BRUM IS BLUE!

The World Cup may be in full swing but the transfer window is open so I thought I kick off the annual weekly summary of all the Birmingham transfer news, done deals and rumours galore. We’ve seen a couple of stories come out already linking players away from the club, this seems to be more of the noise at the moment than the club being linked with players incoming.

I suppose before I go on I’m going to throw in my opinion on this point itself because I think there is definitely a bit of an elephant in the room. Blues are still without a replacement for Craig Gardner, this alone will have an impact on players coming in but it doesn’t stop players going out so while Blues will irrefutably need to be moving decisively to strengthen the squad the first recruitment they need to have sorted is Gardner’s replacement. I’m not convinced we’ll see any players come in before this happens and with a World Cup on I anticipate things moving a little slower until July as it is.

Another concern that I have is that it feels as though the initial momentum and wave of positivity that followed Knighthead’s takeover of the club seems to have fizzled out a bit. This is to be expected but I just feel that without that edge a few of the realistic issues seem a bit louder, I just don’t want clubs to begin picking off our best players either.

So I’ll start with official movement, Blues have brought in two players so far as we exercised an option to buy Jhon Solis on the first day of the window and brought in Dael Fry last week. I think this is without a doubt a signing we’re all happy with as Solis swiftly became a fan favourite last season, he came into the squad and really helped to elevate the team at the end of the season so I’m pleased with this. It’s a deal worth just under £6.5m so suggests that there may well be a few quid to spend again this summer.

Dael Fry caught me off guard I must admit and came out of the blue. This shows that despite my concerns Blues are actively seeking to get things done. It’s a boost for Blues defensively and with a wealth of experience in the division it’s going to be a great addition at the back, especially given there is talk of Nuemann going.

Next up the rumour mill, it’s not quite as busy as usual – I mean some of the “rumours” I’ve seen are openly far more speculation than the usual ones that will suggest a player is actually joining. You know the usual ones, “XYZ is on the radar for Blues,” or even “I just saw XYZ in BigJohns on the island, it’s on!” instead we’re currently getting a Hull shopping list because they need to raise £6m or one I even saw was simply saying Jamie Vardy is available so and chucking him in as a clickbait (I won’t be putting Vardy as the main signing for this post) and so I think all of this just is because there’s not a lot going on at the minute.

Finally the outgoing rumours include Jay Stansfield who has been linked with a move away from the club to the likes of Sunderland, Everton, Hull (Rather conflictingly given we’ve also seen it reported that Hull need to raise money) and Ipswich. Do I think he will go? I doubt it to be honest, I genuinely think it’s just noise but at the same time if we don’t go up this season I think he will be gone next summer indeed as he deserves Premier League football.

Nuemann is linked with a move away from the club as well with clubs on the continent linked with luring him away from St Andrews and to be fair it’s one that you wouldn’t be surprised to see given the falling out last season between Klarer and Nuemann. I think if he does go though Blues will seek to make a profit off his sale.

The other player or players I can see departing are Kyogo whom has struggled to make an impact at Blues so far and Marvin Dusck, this means Blues will need to secure a couple of strikers for next season at least in my opinion!