Three players who could leave Birmingham City before transfer window closes
Birmingham City hasn’t been the revolving door it was during the summer in this transfer window. Chris Davies has only signed three players – and Phil Neumann won’t join until the summer.
Grant Hanley and Kieran Dowell have arrived to see Blues over the line in their League One promotion race and Davies’ priority is to sign a new left-back before the window closes on Monday night. Blues want to sign a competitor to Alex Cochrane after Lee Buchanan’s season-ending injury.
Outgoings are likely to make up the bulk of Blues’ late business with a number of possible loan exits. Alex Dicken (AD) and Brian Dick (BD) discussed those who could leave Blues on this week’s Keep Right On Podcast.
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AD: “Alfie Chang is one they would like to get out. He’s due to play in another under-21s game so it will depend on how well he comes through that and how well he feels as to whether they actually do loan him out for the remainder of the season. There’ll be plenty of takers for him.
“Romelle Donovan seems to be in a little bit of limbo at the moment. He’s only 18-years-old so there’s no pressure to get him out on loan. He’s had that spell at Burton which didn’t go well and Blues are mindful of putting him in that situation again away from home. It wouldn’t surprise me if he sees out the season with the 21s. Chris Davies has made it clear that he won’t form part of the first team plans this season so they could keep him in the 21s, and focus on developing him and getting him happy playing football again.
“An interesting one would be Yokoyama, Blues have fielded loan enquiries for him. We have kicked it around on the podcast before about Yokoyama not getting many minutes, we thought it was worth getting him out on loan and I think that’s a possibility in the remainder of the window.”
BD: “Kieran Dowell is not a left-winger and doesn’t have the same profile as Yokoyama, but does the extra body in the attacking line go against Yokoyama?
AD: “I think so. Davies says Dowell can play as an inverted right-winger, like he did at Norwich, so he’s all of a sudden in that conversation. Jay Stansfield has played wide and Keshi Anderson is the first choice winger. Behind Anderson you’ve got Hansson and Scott Wright who are comfortably ahead of Yokoyama in the eyes of Chris Davies. More often than not, when people get fit, Yokoyama won’t be making match day squads and there is only going to be potentially three more Vertu Trophy games for him – I don’t think he’d start the FA Cup game against Newcastle.”
