{"id":372563,"date":"2025-08-25T14:55:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T14:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/372563\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T14:55:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T14:55:17","slug":"birmingham-city-state-of-play-with-two-transfer-needs-and-possible-exits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/372563\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham City state of play with two transfer needs and possible exits"},"content":{"rendered":"

The transfer window has entered its final week and Birmingham City still have business to complete\"Alex<\/p>\n

Birmingham City reporter for BirminghamLive and the Birmingham Mail<\/p>\n

\"BirminghamDeals still to be done… Blues boss Chris Davies <\/p>\n

Birmingham City have built a squad to challenge for promotion to the Premier League with an impressive summer recruitment drive.<\/p>\n

Chris Davies\u2019<\/a> squad has been bolstered by 10 new arrivals, the latest of which saw winger Lewis Koumas join on loan from Liverpool, but there is still some work to do in the final week of the window.<\/p>\n

Blues<\/a> now look very well stocked in the forward positions, pending any departures, and have an abundance of depth in midfield. It is in defence where Davies could use a body or two before Monday\u2019s 7pm deadline.<\/p>\n

The sale of Krystian Bielik to West Bromwich Albion has left Blues with just three central defenders, while Davies has made no secret of his desire to add another left-back to the squad.<\/p>\n

Alex Cochrane has suffered an injury of his own after plugging away for 12 months without competition due to Lee Buchanan\u2019s injury struggles.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Blues are looking for \u2018cover\u2019 in defence which means that anyone coming in isn\u2019t expected to force their way straight into the starting line-up, therefore loan moves cannot be ruled out.<\/p>\n

Blues currently have four loan players and are permitted to name five in any match-day squad, which gives Davies and director of football Craig Gardner some wriggle room.<\/p>\n

The versatility of Ethan Laird, who has covered at left-back in Cochrane\u2019s absence, and Taylor Gardner-Hickman could prove useful but the latter is one of a few players who are facing up to significantly reduced game time.<\/p>\n

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Gardner-Hickman has been an unused substitute in Blues\u2019 last three games, while Marc Leonard hasn\u2019t played a minute in the Championship yet. Blues need at least one of Gardner-Hickman or Leonard to stay for squad depth, but there has been rumblings of interest in the latter throughout the summer.<\/p>\n

Blues have been helped by the fact that Alfons Sampsted is still in the building to provide some depth at full-back but Davies isn\u2019t likely to stand in the Iceland international\u2019s way if all the pieces of the jigsaw come together before the deadline. Sampsted staying wouldn\u2019t be a bad thing given his professionalism.<\/p>\n

Alfie Chang and George Hall\u2019s situations have progressed from last year. Now fit and more confident after productive loan spells at Walsall, Chang and Hall have been able to show Davies what they can do in pre-season, but whether that will translate to a future in the Blues first team is still unclear.<\/p>\n

Whilst Chang will soon turn 23, Hall is two years younger and has performed well at Championship level before. The problem for him is that Blues are far stronger now than they were back then.<\/p>\n

It would be regrettable, but no great surprise if Chang and Hall were allowed to leave.<\/p>\n

How would you rate Blues’ summer business? Tell us HERE<\/a>Get the latest Blues headlines sent straight to your phone<\/p>\n

BirminghamLive has its very own Birmingham City<\/a> WhatsApp community to deliver the latest headlines straight to your phone. Just click this link<\/a> to receive daily Blues content and breaking news. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out any time you like. Click on the name at the top of your screen while in WhatsApp and click ‘Exit Group’. Read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The transfer window has entered its final week and Birmingham City still have business to complete Birmingham City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,1205,42707,748,8372,130366,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-372563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-city-fc","10":"tag-birmingham-city-fc-transfer-news","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-chris-davies-football-coach","13":"tag-craig-gardner","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115089986552930013","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}