Bristol City manager Lee Johnson has revealed that he hopes winger Niclas Eliasson will put pen to paper on a new contract at Ashton Gate and that negotiations have been ongoing.

Eliasson has been one of the Robins' most consistent performers throughout the current season, although Johnson has often come under fire for his decisions to start the Swede on the bench or substitute him in games.

However, he moved to make it clear that he wants him to remain in the West of England.

"The way I would see it is he has 18 months on his contract but we would absolutely love it for him to sign a new contract," Johnson told his pre-match press conference on Wednesday, reported by The Bristol Post.

"We value him hugely.

"We're discussing, he's changed agents, but we've been sitting down and talking about it since the start of the summer but then agents change, other priorities come in between that.

"But the simple stance is we'd love him to stay longer."

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In 22 appearances this season in the Championship, Eliasson has netted two goals and assisted an impressive ten for his teammates.

They are statistics that look all the more impressive when you consider he has started less than half of those matches, which also makes the frustration felt by fans all the more understandable.

This weekend sees City travel to Wigan Athletic in a match that Johnson will be desperate to win after losing five of his last six second-tier matches.

A 1-1 draw with Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup last weekend did little to aleviate that pressure as well.

The verdict

I am sure Johnson does value Eliasson but this does come across as disingenous considering how few times he has srtarted the winger this season.

As a manager you simply have to pick your most in form players and Johnson has not done that enough. Perhaps he has been guilty of trying to be too clever at times.

There is still time to rectify things, but step one of doing that has to be to make Eliasson a central figure.