Jason Knight admits his move to Bristol City from Derby County has been a long-time coming with Nigel Pearson's personal intervention helping convince him Ashton Gate is where he wants to play his football.
Knight has become City’s fourth signing of the summer in a package understood to be worth around £1.75million. The Republic of Ireland international has signed a four-year contract at Ashton Gate and follows Ross McCrorie, Rob Dickie and Haydon Roberts as new arrivals into Nigel Pearson’s squad for the 2023/24 campaign.
The 22-year-old is similar to McCrorie and Roberts in the sense he had cover multiple positions, having spent long periods last season at right wing-back, but City look to have brought him in primarily as a central midfielder to reinforce and reinvigorate an ageing area of the team.
As Pearson stated at the start of pre-season, Knight has been signed to play alongside and not replace Alex Scott who remains the subject of significant interest from a number of Premier League sides albeit with the Robins £25m valuation of the 19-year-old causing some top-flight clubs to reconsider their options.
City had two bids rejected for Knight last month but maintained communication with Derby and after Knight returned from his summer break were able to complete the deal over the weekend.
“It's been a long time coming behind-the-scenes trying to get it sorted, but I'm happy to be here and I'm looking for the season ahead,” said Knight. “The club have shown a real eagerness to get me here, which is always nice as a footballer - to be wanted. I know Nigel (Pearson) from his time at Derby County and I've had a good number of chats with him, and he sees me as a big part of the plans going forward.
"I want to be the best player I can be. To come into the club and be as good as my career can take me, and that's down to me. As a team, I want us to get promoted and there's no shying away from that. I've come here to get promoted and push on in my career – that’s the ultimate goal.
“I’ll give everything every time I put on the shirt; for the fans, the club, and the boys I'm playing with - full of energy and full of emotion.”
Although the Dubliner is making a step up from League One, he has played in the Championship before with 112 of his 150 league appearances for Derby at this level, so it shouldn’t come as a huge culture shock to him.
He also has some recognisable faces in the Robins squad with international colleagues Mark Sykes and Max O’Leary and former Rams teammate Roberts, while assistant manager Curtis Fleming also began his playing career in Dublin and earned 10 caps for the Ireland team in the 1990s.
Knight has been denied the opportunity for an early outing in a Robins jersey after Wednesday's friendly against Reading at the High Performance Centre was cancelled "due to a late revision to the Royals’ pre-season schedule", with City unable to find alternative opponents.
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