MARK Hughes is braced to play the long game to land Dion Pereira.

The City boss would love to bring back the Luton winger for a second loan stint at Valley Parade.

But he accepts that the Championship club are unlikely to decide on whether to let Pereira go elsewhere again until the back end of the transfer window.

Hughes said: “It’s difficult to talk about loan moves. It’s when the host club really make the decision on players that they are thinking about sending out on loan.

“Obviously, in terms of Dion, he did very well for us and they will probably want to have a look at him because of that. I think that’s what’s going to happen.”

Pereira played an hour in Luton’s 2-1 win over Gillingham in a friendly on Wednesday. He also scored in a game against NK Bravo last Friday during the Hatters' training camp in Slovenia.

Derek Adams made Pereira City’s first signing of the January window – but the 23-year-old never played under the Scot because of a calf injury he suffered in training.

He eventually got his first outing under Hughes in the win at Forest Green and went on to make a big impression in 10 appearances.

Hughes threw his hat into the ring at the end of last season to try to bring back Pereira – and the player has indicated that he would be interested.

But the season is likely to be well underway before the Bantams chief finds out if he will be given the green light.

Hughes, who yesterday hinted that City’s busy summer recruitment may not be done, added: “A lot of players who’ve been out on loan will go back to their parent club and will probably spend pre-season with them before any decision is made whether they do it again.

“I’d probably do the same in their position. You want to see how those players have progressed.

“We’ll probably have to wait a little bit longer to get decisions on the loans.

“I would imagine it would be closer to the end of the window.

“They’ll probably have four or five weeks of the pre-season period before they make any decisions.”