Bristol City: Manager Gerhard Struber is looking to invest more in the Premier League

Bristol City boss Gerhard Struber believes the Robins need more investment at all levels to end their 46-year exile.

The Austrian is aware of what the “optics” of selling top stars to promotion rivals in January look like to fans after a drop in promotion pace.

The Robins, who are 12th in the championship, fell to seven points behind the top six with nine matches remaining.

That decline came with just one win in six matches, after the sale of nine-goal forward Anis Mehmedi to Ipswich and defender Zak Fenner to Wrexham in January, strengthening the promotion contenders.

“It wasn’t very exciting, as we lost players in that direction. The picture doesn’t look good,” Strober told BBC Sport.

“I understand our fans are frustrated because they think we made it [rivals] Stronger, but we have to realize that the players went in this direction and that the club was open to ending this matter.

“It’s not always easy to deal with from my point of view, but the big task is to develop players and we can’t always stop transfers especially when we are developing players so quickly.

“[Steve Lansdown, owner] He is deeply committed to the club but he has a job at Bristol City and that is something we have to realize as well.

“At the same time, I hope we can all bring several good arguments to the table in the next few weeks that will help us and we can invest at the level that will, in the end, make the play-offs realistic.”