Birmingham City transfer revelation emerges involving 32-year-old | OneFootball

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Football League World

·26 June 2022

Birmingham City transfer revelation emerges involving 32-year-old

Article image:Birmingham City transfer revelation emerges involving 32-year-old

Championship outfit Birmingham City are looking for a replacement for Neil Etheridge this summer because the shot-stopper will trigger a clause that would increase his wage if he makes a few more appearances, according to Alan Nixon.

The 32-year-old spent the early stages of last season out of action after being hospitalised with Covid-19, though Matija Sarkic filled the void left by the Philippines international extremely well.


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Sarkic even kept Etheridge on the bench up until his injury in the winter, with the Wolverhampton Wanderers’ stopper being sidelined for the remainder of the 2021/22 campaign after dislocating his shoulder.

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Article image:Birmingham City transfer revelation emerges involving 32-year-old

Where do Birmingham City play their home games?

Loftus Road Sixfields Stadium The Hawthorns St Andrew's

Lee Bowyer’s side have looked at a number of new goalkeepers already this summer, with the West Midlands outfit unsurprisingly interested in reuniting with Sarkic.

However, he looks set to remain at Molineux as a first-team option for Bruno Lage and they may be unsuccessful in their pursuit of Jack Butland too, with the Crystal Palace goalkeeper reportedly not wanting a return to St Andrew’s.

Despite this, it seems though they will continue pursuing a new option in this position to either keep Etheridge on the bench or enable them to offload him. Either of these options could help to ensure Bowyer has a slightly healthier transfer budget at his disposal this summer.

The Verdict:

This is an interesting situation because Etheridge’s future could potentially change overnight if new owners come in at St Andrew’s, with a new investor potentially prepared to keep him at the club.

At this level, he’s a great option to have but as Sarkic showed, he isn’t irreplaceable and with his pay rise coming down the tracks, they may benefit from offloading him.

They may utilise the loan market heavily again in the coming months – but they may still need to pay a portion of their loanees’ wages so this summer may not be a cheap one for them if they want to bring in several players.

And they are in desperate need of addressing many areas including their goalkeeping department, centre-back area, wing-back position and they may also need to add some firepower up top too.

This will increase their wage bill and the last thing they could do with right now is a pay rise for one of their existing first-teamers, so you can understand why they want to search for a new first-choice stopper.

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