Birmingham City

Birmingham City midfielder says he almost joined rivals Aston Villa

New Birmingham City midfielder Josh McEachran has revealed how he almost joined rivals Aston Villa in the summer.

The 26-year-old made his debut for the Blues on Saturday after boss Pep Clotet decided to take a chance on the midfielder who has been a free agent since the summer.

The ex-Chelsea man was signed at the end of September but has spent the last couple of months regaining match fitness to ensure he is ready for the battles that lie ahead in the Championship.

However, instead of helping the Blues mount an unlikely assault on the play-offs, he could have joined Aston Villa after revealing at a Christmas party for young Blues fans that former boss Dean Smith wanted to bring him to Villa Park.

Birmingham Live reports that McEachran said: “I was close to signing but one or two things went a bit wrong and it didn’t end up. I am here now, I am happy here now so I don’t really need to speak about that.

“You don’t know whether you are going to be in England, America, anywhere in the world – that’s obviously not good.

“I finally got sorted here, after a trial at Birmingham – thanks to Harlee Dean really. He got me in. I am excited to be here and am excited for the season.

“It probably was humbling having to prove myself again, I wasn’t really expecting it to be honest because I was a free agent and there were quite a few teams and I was umming and ahing where to go and stuff.

”To come here, to get the opportunity to come and play for Birmingham, obviously it’s a massive club in the Championship, I have seen what they want to do in the next year, two  years.

“They want to get back to the Premier League and that’s what I want to do so I am grateful to be here.

“I just wanted to come here and prove myself.

“It was tough getting physically ready, I didn’t have a pre-season so I was always playing catch up.”

 

 

 

 

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