Birmingham City completed the summer transfer window with one of the highest quantities of arrivals in the Championship, despite being quite a way off the highest expenditure.
Tom Wagner and Tom Brady oversaw permanent transfers, loan moves and free agent arrivals for 14 new players for a net spend of just over £3.6 million for Chris Davies. They ranked 7th for highest net spend, and only a small number of teams had more arrivals; however, leading up to deadline day, Davies shared his desire for more arrivals:
“I think we need a little bit of reinforcement, just depth in our defensive area and again, we could do with a bit more depth, maybe higher up the pitch as well. But we have to see what the squad looks like in the next couple of days because there’s a lot of moving parts to it, as I said. But everyone’s trying, we’ll see what happens.”
The Blues did manage to bring in late additions in defender Jack Robinson and winger Patrick Roberts from Sheffield United and Sunderland respectively. However, it now looks like that deadline day didn’t satiate Davies’s desire for reinforcements and so Birmingham are looking to take advantage of the free agent market to bring in a Premier League-proven midfielder.
Birmingham front-runners to sign free agent Oxlade-Chamberlain
Birmingham City are looking to reinforce their midfield options and continue developing into a Premier League quality team by bringing in free agent and former Premier League winner Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Since leaving Liverpool in 2023, Oxlade-Chamberlain has been playing for the Turkish side Besiktas. However, in mid-August, it started being reported that Besiktas were looking to terminate Oxlade-Chamberlain’s contract and that the midfielder was interested in a move back to England. On August 27th, the Turkish side paid off the remaining £1.5 million of his contract, making him a free agent.
While any club could have signed the Nike-sponsored midfielder during the transfer window, clubs focused on deals that required an actual club-to-club transfer, as being a free agent, Oxlade-Chamberlain can be signed at any time.
Ever since the rumours of a contract termination first broke, Birmingham have been one of the most heavily connected teams. Football Insider’s Pete O’Rourke has now reported that Birmingham are at the forefront of the race to sign Oxlade-Chamberlain and are the leading candidates. However, they face competition from European teams as well as Premier League side Leeds United.
Opportunity to sign "wonderful" midfielder
If Birmingham can tempt Oxlade-Chamberlain away from his other suitors, they will be receiving a seasoned player with Champions League and International experience.
When he joined Besiktas, his former Liverpool manager, Jürgen Klopp, had plenty of praise, calling Oxlade-Chamberlain “wonderful”.
In the years since Klopp said this about Oxlade-Chamberlain, his injury record hasn’t improved. However, the experience that he can bring to the Birmingham side, having gone through a successful promotion campaign with Southampton and having copious amounts of Premier League experience, will make him an invaluable addition to the team.