Bristol City manager Lee Johnson has been speaking openly about former Bristol City transfer target and current Arsenal striker, Eddie Nketiah.

The Robins attempted to land the young striker in the summer however he opted to head for Championship rivals Leeds United, but failed to get the regular game-time at Elland Road which led to Nketiah being recalled by Arsenal.

Bristol City then entered the race for Nketiah again, however the Gunners decided to keep the striker around The Emirates Stadium for the second half of the season as a boost to the depth the side have up front.

Since returning to Arsenal, Nketiah has been used once by Mikel Arteta as the 20-year-old attempts to find his feet in the Premier League again.

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BristolLive (15:38 on 27/1/20) were reporting from Johnson's pre-match press conference ahead of the Reading game, where he said: "We go back to Eddie - we had a number of options, Arsenal had a number of options and the best one was Arsenal.

"If Eddie Nketiah is getting minutes at Arsenal, who can complain?

"Am I going to deny the interest? No.

"But at the same time, Arsenal are his parent club and we want the good relations with the big clubs because the next time a player of that quality comes about, we want to be sure they believe in us, as much as we believe in that individual player."

During his failed loan spell at Elland Road during the first half of the campaign, the young striker scored five goals in 19 games across all competitions, but started just the four times as Marcelo Bielsa preferred to use the youngster as an impact sub off the bench.

The Verdict

Bristol City are aiming to build their relationships with the clubs at the top of English football, and giving opportunities to young talents on loan appears to be a part of that.

Johnson has built and sustained a strong partnership with Chelsea over the last four years, which has paid dividends for both clubs in the past few years as the Robins manager has stuck by his principles when it comes to maintaining club relationships.