Birmingham City should be keeping a watchful eye on Man Utd midfielder after recent development: View | OneFootball

Manchester United’s Hannibal Mejbri is someone that Birmingham City will remember fondly from their time together last season.

The midfielder spent the entire of the 2022/23 Championship campaign with the Blues and left a good memory as he impressed under former manager John Eustace.

A year on, Birmingham are now under a different manager and face different circumstances as the club looks to continue their stay in the second tier.

Obviously, the whole football club will be keeping focused on beating the drop this season, and the hope will be that, if and once that is confirmed, they can then start turning their attention to what they plan to do this summer.

The disappointment of this campaign may mean the club looks to make several changes in the summer, and new developments around Hannibal could mean the Blues potentially look at doing another deal.

After impressing on loan with Birmingham last season, it wasn’t clear what would happen with Hannibal Mejbri at Old Trafford in this campaign.

The Tunisian international was given a pre-season to impress manager Erik ten Hag, and in fact he did, as he was refused to leave the club in the summer and remained a part of the first team.

Unfortunately, the 21-year-old was limited to just a handful of appearances, making 10 for the Red Devils in all competitions between August and January.

Hannibal did impress in his first start against Burnley earlier this season, but since then he has only been given a few minutes here and there off the bench.

So, with Man United getting players back from injury, Hannibal fell further down the pecking order, and that resulted in him being sent out on loan to Sevilla in January.

However, it hasn’t been a successful loan spell, with the midfielder playing just four times for the Spanish side so far, and one has only come as a start.

Hannibal played 53 minutes against Real Sociedad a few weeks ago, but then was back on the bench in the next two games before missing the game against Getafe completely.

Now, with the disappointment of the loan, it has been reported by the Manchester Evening News that Hannibal is expected to return to Manchester United this summer.

Birmingham City should keep an eye on the developments of Hannibal Mejbri

It is reported that Hannibal Mejbri is likely to return to Old Trafford this summer may be a disappointment for the Premier League club, as when it was agreed the player would join Sevilla, a £17 million option to make the deal permanent was included.

While Man United and Sevilla also agreed to the Premier League side having a buy-back clause in the deal to prepare for a deal being agreed.

So, all indications pointed to United looking to let Hannibal leave the club at the end of this season, so his loan with Sevilla turning out to be a disappointment may not come as good news.

That will mean they will have Hannibal back at the club, and they will have to look once again at agreeing a new deal with a club, which may be harder given his spell with the Spanish side.

The midfielder is contracted to Old Trafford until the summer of 2025, so it means Man United could be looking at another loan deal this summer or looking to get him off the books on a permanent basis.

Either way, Birmingham City should be keeping an eye on his situation, as he could potentially be open to a return to the Blues after impressing last season.

Hannibal started 21 of the 38 Championship games he played last season, during which he scored one goal and grabbed five assists.

The midfielder isn’t well known for his scoring ability, as he averaged a goal every 1956 minutes of football, but he wasn’t afraid of taking chances at goal, as he averaged 0.4 shots on goal, as per Sofascore.com.

Hannibal was more known for his ball work, creating six big chances for the Blues, which also led to him collecting 0.9 key passes from his 72% pass accuracy per game.

The Tunisian international wasn’t afraid of doing the dirty work, a factor that made him a fan favourite at Birmingham, as he averaged 1.3 tackles per game, 0.7 interceptions, and won the ball back 0.4 times, as per Sofascore.com.

Obviously, Birmingham are unlikely to be willing to pay what Manchester United may be looking for, but they could offer the midfielder a chance to get back to playing his best and enjoying his football once again while he decides what he wants to do next in his career.

Man United know that Hannibal did well with the Blues last time, and they could look at that again when deciding what to do with the player this summer. Furthermore, Birmingham may lose Jordan James this summer, so signing Hannibal may be a good first step in finding a suitable replacement.