Birmingham City manager Lee Bowyer has clearly stated that he wants Alen Halilovic to be handed an extended deal – the Croat is out of contract in the summer.
Halilovic’s arrival at Birmingham City might be one of, if not the only lasting positive to come from Aitor Karanka’s tenure at St. Andrew’s.
The one-time Barcelona man has featured 16 times in the Championship this season and scored the one goal, showing glimpses of the player that the likes of Barca and AC Milan saw in him.
Signing a short-term contract, Bowyer has spoken to BirminghamLive about the midfielder’s future, making it clear that he wanted him to stick around:
I like him. I think we can improve him more as well. A proper pre-season under his belt and I think he can become an even better player.
From what I understand he is enjoying it. I like him as a player and I will be recommending that we keep him.
He brings us something different. You need to have those players, when we want to the diamond on the weekend you needed people who are comfortable receiving the ball, want to play forward and get into the right areas.
He was unlucky not to score, he had a couple of chances but not just that he took the ball in tight areas and that’s what he can do at times.
Him, [Ivan] Sanchez, Mikel [San Jose] they are good on the ball, all comfortable receiving it and sometimes you need that as well, not just your hard working ones. You need a Plan B and those type of players are the ones we need to be bringing in or keeping.
Bowyer has won five of his eight games in charge of Blues. He’s brought about a vast upturn in form and has now ensured Championship football for another year at the club.
But his job remains far from done – Bowyer has a huge rebuilding task on his hands and that will start to take shape in the summer.
Halilovic, if Bowyer can get him fit and playing much more consistently, can become a real talisman for him – he’s a creative outlet that Birmingham have lacked throughout this season, and a one-year extension is definitely the least he should be offered.
