![\"Grant](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0_a3fd3215-8216-4cb9-b4a4-34d4c63537b3.jpg\")
Grant Hanley in action for Birmingham City against Burton Albion(Image: Birmingham City FC)<\/p>\nGrant Hanley spoke to BirminghamLive after starting his first League One game for Birmingham City against Burton Albion<\/p>\n
18:32, 21 Apr 2025Updated 18:36, 21 Apr 2025<\/p>\n
Grant Hanley in action for Birmingham City against Burton Albion(Image: Birmingham City FC)<\/p>\n
Grant Hanley admits it\u2019s been \u2018easy to accept\u2019 his role on the fringes at Birmingham City<\/a> because of the \u2018phenomenal\u2019 pair keeping him out.<\/p>\n The 61-cap Scotland international finally made his first league start for Blues in their 2-1 win over Burton Albion on Easter Monday.<\/a><\/p>\n Hanley<\/a> has been limited to substitute appearances since arriving on a free transfer from Norwich City in January due to the superb form of Christoph Klarer and Ben Davies.<\/p>\n Reflecting on his first League One start, Hanley told BirminghamLive:<\/strong> \u201cIt was nice to get the win, that\u2019s the most important thing. Personally, I was a wee bit rusty at times, I was reasonably pleased with how I did.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been here since January so it feels like it\u2019s been a long time coming, but it is what it is. I feel like I\u2019m part of something here and the club is clearly going to be really successful.<\/p>\n “The players playing in my position have been phenomenal. I\u2019m biased because I\u2019m a centre-back but I don\u2019t think Chris or Davo have put a foot wrong since I\u2019ve been here.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are players who have played at a much higher level and they are going to again. For me, it\u2019s been easy to accept if that makes sense because they\u2019ve been doing so well. I\u2019ve been happy to play my part and keep pushing.\u201d<\/p>\n Hanley, who has three promotions from the Championship on his CV, only signed a six-month contract and his future is now up in the air.<\/p>\n With Klarer and Krystian Bielik<\/a> under contract, Phil Neumann on the way, and Ben Davies likely to be a transfer target for the Blues hierarchy, Hanley might not be rewarded with game time if he does sign for next season.<\/p>\n However, with 428 professional appearances to his name, the 33-year-old is happy to contribute in ways other than just playing on the pitch.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the time it was more to go somewhere where I felt I could add value,\u201d Hanley explained. \u201cI looked at it and knew it was going to be tough to get game time because of how the lads were playing and the calibre of players that are here.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom speaking to the manager and knowing some of the lads, I knew the type of club it was and the ambition.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to be involved in the second half of the season and past that, let\u2019s see what happens.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m at a stage in my career now where I can\u2019t look too far ahead. It\u2019s tomorrow\u2019s training really, let\u2019s get through that and then the next one.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I can add value and I\u2019ve got something to offer so let\u2019s see.\u201d<\/p>\n Do you think Hanley is worth keeping on? Have your say 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":"Grant Hanley spoke to BirminghamLive after starting his first League One game for Birmingham City against Burton Albion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,1205,748,393,19545,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-39018","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-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-grant-hanley","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114377439761780096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39018","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=39018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}