Bristol City have bid rejected for Rapid Vienna striker as Robins look to step up recruitment

Bristol City have seen a bid rejected for Rapid Vienna striker Fally Mayulu, Bristol Live understands, as the Robins look to step up their recruitment drive with pre-season just around the corner.

On Wednesday, technical director Brian Tinnion revealed that City are close to securing two additions to their forward line with verbal agreements having been made. Mayulu is not thought to be one of those players but is an individual head coach Liam Manning would like to add to his squad.

The 21-year-old signed for Rapid Vienna from Austrian second division side SK Linz last year and found the target 11 times and added three assists in 35 appearances as they finished fourth in the Bundesliga.

Reports in Austria claim City have made an offer of €3.5m (£3m) but Bristol Live has learned the amount presented to Rapid is far less than that figure and it’s unclear at this stage if the Robins will pursue the matter further.

Mayulu, who spent his youth career with Lens and Wolfsburg, is under contract until 2027 giving the Austrian side plenty of security with interest elsewhere in Europe. Tinnion also admitted on Wednesday that City had missed out on Malian forward Moussa Sylla who opted to sign for Schalke last week.

The Robins also hold an interest in Auxerre forward Lassine Sinayoko but are reluctant to meet thee Ligue 1 side’s £4m valuation for the Mali international.

The 6ft 3ins Mayulu certainly looks to fill the brief desired by Manning for a taller, more physically-minded forward who also offers pace and athleticism, different skill sets to that of Tommy Conway and Nahki Wells, allowing a different kind of approach during games.

Upon signing him last March, Rapid Vienna Managing Director of Sport Markus Katzer said: “Mayulu is an exciting player with great potential. He has excellent technical skills, is a strong finisher, enormously agile, and he’s also useful as an aerial threat at any time due to his size alone.”

City’s players, minus those involved in international football at the start of month, will report back to the High Performance Centre on Thursday for pre-season testing ahead of the start of summer programme which will include a training camp in Portugal.

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