Bristol City coach: "We've got ourselves a young striker [Abraham] whose value on the open
- Aug 8, 2016
- 2 min read
Bristol City coach Lee Johnson has explained how he and his club had to wait and push hard to secure the signing of prolific youth striker Tammy Abraham from Chelsea.
"We put an awful lot of work into getting him to the club. We had to be very patient and we risked not signing anybody else, because we believed in the boy," Lee told the Bristol Post.
"It was not easy to get him, because he was very close to staying and he went on their tour to the US. We had to be patient, but we put the work in, so we decided to wait.
"It was touch and go, but I felt he was such a good player, it was worth the risk. We'd had a lot of discussions and it was only ever going to be us or Chelsea, but there was still an element of risk to it."It took a long time, because we then had to wait for Antonio Conte to come in and take up his job after the Euros.
"Had Chelsea decided to keep him there, we would not have had long to find another striker. In the end it worked out and we now have four good strikers. We're very grateful to Chelsea and to Mr Conte."
Tammy scored on his debut to give Bristol an opening day win.
Johnson added: "We believe we have signed a top striker. Yes, he may be young and there will be peaks and troughs in his performances, but his enthusiasm and willingness to run are there for all to see.
"You can see his movement is good and he is electric in his pace. We've not brought him here just to sit on the bench and he will be a big part of our team and of our squad.
"We presented our philosophy to Chelsea, we promised to look after Tammy and make sure his feet stay on the ground and I was delighted to get him through the door. We've got ourselves a young striker whose value on the open market would be somewhere north of £20 million.
"There were a lot of other clubs in for him, including foreign ones and others in the Premier League and Championship."
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