Bristol City make €500,000 bid for Bray Wanderers teens O'Neill and Knight

BILLY THE KID: Bray Wanderers' Billy O'Neill clashes with Cobh Ramblers' Jonas Hakkinen. Pic: Howard Crowdy.

Bristol City have lodged a €500,000 bid with Bray Wanderers to sign both Billy O’Neill and Reece Knight – younger brother of club captain Jason.

Midfielder Knight turned 18 last September and winger O’Neill will reach that age in March.

Both are under contract for the year at the Seagulls and expected to start the First Division season in February before moving to the Championship outfit in the summer.

Bray were taken over in September by a US-based consortium, fronted by Malachy Burke, JB Gough and David Goldstein.

They missed out on a Premier Division berth by losing a playoff to Waterford in November and will be expected to challenge Cork City for the sole automatic promotion slot.

Presuming the hierarchy accepts the double bid they’re mulling over, this financial injection will bolster their playing budget with three weeks of the window remaining.

Knight's older brother Jason (24) has returned from an injury that ruled him out of the final two windows of Ireland's World Cup campaign. The Robins are seventh in the table heading into Friday's meeting with Derby County.

Meanwhile, Norwich City have made a late bid to hijack Brighton and Hove Albion’s desire to sign Dundalk defender Vinnie Leanord.

The centre-back, part of Ireland’s U17 World Cup squad in November, became Dundalk’s youngest debutant and then goalscorer last year at just 16 years, 10 months and 24 days.

Celtic and Crystal Palace also submitted bids to the club now back in the top-flight but Brighton and now Norwich have overtaken them.

The deal, should it be completed, is worth an upfront fee of €400,000 to Dundalk.