A look through Blues’ dream summer window
IT is less than six weeks until the end of the Championship season – at which point the transfer window will hove into view and the horse trading will begin.
Clubs up and down the country will be trying to off-load players they don’t want and replace them with newer, more desirable and probably cheaper ones.
Blues will be no different. With technical director Craig Gardner sourcing players for head coach Lee Bowyer, they will finally look to climb the table and make the progress injuries have made so difficult this season.
Hopefully the new arrivals will stay fit and Blues will at last escape the lower reaches of the division.
But first things first. With several Championship clubs jockeying to be on the right side of the EFL’s Profitability & Sustainability regulations and others still recovering from the impact of Covid-19, there is likely to be some relatively big names on the free agent market – form an orderly queue for Reading’s John Swift!
There will also be plenty of established players on pre-pandemic contracts who become available for anyone who fancies taking on those deals.
At Blues it is likely to be a combination of free transfers, fees for younger prospects and talented loan players, as the club look to bring their wage commitments in line with the economic climate in the league.
Make no mistake, players aren’t going to be getting the kind of salaries they once were.
At Blues or indeed many other
clubs. So what is the dream outcome?
MIDAS TOUCH
This summer’s brief is more easily written than it is achieved. Broadly speaking, the challenge is to add depth and quality while reducing the average age and cutting the wage bill. Footballing alchemy but not impossible.
For Blues it’s about freeing up as much of their playing budget already tied into long and onerous contracts as possible and reallocating it to younger, or at least fresher, recruits.
We know the club will try to move on from Harlee Dean, it would be no surprise if some of the other bigger earners are made available, particularly those who don’t provide value for money. Whether they can offload many of the old guard remains to be seen. Some headroom will be automatically created by the departures of Kristian Pedersen and Jeremie Bela, while Marc Roberts’ willingness to accept a vastly reduced salary in his most recent contract also helps.
The fee, reported to be around £400,000, paid for Juninho Bacuna and the offers made for James Hill indicate there will be money available for players at the right end of their career.
REBUILD
All of which means the dream scenario is being able to find a suitor for Dean, then using some of that budget to attract two or three new defenders.
As things stand, Blues have only Roberts, George Friend and Nico Gordon as contracted centre-backs next term.
Pedersen’s departure leaves a gaping hole at left-back and Bela’s at left wing-back. It will be a case of pick a default formation and either recruit a couple of wing-backs or full-backs.
The emergence of Jordan James – whom Blues hope to keep – and the acquisition of Bacuna means central midfield is well-stocked but a cheaper, better ball-playing alternative to Ivan Sunjic would also be welcome.
The age profile of the strikers is worrying.
All four of Blues’ options up front will be over 30 when Scott Hogan passes that landmark next month.
There seems to be an appetite to bring back Lyle Taylor but a younger option would also be ideal for the evolution of the team.
LOAN RANGERS
Indeed, the Nottingham Forest man
isn’t the only loanee who would be welcome back.
Onel Hernandez would be a superb permanent signing to give Blues the pace that in the current squad only he provides – even though he will be 30 next February.
The prospect of buying Tahith Chong outright is fanciful but another season on loan isn’t quite so. Fellow Manchester United loan man Teden Mengi has also shown he can cope in the Championship, even though he is only 19.
Matija Sarkic would also enable Blues to play out in the way Bowyer so clearly wants his goalkeeper to operate.
All of which leaves Blues needing at least seven or eight new faces at ‘keeper, two centre-backs, two wing/fullbacks, a defensive midfielder and a couple of strikers.
Tick each of those off, add a bit of quality and reduce the wage budget and it will have been a good summer. Not asking much are we?