Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson has insisted that the Robins are unlikely to be spending in the transfer market when the winter transfer window opens in January.

Pearson’s side managed to add four new players to their squad during the summer transfer window with the likes of Matty James, Andy King, Rob Atkinson and George Tanner coming into the club to bolster their available options.

However, despite being linked with a host of potential signings to bolster their options in the final third over the summer window, the Robins were unable to make a move for a new forward.

While Bristol City also allowed a number of players to leave the club over the summer with a lot of players whose deals expired at the end of last term being cut from the squad.

Given that they missed out on a striker in the summer transfer window, it might have been expected that the Robins would look to assess their options before trying to sign one in January.

However, speaking to Bristol Live, Pearson has now revealed that he does not expect the Robins to be getting the checkbook out in January unless something they can not turn down becomes available.

He said: "I can tell you now, I don't expect to do a lot of business in January so the build-up to that window is going to be really hard for you [the media] because I'll be saying, unless we have a crisis I can't see the point in spending money in January when it's a lot more expensive than in the summer.

"We'll only do business in windows if it's the right thing for us to do, or if it's the right thing for us to spend or invest on. Regardless whether you or anybody else starts talking about where we're going to strengthen, we'll decide that internally."

The verdict

This message will be a frustrating one to hear for Bristol City supporters.

However, you can see why Pearson is reluctant to have the club invest lots of money into his squad on players that he might not feel are better than the existing options he has available to him.

The winter window is synonymous for being the toughest time to try and bring in new players that add value to the football club.

Therefore, Bristol City might not make the worst decision in the world if they decide to hold back their resources until next summer where they can get better value for money.

However, Bristol City might struggle to challenge for promotion with their existing options and that means that it might have to be a case of them settling for another mid-table finish in the Championship this term.

Whether Bristol City invest in January or not there is a long time to go before then and they might if they pick up some strong results between now and then. They might even change their minds if they feel they have a genuine chance of reaching the top-six come to the winter window.