Birmingham City have made a good start to their summer transfer window as they offload unwanted players and add those they think can turn Chris Davies’ first season at the club into a successful one.
Rumours abound but so far Blues have brought in Ryan Allsop, Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Alfie May and Emil Hansson, with Alex Pritchard gone and Juninho Bacuna soon to join him at Sivasspor.
But what will happen in the rest of the window? The data crunchers at BonusCodeBets have simulated the next few months using Football Manager 2024. It’s thrown up some quirky results...
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Arrivals
Emil Hansson from Heracles Almelo - £1.5mil
Alfie May from Charlton - £750k
Jordan Brown from Leyton Orient - £325k
Joe Gelhardt from Leeds - loan
Troy Parrott from Spurs - loan
CJ Hamilton - £1mil
Erik Peters - free
Ryan Bennett - free
Bailey Peacock-Farrell - £250k
Tyrese Campbell - free
Departures
Jordan James to Nottingham Forest - £7.5m
Juninho Bacuna to Sivasspor - £2mil
Alex Pritchard to Sivasspor - £1mil
Tommy Fogarty to Norwich City - £375k (£600k)
Ben Beresford to Solihull Moors - loan
Byron Pendleton to Dorking - loan
Marc Roberts to Barnsley - Free
John Ruddy to Newcastle – Free
Clearly this is only a simulation and must be considered with that in mind.
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Free
AmazonStaying put
One player who is not on the move according to Fabrizio Romano is Jobe Bellingham, the former Blues trainee who joined Sunderland last season.
The 18-year-old had a creditable first campaign with the Black Cats after being reunited with Kristjaan Speakman and Mike Dodds, his former Blues mentors, playing 47 games and scoring seven goals.
That attracted the attention of several top flight clubs and there has been speculation he could be on the move again. Not according to Romano who took to X, formerly Twitter, to say: “Jobe Bellingham’s plan is to stay at Sunderland at least for one more season despite interest from several Premier League clubs. Crystal Palace have been pushing for weeks but Jobe’s current stance is to stay and trust #SAFC ambitious project.”
It is not clear whether Blues have a sell-on, although the Daily Mail claim it is 15 per cent. BirminghamLive have been unable to corroborate the claim.
Bouncing back
Another former Blues player could be about to return to the Championship. Josh Daces-Cogley, who has spent the last season at Bolton Wanderers in League One, is said to be interesting Portsmouth – who were promoted to the second tier last term.
The 28-year-old came through the system at Blues and made 30 first team appearances under the likes of Gianfranco Zola, Pep Clotet and Lee Bowyer before leaving in 2021 and signing for Tranmere Rovers in League Two.
He made the step up to League One last term and played 54 times in a wing back role helping Ian Evatt’s men reach the play-offs. He played more minutes than any other Bolton player and was named in the League’s Team of the Year.
For that reason it is claimed Pompey will have to play £500,000 for his services. Bolton News believe Dacres-Cogley will be staying at the club.
Big season
Romelle Donovan has spoken about being sent back to Blues’ under-21s after seemingly making his first-team breakthrough.
The attacker was introduced into the senior squad by Wayne Rooney and played seven Championship games before being sent back down to age group football.
He redoubled his efforts as Steve Spooner’s men had an outstanding campaign – but everyone at the club expect 2024/25 to be a more permanent breakthrough, including Donovan himself.
"I felt when I was back with U21s I just had a point to prove,” he told Blues TV.
“I am still young so I shouldn’t expect to be playing every single minute with the first team – so I have still got a lot of development so I thought ‘When I am back with the 21s I will develop myself more and when I get that call again I will be ready even better’...I feel like next season will be a big season for me to show what I can do at a first team level.”
