Birmingham City very much had a reputation last season in League One as being lavish spenders in the transfer market.
The Blues broke transfer records to land Jay Stansfield for a mighty £15m, and that excessive spending hasn’t ceased moving up a division, with Chris Davies and Co forking out a fee around the £10m mark just this month to land ex-Celtic favourite Kyogo Furuhashi.
This wild approach in the transfer market does seem to have caught up with them, however, as another statement move to snap up Premier League regular Hwang Hee-Chan hangs in the balance.
The latest on Birmingham's move for Hwang
Birmingham have significant backing behind the scenes courtesy of American investment from Tom Brady and Tom Wagner, but that well looks to have dried up now unless some sales are signed off on.
Indeed, it is being reported by Birmingham Live that a deal for Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Hwang to move from Molineux to St. Andrew’s is too steep to get over the line, owing to the South Korean attacker’s £14m price tag and his high wage costs.
He is arguably worth that extortionate amount, considering he has 22 Premier League goals next to his name, but unless some players leave, namely someone like Bailey Peacock-Farrell who is looking for an escape route out of the Blues – it appears unlikely that Hwang will join Kyogo in the Midlands.
Not all hope will be lost on the end of Birmingham, though, when it comes to attempting to add some magnificent coups to Davies’ camp, with a Champions League winner perhaps on the way.
Birmingham's Hwang alternative
Whilst Birmingham do have a reputation for rashly splashing the cash, this summer has seen the Blues also operate shrewdly.
Indeed, they have added two free agents to the camp, most notably in the form of Bright Osayi-Samuel and Blues academy graduate, Demarai Gray.
The next standout move when diving back into this fruitful market could well be Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Journalist Graeme Bailey recently revealed that a plethora of Championship clubs are now contemplating a move for the ex-Liverpool man, which includes Davies’ men, off the back of his Besiktas contract expiring.
Whilst Hwang is still actively participating in the Premier League, Oxlade-Chamberlain’s previous experience of the tough league is still eye-catching enough on its own to make the signing even more of a coup than splashing out £14m on the Old Gold forward, having amassed a whopping 235 top-flight appearances while on the books of both Arsenal and Liverpool.
Amazingly, although Birmingham would be able to obtain the seasoned 31-year-old for free, the Reds once had to fork out a whopping £35m to land the versatile midfielder’s services, with the 35-time England international then more than repaying that extortionate fee by being a trusty utility body at Anfield over many a season.
CM
76
7
10
RM
18
3
1
LM
14
2
1
LW
9
2
0
AM
7
2
2
RW
4
1
1
CF
1
0
0
Oxlade-Chamberlain’s much-loved flexibility when donning Liverpool red even saw him line up in Hwang’s centre-forward position on one occasion, leading to Jurgen Klopp labelling the Portsmouth-born star as “wonderful” to work with, despite recurring injury troubles.
Staggeringly, even as he played a bit-part role at points at Anfield, the 31-year-old only falls short of Hwang’s Premier League goal total by two, away from his well-known adaptability making him a figure Davies would surely love to have around the group in their moment of need.
One a free transfer too, it really does feel like an obvious decision on Birmingham’s end to snap up the one-time Premier League champion, instead of waiting around for everything to click into place concerning other far more expensive targets.
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