'Star performers need new contracts'

Anis Mehmeti has been one of Bristol City's star performers so far this season according to Robins fan David Pottier

City needed a performance after losing at home to Oxford in their previous game. They certainly delivered in that respect nullifying everything Preston had to offer in attacking intent on Saturday.

They would have won were it not for Anis Mehmeti's effort in the dying seconds bringing a wonder save from the home side's goalkeeper Daniel Iversen.

Arguably Mehmeti has been one of City's star performers so far this season but he is still very erratic in front of goal. This was epitomised midway through the second period when, after being put through by Zak Vyner, he was one-on-one against Iversen but skewed his shot wide of the target.

Mehmeti was signed by Nigel Pearson from Wycombe in January 2023 to bring some attacking flair to the squad. He took time to establish himself but last season found the net 12 times before seemingly falling out of favour with coach Liam Manning in the spring. This may explain why the Albanian has not signed the contract that has been offered to him and seems unlikely to if rumours are to be believed.

Accordingly, he will walk away next summer as a free agent. Whether he achieves his desire to play in the Premier League remains to be seen but if he makes it two successive seasons of double-digit goalscoring he'll get a very good deal for himself at another Championship club I would imagine.

Worryingly for City their man of the match Vyner is also out of contract in nine months time. The defender almost joined Wrexham in the last window and although personal terms were agreed City stuck to such a price that the deal collapsed.

They may rue that decision as, unless Vyner is offered revised terms and re-signs, he too will walk and secure a nice payday for himself.

The same applies to midfielder Mark Sykes and illustrates a worrying trend at City over recent years of not tying down players to new deals or generating revenue through sales.

Back to more immediate matters and when Jason Knight hobbled off the pitch in the closing stages on Saturday it was the first time since April 2024 that he had not completed 90 minutes.

At the time of writing we don't know how long he is going to be ruled out for but with Max Bird, Josh Stokes and Joe Williams all out injured, City definitely have a crisis in the engine room of the team formation.

It will be interesting to see how head coach Gerhard Struber shuffles his pack in the two home games before the international break.