{"id":431687,"date":"2025-09-17T17:33:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T17:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/431687\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T17:33:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T17:33:13","slug":"man-utd-liverpool-and-arsenal-plotting-birmingham-city-transfer-raid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/431687\/","title":{"rendered":"Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal plotting Birmingham City transfer raid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Birmingham City are hoping to convince talented goalkeeper Alfie Smith to stay at the club despite interest from a host of Premier League sides, including Manchester United and Liverpool. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The 14-year-old is the latest highly-rated youngster to come through at St. Andrew\u2019s, with Smith featuring for Blues<\/a>\u2019 U18 side recently despite his age, as they beat Fulham 4-3.<\/p>\n

As well as that, Smith has represented England at various youth levels, and he also plays above his age range for the national team, having turned out for the U16s.<\/p>\n

\"General<\/p>\n

Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City and Chelsea are all monitoring Birmingham\u2019s Alfie Smith<\/p>\n

Therefore, it\u2019s perhaps no surprise that other clubs are taking notice of the teenager, and the Daily Mail has revealed<\/a> that Premier League clubs are \u2018charting his progress\u2019.<\/p>\n

The update states<\/a> that Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea are all keeping tabs on Smith, but Blues are determined to keep him in the Midlands.<\/p>\n

They add<\/a> that Birmingham are trying to convince the player and his family that his long-term future lies at St. Andrew\u2019s, although they are vulnerable to losing Smith until he can sign a professional contract.<\/p>\n

Blues<\/a> would be entitled to limited compensation if Smith, or any youngster, leaves, but that changes once an academy player turns 17, when they can agree a professional contract, so it\u2019s still some way away for the stopper.<\/p>\n

Birmingham City\u2019s academy is crucial to long-term plans<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an exciting time to be a Birmingham fan, as the club are making huge strides on the pitch under their ambitious US owners.<\/p>\n

Clearly, the aim is to establish the club in the Premier League, but director of football Craig Gardner is also on record highlighting the importance of bringing players through the academy<\/a> and into the first-team.<\/p>\n

\"Jude<\/p>\n

Obviously, it\u2019s far too soon to say Smith could be one of those players, but he is someone that the club rate highly given the opportunities he has had.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a positive for Blues<\/a> that they are producing talented individuals that are attracting interest from some of the biggest clubs in the country, and they are rightly establishing a reputation as a top academy when you look at their recent history, which includes bringing through the Bellingham brothers.<\/p>\n

So, it will be interesting to see how this plays out, and whether Birmingham<\/a> can convince Smith that his development is best served by staying with the club, but that may be difficult given the calibre of clubs involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Birmingham City are hoping to convince talented goalkeeper Alfie Smith to stay at the club despite interest from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-431687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115220840910420475","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431687","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=431687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}