Birmingham City stance revealed as Blackburn Rovers, Swansea City and 3 others take action | OneFootball

The Championship sides are two of a number of second tier teams who are interested in Dembele.

Highlights

Birmingham City winger Siriki Dembélé is the reported target of enquiries from Blackburn Rovers and Swansea, as well as three other Championship sides, but the Blues are keen to keep hold of him.

In total, Darren Witcoop reported that five members of this year's second division have enquired about Dembélé, with Blackburn and Swansea the only two that were named.

Dembélé, 27, didn't have the best of seasons last time out. He wasn't favoured by Tony Mowbray during his short period as the Blues' boss due to concerns about his work rate.

He only started 26 of Birmingham's 46 league games last time out, but he did end the season with nine direct goal contributions (goals and assists).

Some of his best performances of the campaign, like when he scored twice against Huddersfield Town, came when current Blackburn boss John Eustace was at the helm. He seemingly wants to reunite with Dembélé, who he bought for Birmingham last summer for an undisclosed fee.

Even with the apparent poor effort that he was putting in, the former Premier League player has caught the eye of teams in his old division. Getting him won't be easy though, as he's seemingly moved into the new manager's good books.

Blackburn and Swansea enquire about Siriki Dembélé

Witcoop has reported that, despite the interest in the winger, who is believed to be valued at around the £1.5 million mark, from Blackburn, Swansea, and three other unnamed teams, Birmingham are happy to hold on to him.

Birmingham World have said that City were, at first, willing to let the wideman leave St Andrew's this summer, because of his diminished reputation due to the lack of effort he'd been putting in.

This stance hasn't entirely changed - they are still going to listen to offers for him - but things look to have changed since Chris Davies came into the building.

The new manager has been clear about the lack of tolerance that will be shown to those that don't work hard, and the problems that Dembélé had been labelled with are said to have vanished. He is reported to have put in much more effort and has impressed the manager.

Davies was aware of the complaints around Dembélé's willingness to do the hard yards under previous bosses, but he is happy to hold on to the 27-year-old, as per Birmingham World.

Birmingham are in a great position in the Siriki Dembélé negotiations

The money that the Blues are said to be throwing around this summer is ridiculous. They were reported to have tabled an offer of £6 million for former Fulham loanee Jay Stansfield this summer, which, if accepted, would be the highest fee ever paid by any League One club.

They are doing everything they can to get back to the Championship as quickly as possible, and having an apparent £20 million budget as a third tier side is going to make that task much easier to complete.

Not only does this ludicrous wallet size help to build the team, but it also leaves them in a strong position when it comes to the offloading of their players.

When a team like City, with the talent that they have, goes down, clubs from leagues above are going to be like vultures trying to pick off their top talents. But, because of the money that they have, they aren't as vulnerable to these swooping attacks.

There will need to be some balancing of the books eventually. For now, though, they can hold out for whatever fee they want for players like Dembélé, because receiving the money really doesn't matter that much to them.