BRUM IS BLUE!

Blues announced the signing of England Under21’s keeper James Beadle yesterday, confirming the Brighton keeper will be with Blues on a season long loan. I won’t lie, and if you read my post on him at the Euro’s you’ll know, but it’s a signing that neither excites me nor does it make sense to me.

Now, in all fairness I’m making the assumption that Beadle has been brought in with the intention of being the first choice keeper. Loaning a player to sit on the bench doesn’t make sense to me and it doesn’t feel like something the parent club would really want as surely they’re looking to develop the player and either bring him through to the first team or sell him on. Why therefore do Blues want to develop a player in a season when the aim is promotion? If we’ve got him to sit ahead of Peacock-Farrell fair enough, we do need a better plan B.

Beadle wasn’t a player I was aware of before, he started his career at Charlton before making the move to Brighton Hove & Albion where he received his first professional contract in 2023. Since then he has had a few loan spells, briefly spending time at Crewe Alexandra, Oxford United and most recently Sheffield Wednesday where he was first choice keeper last season. This is then the benchmark that I’m going to use as it’s the 20 year olds first full season between the sticks.

During the 2024/25 campaign Beadle made 38 appearances, kept 7 clean sheets and conceded 69 goals as Wednesday finished 12th in the Championship. Beadle did make a few memorable saves during the campaign but then this leans into my initial reaction as I watched him in an England shirt, there’s ability there but it needs nurturing. His distribution during the Euros wasn’t amazing, he’s not a keeper I’d feel comfortable seeing the ball continually passed back to as we did with Allsop last season.

Obviously I won’t make too many judgements ahead of time, anyone who pulls on a Blues shirt and works to the best of their ability should be celebrated and so I will do so if he puts the effort in. I would say I hope the club aren’t over a barrel and if Allsop is the better keeper we go with what works rather than the Rooney route and blindly hope it will turn around despite all evidence to the contrary.

His post signing interview doesn’t fill me with confidence in him either;

“I’m really happy to be here,” he said. “Speaking to the manager and the people higher up, it just shows how big the club is getting, and the state the club is in at the moment, and the goals for next year, it really intrigued me.

“I obviously heard a lot about the club last year and what happened with the team and how well they did. So I heard all that and it was something I wanted to be involved in.

“I want to take that next step up and play at the top end of the table. Now I’ve had experiences in the Championship, I really feel like this year I can kick on.”

We shall see what happens with him, I’d be surprised if he remains the first choice keeper through the season and I’d be surprised if he sees his loan spell through.