Bristol City will kick off their Championship season against Sheffield United in a little over three weeks
15:00, 18 Jul 2025Updated 18:31, 18 Jul 2025
From left to right: Bristol City keeper Max O’Leary, Gerhard Struber, Tyrhys Dolan(Image: Getty Images)
For Bristol City, this summer has already been one of immense change. Since that play-off defeat to Sheffield United in May, the Reds have seen a head coach and two assistants depart BS3, appointed a new boss and two assistants and signed three players for good measure.
Adam Randell, Joe Lumley and Emil Riis have all joined the ranks in BS3 to leave Gerhard Struber’s squad in good shape with less than a month to go until the new season. As you’d expect, fans are keen to see further additions made before the window is out, but the early business in south Bristol has been encouraging.
Of course, supporters remain concerned, and likely will be until the window shuts on September 1, about the Robins’ ability to keep hold of their best players. While speculation around the future of club captain Jason Knight hasn’t perhaps been as present as many fans would have expected heading into this summer’s window, it would be naive to assume the Ireland international wouldn’t have caught the eye of other sides with his performances last season.
Still, with pre-season now well and truly up and running, the warm-weather training camp done and dusted, and friendly fixtures on the horizon, it truly feels like the new campaign is just around the corner.
With that in mind, we’ve picked out some of the latest news and updates in and around Ashton Gate…
READ MORE: Bristol City add former Southampton and Wolfsburg assistant to Gerhard Struber’s coaching staffREAD MORE: ‘Sexy’ football, passion and balance – My first impressions of Bristol City boss Gerhard StruberGoalkeeper plans
Before he left Ashton Gate for Norwich City earlier this summer, Liam Manning was open in his admission that Bristol City needed to sign a new goalkeeper during this transfer window to provide Max O’Leary with genuine competition.
He may no longer be City’s head coach, but such competition was provided earlier this summer by the signing of Joe Lumley, who penned a two-year deal in BS3, having left Southampton upon the expiry of his contract.
The expectation had been that the 30-year-old would fall behind O’Leary in the pecking order. However, with the Ireland international set to be sidelined for three to four months through injury, Lumley now looks likely to be the man to start between the sticks on the opening weekend of the campaign.
Some supporters have been quick to suggest the Reds should dip into the market again ahead of the new season to sign another ‘keeper to cover for O’Leary. While such a move cannot be completely ruled out with more than six weeks to go in the transfer window, Bristol Live understands City are not planning to recruit another stopper at this stage.
Should that remain the case between now and the start of the season, Gerhard Struber will have Lumley, Lewis Thomas, as well as youngsters Josey Casa-Grande and Joe Duncan to pick from until O’Leary returns to the fold.
Joe Lumley joined Bristol City after departing Southampton earlier this summer(Image: Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)Tyrhys Dolan links
After a busy start to the summer transfer window, it has all been rather quiet on the Bristol City front in terms of rumours over the last few weeks. However, one name that has continued to pop up on social media has been that of former Blackburn Rovers attacker Tyrhys Dolan.
Reports from other publications have suggested the Robins are keen to secure the 23-year-old’s signature after he opted against extending his stay at Ewood Park. However, there have also been suggestions from the Lancashire Telegraph that Dolan has offers from clubs overseas as well as strong interest from other Championship clubs.
The versatile attacker enjoyed his best season in front of goal since breaking into Rovers’ first team set-up last time out. In total, the former Manchester City youngster scored seven goals and laid on six assists in 47 appearances in all competitions as Blackburn narrowly missed out on the play-off places.
However, as of the time of writing, Bristol Live understands Dolan isn’t a target for the Robins. Of course that could change with six weeks of the window remaining but at this stage, outgoings are expected to be more of a priority for the Reds than incomings.
Given the size of Gerhard Struber’s current squad, that shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Friendlies get underway
We’ll finish this edition of the notebook by focusing on some actual football! Last weekend saw Bristol City play their first ‘match’ of pre-season as a goal from Mark Sykes and a Yu Hirakawa brace helped the Robins to a 3-1 win over SC Farense during their warm-weather training camp.
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While that will have undoubtedly been encouraging for Gerhard Struber, his staff and the players, things step up a gear this weekend. Saturday sees the Reds travel to the south coast to face Premier League opposition in the form of Bournemouth in a behind-closed-doors friendly.
Such games are commonplace early in pre-season with clubs keen to try things out without the eyes of supporters watching on. Typically, journalists and the media are allowed access during these games, but that will not be the case this weekend. Bristol Live will not be in attendance, and the Robins themselves won’t be providing live updates, but a match report will be published by the club after the full-time whistle.
Although Tuesday’s friendly with Newport County will be played behind closed doors at the Robins High Performance Centre, we will be permitted to attend that fixture and, in turn, will get our first look at Struber’s City side in action.
Hopefully, the early signs will be positive and the squad will come through without any further injury issues.
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