Birmingham City transfer state of play as Chris Davies' January objectives become clear
Chris Davies is expecting a quiet January transfer window after Birmingham City’s blitz in the summer.
Blues signed 17 new players across the summer window to revamp their squad following relegation to League One. The club acquired a number of players whom they believe can carry the club from League One to the Premier League.
Davies’ squad is now so well populated that senior stars are left out on a weekly basis, and the manager faces more selection dilemmas when the likes of Scott Wright, Emil Hansson and Alex Cochrane return from injury.
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A lack of game time will inevitably lead to some players requesting moves elsewhere, which Davies has already acknowledged, so Blues have drawn up lists to replace those whose futures are in doubt.
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“Myself, Craig Gardner and the recruitment team always meet to discuss where the squad is at and we’re looking forward to future transfer windows to have a good picture and make sure we’re planned,” Davies said. “But there’s nothing definitive that we’ve set up for January. We’re in a good place in terms of the squad, we’ve got good depth, and I don’t see too much happening in January.”
The future of the club’s former captain, Dion Sanderson, is one of the hottest topics going into January. Sanderson has only made seven appearances for Blues this season with Krystian Bielik, Christoph Klarer and Ben Davies all impressing at the back.
Sanderson, 25, has only been named on the Blues bench once for a League One fixture since his mistake contributed to Northampton’s equaliser at St Andrew’s on November 9. An avoidable red card in Blues’ second game of the season at Charlton, and an unfortunate injury, bumped Sanderson down the pecking order and he hasn’t been able to climb back up it.
Opening up on Sanderson’ situation, Davies told BirminghamLive: “I said to Dion that ultimately he was the captain last season and started this season for me at centre-back, but then he picked up an injury which knocked his rhythm because he had played through the whole pre-season, others have come in and really taken their chance.
“Dion is an important part of the squad and we’ll need Dion, absolutely, in this run of games but they are conversations that I will have with him, around his game time and how much he wants to play. That’s something we’ll look at in January but, for the time being, Dion’s an important part of the squad and will be someone we’ll call upon in the next few weeks.”
Davies is reluctant to end the window in a weaker position than Blues start it, so Sanderson will have to be replaced if he does depart. Any first team regular that moves in January will need to be replaced.
