Bristol City massively hit the jackpot with £2m star and these 5 others | OneFootball

The Robins have signed some real gems in recent years

Bristol City may not have made it to the Premier League since it formed in 1992 but they have still certainly had their fair share of top players over the last 20 years, with many going on to become club legends at Ashton Gate.

The Robins have had numerous ups and downs in the modern football era, with two promotions and one relegation as they have bounced around the second and third tiers since the start of the 2000s.

Their best season in recent times came in 2007/08, as they made the Championship play-offs but lost out to Hull City in the final, and they also came mightily close to another play-off venture in the 2018/19 campaign but just missed out by four points in eighth place.

Supporters at Ashton Gate have been able to cheer on some real fan favourites over the years and while lots of them have come through the Robins' fruitful academy, many have also been signed from other teams and gone on to impress in the South West.

With that said, Football League World have picked out six of the best Bristol City signings of the last 20 years, in no particular order.

Jonathan Kodjia

Jonathan Kodjia joined Bristol City from Ligue 2 side Angers in the summer of 2015 for a fee of around £2 million and he was prolific in his only season at the club before netting them a huge profit as he moved on to Aston Villa.

His only season at Ashton Gate was a tough one for the club but he was a standout and netted 20 goals in 48 games in all competitions as they avoided relegation comfortably in 18th place, despite battling the drop for the majority of the season.

It took a club-record sale of £11m for Aston Villa to prise him away from Ashton Gate in August 2016, and despite only being at the club for one year, Kodjia wrote himself into Robins folklore for such an outstanding contribution to their survival effort.

Louis Carey

Local lad Louis Carey is the epitome of a modern-day club legend after his two separate spells at Ashton Gate saw him rack up over 600 appearances for the club where he initially made his debut for in 1995.

Carey was a regular in defence for nine years for the Robins after coming through their academy, and helped them win promotion to the second tier in 1998 and the Football League Trophy in 2003, before a surprise move to Coventry City in 2004.

He only lasted six months in the West Midlands before a move back to City and went on to feature consistently for another nine years for his boyhood club, while becoming their record appearance holder in December 2013 after his 646th game in red and white.

Adam Webster

Adam Webster's stay at Bristol City was a lot shorter than Carey's but his one-season spell was widely lauded after it brought in the biggest profit in the club's history with his sale to Brighton & Hove Albion.

Webster joined the Robins from Ipswich Town in 2018 for an initial fee of £3.5m and was a mainstay in Lee Johnson's side at centre-back throughout his only season at Ashton Gate while earning plaudits throughout English football for his impressive performances.

It came as little surprise to see a club spend big money for his services in the summer of 2019, as Brighton forked out a club-record £20m to sign him in August, and he has since gone on to become a key figure in the Seagulls' recent Premier League rise.

Sam Baldock

Sam Baldock was already an EFL stalwart by the time he moved to Bristol City from West Ham in 2012 for around £500,000, but he enjoyed the best form of his career with the Robins and scored goals at a rate that has rarely been seen since at Ashton Gate.

His strong start to the 2012/23 campaign was not enough to eventually keep the club up in the second tier but he was named captain in League One, and the team revolved around his goal-scoring exploits as he netted 24 times in 45 league games to win the third-tier Golden Boot award.

He was unable to lead his teammates back to the Championship, however, as they finished mid-table, but he did net the club a nice profit as he moved on to join Brighton in August 2014 for close to £2m and went down as one of the club's most prolific scorers ever in a single season.

Jamie McAllister

Jamie McAllister's time at Ashton Gate extends well beyond his years there as a player, with both on and off-pitch roles making him a true Robins cult hero for his numerous years of service to the club.

The left-back made 210 appearances in a six-season stint as a City player after he joined from Hearts in 2006, and was a part of the side that won promotion from League One in his first year at the club, and also key as they reached the Championship play-off final the following term.

He left Ashton Gate for Yeovil Town in 2012, but returned four years later after retirement to become the Robins' under-21 manager, then worked as an assistant coach to Lee Johnson from 2017 to 2020, so his links to the club run deep, and it was a real masterstroke to bring him south of the border all those years ago.

Adriano Basso

Left-field signings from overseas can often go two opposite ways, and luckily for Brazilian goalkeeper Adriano Basso and Bristol City, his was one to remember for all the right reasons, after a five-year stay at the club from 2005 to 2010.

Basso spent a short time at non-league Woking after moving to England from Brazil in 2004 and made the surprise jump up to the third tier a year later with the Robins, before going on to establish himself as number one goalkeeper and playing a leading role in their 2007 promotion, as well as their attempt at Championship success the season after.

Relations unfortunately soured between him and the club as time went on, and he left in March 2010 after making 182 appearances for City, but is certainly still regarded as one of, if not the, finest shot-stoppers to play for the Robins in the last 20 years.