Tommy Conway’s immediate sights are set on winning a consistent place in the Bristol City first-team but, beyond that, the 19-year-old has far loftier ambitions - playing in the Premier League with his boyhood club.
City confirmed on Thursday evening that the striker has signed a new three-year contract at Ashton Gate, having been developed through the age groups from the age of seven.
The Taunton-born forward first broke into the senior set-up in April 2021 under Nigel Pearson, scoring against Millwall on his fourth appearance, and while he’s performed regularly for the Under-23s, has also become a fixture in training at the High Performance Centre and matchday squads.
Conway has also enjoyed a positive pre-season, scoring against Cheltenham Town and a double this week against Exeter City, furthering his case for inclusion in Pearson’s group for the 2022/23 campaign, which kicks off next week.
Conway only signed a three-year contract 12 months ago, so the fact he’s been presented with extended and improved terms is testament to the work he’s put in but also emphasises his progress at the club and how his manager views him in terms of the future, which hopefully will include the Robins making that step into the top-flight.
“My ambition is to break into the first team fully and hopefully play as many games as I can, score as many as I can and help the team,” Conway told bcfc.co.uk .
"I want to make the fans proud, my family proud and hopefully in the next couple years we can gain promotion to the Premier League. We have the facilities here and the stadium is unbelievable so we have everything ready to take us to the next stage.
“It would be a dream for me to play for Bristol City in the Premier League because I’ve seen them get close when we lost to Hull in the play-offs but hopefully we can get there in the next couple years.”
Conway has played both as a wide forward and central striker, and impressed with his finishing, penalty box presence and tenacity and work-rate off the ball.
With his long-term future confirmed, the question is what City will do with Conway for this campaign? There are strong arguments for both keeping him in BS3 and sending him out on loan within the EFL to gain first-team experience and extended minutes.
The indication at this stage, and certainly his quotes indicate such, as City prepare for their final pre-season friendly of the summer at Bournemouth on Saturday, is that Conway will be retained and compete for a starting berth alongside Andi Weimann, Chris Martin, Nahki Wells and, when he returns from injury, fellow academy graduate Antoine Semenyo.
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