Yahoo News Knighthead have granted Birmingham City a transfer budget to spark fear and envy
The budget set to be granted to Chris Davies and Birmingham City's recruitment team to restructure the club's squad this summer will make the new Blues boss the envy of League One. Having dropped down to the third tier in what was their first year at the top of the club, owners Knighthead, fronted by Tom Wagner, are not expected to hang around in their efforts to rebuild.
Blues had a clear-out at the end of last season. They've parted with Marc Roberts, Scott Hogan, Gary Gardner and a host of loanees, while others - like Lukas Jutkiewicz - could yet have a part to play. The recruitment drive is already underway, with Blues having already lured Ryan Allsop to St Andrew's from Hull City.
The Sun, on Sunday morning, reports that Davies will have as much as £20m to spend on players' transfer fees and wages this coming summer. Blues need at least one more goalkeeper, while the whole back-line and forward line both need addressing ahead of pre-season. It's a sizeable task, but there'll be the resources made available in order to carry it out appropriately.
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The rebuild is also with a view to the long-term. Davies told BirminghamLive recently that Blues aren't looking to sign players merely to get out of League One at the first attempt, but to also ensure that upon a prospective return to the Championship in the hopefully near future they are immediately competitive.
“There’s a lot of work going on identifying targets and assessing current players that we have based on observation and the data that we get provided,” said Davies. “There’s a lot of work going on and what’s important to me is I navigate that process with the right level of calm.
“We are being proactive and we are getting business done to bring players in to help us but at the same time we need to understand it’s going to take time to assemble the squad that’s going to be, not just a squad that stays with us for one season, but hopefully two or three. There’s a lot of work going on and a lot of good people here working hard behind-the-scenes and step by step we will get there and build a really good squad.”
BirminghamLive says: The dressing room has plenty of room for new faces. The money, clearly, is there from Knighthead to spend accordingly on multiple targets. There remains, however, a responsibility - Blues have the opportunity to rip up what went before and begin mainly afresh, but they also need to get it right. Having the resource is brilliant, a luxury most other sides in the third tier can only dream of, but it must be utilised wisely.
They'll also have to maintain an element of patience, too - the double-edged sword aspect of having money to spend is that, more often than not, clubs who possess your targets know it, too. Time is of the essence, but Blues must find the balance of spending well, doing so relatively quickly in order to give Davies the suitable tools and not being held to ransom. It's a fairly unenviable task when you view it like that!
