Bristol City urged to strike deal for 11-goal EFL star - Robins are 'desperate' for his services | OneFootball

Barnsley striker Davis Keillor-Dunn is a wanted man, and FLW's Bristol City fan pundit wants his club to be at the top of the lost of his suitors.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

It's tight in the middle of the Championship, with teams all the way down to the bottom half of the table still very much in the chase for a play-off place.

Bristol City are in amongst that chasing pack, still in touch with the possibility of promotion to the Premier League and the riches that come with it.

The January transfer window is the last opportunity for clubs to make their final tweaks before the final race, and the Robins have been reported, as per an FLW exclusive, to be interested in signing the prolific Barnsley striker Davis Keillor-Dunn, who's been their star performer in League One this season.

Barnsley haven't had an especially strong season in 2025-26, but Keillor-Dunn has excelled for them, with 11 goals in his first 22 League One appearances of the season. His loss could be a huge one for the South Yorkshire club, but the temptation of making a step up to the Championship could be too much for the player to turn down.

Bristol City sent message over Davis Keillor-Dunn amid links to Barnsley man

FLW have spoken to Bristol City fan pundit Tom Sandy about the possibility of his club making a move for Davis Keillor-Dunn, and he couldn't be more effusive in his praise for the striker.

"From an outside perspective, Davis Keillor-Dunn is one of the best players in League One and has been for years now," Tom told FLW.

"He's one of Barnsley's best. They haven't had the best season but they've picked up recently and he carried them through a bad run of form. 11 League goals this season is one of the top in the division, he may even be at the top, and I think he'll probably hit 20 this season if he stays in League One, which is a good amount for any good striker."

Tom feels that City need a player who can slot straight into the system at Ashton Gate after Anis Mehmeti's departure to Ipswich Town, and Keillor-Dunn may be able to do that.

"I can understand why people might be put off by his age, at 28 years old, but he's entering his prime and that's just the sort of player we need at this point of the season," Tom added.

"We need a player who's going to come in and hit the ground running, we're not looking for a project.

"We had Fally Mayulu and Sinclair Armstrong last year who came in, but they didn't have the impact we needed. Part of that was that they were still growing in the game. You could see their immaturity. You could see they didn't have the nous to be in the right place at the right time, which I think Keillor-Dunn has.

"He's a good player linking the play up as well, which is another thing we need.

"We need players around our strikers who are going to help, and I think he would slot in really well with a two up top with, say, Sinclair Armstrong, who's a player who thrives on having another player up there who's going to play off him.

"Let him run in behind, bully defenders and just be there to pick up the ball, link the play and get us forward."

But Tom is also aware that there will likely be stiff competition for the Barnsley striker, adding: "Obviously there are a lot of teams interested in him; understandably, because he's a brilliant player, and he's a player that I could see him coming to us due to the fact that we've lost Anis Mehmeti.

"So it's a position we're desperate to bolster and Keillor-Dunn's a fantastic player to do that.

"We've lost players already in that position this window. We've loaned out Josh Stokes for game time, which I think is a good move, although he's Championship level and I think we could be getting experience in our team outright.

"Obviously George Earthy has come in there, but he's a different player to Davis Keillor-Dunn and I think he will add a load of things to this club if he does join, since he's fantastic.

"He hasn't played in the Championship before, he'll likely be expensive, but at this stage of the season that's the money that we have to be paying to bring in a striker, and we've just gained £11 million from the Antoine Semenyo deal with him joining Manchester City and us getting 20 per cent of the profit from that deal.

"Hopefully we will bring in a striker, I don't know whether it will be Davis Keillor-Dunn, but I'm sure he'd be a great addition to the club. Barnsley fans would certainly miss him, which means you know it's a good deal in the making."

Bristol City may have to compete strongly for Davis Keillor-Dunn's services

The Championship is a division in which marginal gains could end up being worth a great deal this season.

More than half of the division's teams have scored between 30 and 40 goals this season, so getting an extra edge on the others clustered in a congested middle of the table could be crucial for reaching the play-offs or even making a push for one of those much-coveted automatic promotion places.

Davis Keillor-Dunn would be a bit of a gamble. A career that has already seen the striker play for seven clubs in England and Scotland hasn't seen him rise above League One, so this would be a big step-up for the player concerned.

And the temptation to leave Oakwell might only be amplified by the indifferent first half of the season that his club have been through. Barnsley remain in the lower reaches of League One, although games in-hand on the teams around them do give them an opportunity to improve their league position.

There will be competition for the striker. FLW have already exclusively revealed that Wrexham and Middlesbrough could be amongst those chasing his signature before the closure of this transfer window. There have also been reports that these two clubs - and Preston North End - recently sent scouts to see him play in Barnsley's 4-1 defeat at Liverpool in the FA Cup.

Bristol City have shuffled their attacking options more than once over the last season and a half, but with the opportunity for a play-off place for teams stretching all the way down to mid-table, the opportunity remains for the Robins to push towards a repeat of last season, when they made the top six before losing to Sheffield United in the semi-finals.

If his arrival can give City that crucial edge in their push again this season, even a high valuation could prove to be a canny investment.