Pep Guardiola has already given Birmingham City transfer thumbs up for Man City 'destroyer'
Birmingham City have been linked with completing a romantic re-signing of Blues academy product Nathan Redmond in the January transfer window, as they look to back boss Chris Davies' League One title charge. Redmond left Blues in 2013 when he followed Chris Hughton to Premier League Norwich City.
Redmond has proceeded to have a very fruitful career at England's top table, playing over 270 Premier League matches - mainly for Southampton - and he has also tasted football in Turkey with Besiktas in the Super Lig, too. Redmond returned to England in the summer of 2023 when signing for Vincent Kompany's Burnley upon their return to the Premier League.
Redmond has made 15 appearances for the Clarets but his only two starts came in last year's EFL Cup, and he hasn't played since early January because of what Kompany described as a 'freak incident' in training. He said at the time: “It’s really unlucky for him mostly but also for us. It was a freak incident but luckily the doctors have told us he will recover fully, but it’s surgery and season over.”
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The winger has been an unused substitute after returning to the match-day squad towards the end of November but he has been missing again since the arrival of December. This past weekend, reports emerged that Redmond, who turns 31 in the New Year, could be set for a return to St Andrew's and aid their push for an immediate return to the Championship.
It's a prospective deal which has been described as being an initial loan move should it materialise - Redmond is out of contract at Turf Moor in the summer, although the club, now under the management of Scott Parker, have the option to extend his deal by a further year.
While Blues supporters don't need reminding of Redmond's abilities - they've seen him in a Blues shirt and also from afar while his career has played out - it's worth perhaps reflecting on what one of the most revered managers of the modern era, Pep Guardiola, said of Redmond while he wore a Saints shirt one afternoon at the Etihad Stadium.
Disappointed by Southampton's winding down the clock and Redmond's part in the collective approach from the visitors in 2017, and despite Raheem Sterling scoring a stoppage time winner for City in a 2-1 victory, Guardiola raised eyebrows and hit the headlines after he took to the field post match and began to berate Redmond as he made his way to the tunnel.
A season earlier, Redmond had excelled on the same surface and had scored the opening goal for the Saints as they battled to a 1-1 draw in Guardiola's first season in charge. Explaining why he was critical of Redmond on that particular day and spelling out exactly what he told the winger, the Catalan was reminding the one-time England international, simply, that he was too talented to be time wasting.
"I told him how good a player he is," Guardiola said at the time. "Last season he destroyed us here. I didn't know him last season, I realised how good he is. Southampton have some super-talented players, Redmond is so good one against one, but they didn't want to play, they were time-wasting from the ninth minute. I just wanted them to play."
