Former Portsmouth favourite and ex-Luton Town and Wigan Athletic ace Kal Naismith reveals key reason behind surprise Bristol City move

The 30-year-old claimed the ex-Leicester boss is ‘one of the best managers’ in the Championship following his shock switch.

The Scot completed the surprise move to Ashton Gate on Friday, after he failed to renegotiate fresh terms with Luton.

Naismith’s stock rose after an impressive campaign saw him amass 44 outings in the Championship for Nathan Jones’ side.

Despite the Hatters finishing in the play-offs, the versatile defender opted to look elsewhere and has since penned a three-year deal with the Robins.

The former Pompey ace admits it was Pearson who was the key factor behind his switch and was full of praise of his new boss.

He told Bristol City’s website: ‘What attracted me to come here was the manager, the stature of the manager, the players, the fanbase.

‘The high performance centre is incredible and a massive bonus, I'll love driving through the gates every day to come to work here and give it my all but ultimately I want to be at a club that wants to move in the right direction, wants to win, wants to go and get promoted, wants to go and do all those things and that was my main reason for coming to the club.

‘The club is huge, the club is massive, the players at the club are great.

‘We've got one of the best managers, if not the best manager in the league, who has done absolutely everything in the game, an absolutely amazing coach.

‘There’s everything here for it to be a successful club on the pitch and ultimately that’s up to the players to give everything every day, never go through the motions, always try to get better day in day out and I believe if we do that, the quality we’ve got here, it will stand us in good stead.’

Naismith revealed he wanted to get the move done quickly and admitted his excitement to take on the new challenge.

He continued: ‘It feels great to get it done and it feels brilliant to be here.

‘It's a huge club and I'm just massively excited to be a part of it.

‘I spoke to my agent, I spoke to my missus and that was something we wanted to get done quickly.’