the foundations and we should be looking at becoming a Premier League club, and that is the aspiration and we're always trying."

Owner Steve Lansdown revealed earlier this year that the club were looking for outside investment.

The Verdict

These comments from the City chairman are very interesting and provide some insight into the stance of the ownership.

There seems a clear direction at the club now with Pearson looking to build a squad capable of winning promotion to the Premier League, which remains the Robins' main goal.

It seems there is a feeling that giving him the tools he requires could need some extra investment and you'd imagine that the majority of fans would see that as no bad thing as long as the identity of the club was not lost.

The current City squad does seem a fair bit below the top teams in the Championship in terms of quality and it's not going to be cheap to close that gap.