What Chris Davies has said about Chuba Akpom, Marvin Ducksch in Birmingham City transfer reveal | OneFootball

Chris Davies has addressed Birmingham City's interest in both Chuba Akpom and Marvin Ducksch

Birmingham City head coach Chris Davies has broken his silence on Chuba Akpom and Marvin Ducksch, who have both emerged as leading transfer targets for the Second City club in recent times.

Blues are enjoying a second successive summer of lavish and ambitious spending under Knighthead Capital Management, with significant investment both on and off-the-pitch only progressing following last season's EFL-record League One title triumph with a points haul of 111.

Though freshly-promoted from English football's third-tier, Birmingham have gone about their business in a manner reflective of the club's ever-strengthening financial muscle and pulling power by brokering a number of exciting deals to enlist them firmly in promotion reckoning ahead of the 2025/26 Championship campaign, which they will initiate on Friday evening with a blockbuster clash against fellow title favourites Ipswich Town at St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park.

Birmingham have signed the likes of Eiran Cashin, Tommy Doyle, Kanya Fujimoto, Kyogo Furuhashi and Demarai Gray, although Davies remains intent on completing further moves before the conclusion of this summer's transfer window.

What Chris Davies has said about Chuba Akpom, Marvin Ducksch in Birmingham City transfer update

The attacking pair have both been strongly linked with a move to Birmingham in recent times.

Indeed, the saga surrounding Ajax forward Akpom this week has been something to behold, with no shortage of twists and turns. Over the weekend, Blues were the first Championship club to be credited with an interest in the ex-Middlesbrough talisman, who scored 28 goals during his final season at second-tier level before joining the Dutch giants two years ago.

It then emerged that Middlesbrough were plotting a sensational hijack, with Akpom having already agreed to join Birmingham, but Rob Edwards' side seemingly arrived too late in their pursuit as Ipswich Town entered the race.

Ajax agreed the terms of a loan deal with a £7 million obligation clause in the event of promotion to the Premier League with both Birmingham and Ipswich, and though their preference was for the striker to join Blues after their permanent £6 million offer, his heart is seemingly set on a switch to Portman Road instead.

According to the latest reports, Akpom's stance has prompted Birmingham to pull out of a deal as he prepares to undertake medical proceedings in Suffolk.

But although Davies' side will be licking their wounds after missing out on a swoop for Akpom, they have another lined up with the aforementioned Ducksch reportedly closing in on a £1.7 million switch to the West Midlands after Football League World exclusively revealed their interest in the two-cap German international forward last month.

Speaking ahead of Blues' Championship curtain-raiser at home to Ipswich tomorrow, Davies addressed both Akpom and Ducksch as he outlined the "need" to add a few more players before the end of the summer window.

Of Akpom, Davies explained: "With Chuba Akpom in particular I am aware there has been a lot of talk around him.

"From our point of view, he’s a player we know, a good player absolutely, but not someone I can go into specifics on because he’s an Ajax player right now.

"All I can say is there’s always a lot of moving parts when you're looking to bring players in. Is it a player that you want, is it going to work and will it all be right. You look at everything.

"We’re looking to add to the squad, definitely. We need to add a few more players, there’s no doubt about that, and I’m sure a few more might go out between now and the end of the window.

"I wouldn’t want to go into specifics out of respect to Ajax, who own the player. We’re clear on what we’re doing.”

"I don’t follow any of that stuff myself, all my concentration is on the game ahead. Anything else going on externally isn’t really of relevance.

“I don’t want to sit here and talk about players that don’t belong to us. We’ve been pretty clear all along about the players that we really want and that hasn’t wavered for me."

The former Tottenham Hotspur coach was, however, more open when it came to discussing Ducksch, who he described as a "very good player", before adding his desire to strengthen the striking options at his disposal.

He continued: "Marvin is a player I know well. He’s a very good player.

"I think the two strikers you’re talking about are similar in that sense, physical number nines as such.

"Marvin, I can’t talk too much about because he belongs to another club, but we do want to add to our striking options. We’ve had Alfie May move on, Lukas Jutkiewicz has retired.

"We had four strikers competing there last season and we need a similar pool for this season."

Chuba Akpom saga adds to Birmingham City v Ipswich Town box-office factor

The Akpom saga has come at a particularly fascinating time ahead of Friday's clash between the two sides, who both harbour promotion ambitions and will be vying to take the first step towards that by starting the season with victory.

It's not yet clear whether Akpom will be signed to Ipswich in time to be eligible for their trip to St Andrew's, but if he is, then what's already primed to be a blockbuster opening day showdown will have that extra bit of X-Factor.

It would be a sore sight for all of a Birmingham persuasion to see Akpom turn out against them for Ipswich, and if the Tractor Boys-bound forward were to get himself on the scoresheet, then it would represent an interesting and ironic turn of events indeed, considering just how close he was to joining Davies' side.