The signing of Spanish winger Carlos Vicente would be the most eye-catching deal in an extraordinary winter window for Birmingham City
Carlos Vicente celebrates a goal for Deportivo Alaves(Image: )
Birmingham City are pulling out all the stops in this winter transfer window.
With four new signings and the possibility of a fifth in the form of coveted Spanish winger Carlos Vicente, Blues are looking to correct all of their problems in what is notoriously the most difficult window to deal in.
Recruitment chiefs and owners usually shudder at the prospect of a trolley dash in January. Selling clubs hold all the power and buyers can’t exactly conceal their cards.
But the prospect of overpaying hasn’t deterred Blues and their ultra-ambitious owners Knighthead Capital Management.
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Promotion to the Premier League was the aim at the outset and, despite currently occupying 13th position in the Championship table with a five-point gap to the play-offs, Blues aren’t willing to throw the towel in.
Tom Wagner has once again put his money where his mouth is to bankroll another spending spree.
A conservative estimate of fees for permanent additions Kai Wagner, August Priske and Vicente – should Blues sign him from Alaves without the Abdoulie Manneh hiccups – is in excess of £10million and nudging towards the £15m mark.
Then you can throw in loan fees for Jhon Solis, who could become a permanent signing in the summer, and Ibrahim Osman. And don’t forget the wages.
It must be noted that the complex nature of Profit & Sustainability rules mean that you can frame a transfer across the course of a contract. For example, the £6m signing of Priske can be spread across his five-and-a-half year contract rather than just appear on the books as one big hit.
Without any significant sales this month – Dion Sanderson, Emil Hansson, Alfons Sampsted and Lyndon Dykes have all left on permanent deals – Blues have clearly found wriggle-room since the summer.
Speaking at the Open House event in November, Wagner said: “We spent as much as we could in the summer. The press point out transfer fees and ignore player wages.
“If you bring somebody in on a free, a lot of the time that player is expensive from a wage perspective and wants a multi-year contract. What looks like a bargain could over the course of a contract be quite expensive and what looks like it’s expensive with respect to a player transfer fee might be a bargain as a result of what the wages are over time.
“We spent what we could. We have a very high quality squad.”
Getting Sanderson, Hansson, Sampsted, Dykes, Keshi Anderson and even Marc Leonard, albeit on a temporary basis, off the wage bill has given director of football Craig Gardner something to work with.
Wagner joked ‘Craig Gardner is spending money like it grows on trees’ with supporters on his latest visit to St Andrew’s.
The fees Blues are forking out will have to be offset by something – maybe social media impressions or another lucrative sponsorship deal.
Make no mistake about it, this isn’t a club content to coast to a mid-table finish. This is a club still in a hurry and still aiming for a seat at English football’s top table – and one that is prepared to spend big to get there.
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