Birmingham City, Wrexham and League One arms race to be sparked by goal machine transfer
The January transfer window in League One promises to be a particularly interesting one, as teams towards the top of the division weigh up whether or not to top up their squads for the push ahead in the second half of the season. For Birmingham City, it's no different - indeed January presents an opportunity for Chris Davies to add to areas of his squad as he sees fit as Blues continue to fight on all fronts, with promotion the priority.
Blues are well placed as we near the halfway stage; with games in hand, they've discovered their best form after a rare - but thankfully short-lived - patch of fixtures in which points were trickier to come by.
There are likely to be one or two decisions to make - does Romelle Donovan head out again, for example? - but any senior players who leave will need to be replaced. The squad should begin to look healthier at Christmas time with Scott Wright, Emil Hansson and Alfons Sampsted all in line to return to training in the near future before the festive fixtures kick in.
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Blues' PSR warning
Football finance expert Dr. Rob Wilson said earlier this year that Blues, and fellow promotion favourites Wrexham, must tread carefully in the event - as is hoped - that they return to the Championship at the first time of asking. Blues smashed the League One transfer record on more than one occasion in the summer and, because of that, they might have to be a little more prudent next summer.
“Even if Wrexham and Birmingham get promoted, the regulations will limit what they can do in the summer,” Wilson told OLBG. “I was really surprised to see the extent to which Birmingham pushed the envelope last summer, so although they will be active this year I wouldn’t expect it to be at that extent.
“The other big challenge of course that you have in the Championship are the number of clubs that have got parachute payments. So those clubs will already be approximately four times more powerful in the transfer market than you will be.
“If you're going to do it, you get one roll of the dice because of the three year rolling period and in the context of Birmingham, they've already gone fairly hard in a single year. So I think we will see spending, but we won't see excessive spending from either of them.”
Battle is on
Wrexham and rivals Stockport County are both after Manchester United youngster Ethan Wheatley once January arrives. Wrexham are currently second in League One, but fellow promoted outfit Stockport have impressed this term too and sit in fifth. They could now lock horns for the services of Wheatley.
The 18-year-old has been involved in the United match-day squad on five occasions so far this season and also in the Europa League. In all, Wheatley has made four appearances for the Red Devils, most recently in the EFL Cup win over Leicester City under now Foxes boss Ruud Van Nistelrooy.
The prospect of getting Wheatley out and playing regular first-team minutes in the form of a loan, though, is likely to appeal to United, who have the option of lending the talented teen out to two sides in a strong position ahead of 2025 and who are also both relatively local.
Losing Louie
Dave Challinor insists he is not worried at the prospect of losing Louie Barry in the January transfer window. The Aston Villa youngster is currently enjoying another fruitful loan spell at Stockport having played a big part in helping the Hatters win promotion to League One last season. So far he has scored 15 goals in 20 games.
Challinor said recently of Barry's future: “It's not a thing I can affect, so if I'm having sleepless nights over something that I can't do anything about then I'm in trouble. There are more things that I've got to concern myself that I can control, so whatever will be, will be. If Louie ends up staying with us brilliant. If not, then we have to come up with some solutions to replace the goals that we’ll miss, but we're pretty comfortable with where we sit.”
Middlesbrough and Derby County have been linked with moves for Barry, who could be redistributed and permitted by Villa to have a crack at the Championship after proving he can cut it at both League Two and League One.
