What Bristol City boss Nigel Pearson has said on Sheffield Wednesday target Tyreeq Bakinson

Tyreeq Bakinson has emerged as a surprise transfer target for Sheffield Wednesday. As revealed by our sister title Bristol Live, the Owls are in talks with Bristol City to sign the central midfielder on a permanent deal.

The 23-year-old is free to leave Ashton Gate, having been frozen out under Nigel Pearson. The former Luton Town youngster has been training with the Under-23s since returning to the club following a loan spell at Ipswich Town last summer.

Pearson blasted Bakinson's attitude prior to his Portman Road switch. He said: "As far as I'm concerned, and I've said it before, if players don't want to be here they can go.

"I'm not bothered. He's a player who unfortunately just wants to play on his own terms. It's not something I particularly want so he can go.

"I'm not wasting energy on negativity, I don't invest time on that, I'm not just saying it. If you ask people who work with me they'll say exactly the same thing, I don't waste energy on negativity, it drives me mad.

"If people aren't in the side, I want them to work hard to get there and I want people who are in the side to work hard to stay there. I don't want people that when the going gets tough, they want to go somewhere else, I'm not interested.

"The fact that I am prepared to say, 'yeah, let the deal go ahead' because actually, people around the place who sap the energy out of other people is not as valuable as having people here who want to be playing."

When he was asked about Pearson's comments back in March, Bakinson said: "That's just how the game is. Everyone has their own opinion on games, on players, on staff, managers... Everyone gets scrutinised."

Bakinson featured 17 times for Ipswich in League One, scoring twice. The Tractor boys elected not