Birmingham City will be looking to improve on their 17th place finish this season, but to do that they’ll need to be busy in this summer’s transfer window.
John Eustace is going to have a lot of work to do in the market. He’s set to lose a number of key first-team players due to contracts and loan deals expiring, so if Blues want to finish higher up the table next season, they’ll need to make a number of signings.
Ahead of the transfer window officially opening next month, we look ahead at what June might have in store for Birmingham City…
The first thing for Blues to finalise is their retained list. The club has seven first-team players out of contract in Maxime Colin, Harlee Dean, Kevin Long, George Friend, Troy Deeney, Nico Gordon, and Jordan Graham – the latter three have one-year options within their contracts.
And as per Birmingham Live, the club has less than 48 hours to make a decision on whether or not to extend Deeney, Gordon, and Graham’s deals.
One pressing issue for Blues next month will be the future of Colin. Birmingham Live say that Colin would have to take a pay-cut to remain at St Andrew’s beyond this summer, and that he has interest from elsewhere too, so it looks like Colin might be moving on this summer.
Then when contracts are finalised, Eustace will have the rather large task of replacing his outgoing loan players. Namely Dion Sanderson and Auston Trusty in defence, then the likes of Krystian Bielik, Hannibal Mejbri, and Reda Khadra.
Not only does Eustace have that to worry about, he also has the possibility of player sales to be wary of. Jobe Bellingham is already said to be closing in on a move to Sunderland, but names like Jordan James have attracted Premier League interest in the past 12 months or so, so Eustace will be desperate to keep hold of the club’s more valuable prospects.
But there’s fresh hope for Birmingham City going into this summer. Tom Wagner has agreed to buy a 45.64% stake in the club and he’s spoken of the potential that Birmingham City holds as a football club, giving fans hope of seeing some money being spent on the playing squad this summer.
But as ever, Blues fans won’t get too excited util they see some action being taken. It could well be a promising summer for the club, but there’s a lot of work to be done, and a lot of moving parts.
