Bristol City should have kept Ryan Harley, says Leroy Rosenior

LEROY Rosenior believes Bristol City made a major error by discarding Ryan Harley too early.

Bristol-born Harley, 26, came through the ranks at Ashton Gate and is set to return to his hometown club as a Brighton & Hove Albion player this weekend, almost a decade after he signed professional forms for City.

The midfielder only made three first-team appearance for the Robins before leaving Ashton Gate to join non-league Weston-super-Mare in 2006 – but has since worked his way back up to the Championship via an impressive four-year spell at Exeter City.

Former Bristol City player Rosenior, pictured, who is now a television pundit on the Football League Show and Evening Post columnist, said: "You need to have a conveyor belt of top quality players coming through your own system and Harley was certainly one of those.

"Sometimes you need to offer players with undoubted ability like Harley a little bit more time to flourish. I don't know if City ran out of patience with him at that time, but I am fearful that he may come back to haunt them on Saturday.

"Clubs like Manchester City and Manchester United can afford to discard young players, but City aren't in that position. They need to keep hold of those talented players.

"I see a lot of City players going to the likes of Torquay or Exeter on loan – which is good experience for the lads – but they don't seem to come back.

"These players should be going out to these clubs and then they should be coming back into the fold and given an opportunity at some stage.

"If they don't come back then you have to ask if they are good enough and you have to ask if the recruitment policy is robust enough.

"Harley is a great example of a player who has been released a little bit too early and is just the type of player City could do with right now.

"He plays just behind the front, he is creative and he can score goals. If he was still at the club now in that sort of form, he would be perfect.

"He is a top Championship player and that's what City need. Harley will eventually be a Premier League player and I think City have lost out on a great player that they had at the club."