Birmingham City in talks to strike Rangers deal | OneFootball

City's defence was massively aided by the defender last season.

Birmingham City have held talks with Rangers over a permanent move for centre-back Ben Davies.

The record-breaking campaign that Chris Davies' Blues completed last season was hugely aided by their defensive strength.

Often it wasn't their attacking firepower that was blowing teams away. They such a well-oiled machine that often it looked like they didn't have to try that hard in order to get three points.

A backline that conceded 31 goals all season and kept 22 clean sheets often involved a pairing of Davies and Christoph Klarer in the middle of it. The former Liverpool and Preston North End centre-half kept 20 clean sheets in 35 League One appearances for Birmingham last time out.

He joined City on loan towards the end of August and quickly established himself as a pillar at the back for his boss, who is now looking to bring the 29-year-old back to the Championship, where he played for Preston, permanently.

Birmingham eyeing permanent Ben Davies transfer

Birmingham have held talks with his parent club Rangers over the possibility of a permanent deal for Davies, according to Birmingham World.

Reinforcements in this area of the pitch have already been acquired with the free agent addition of Phil Neumann, the Hannover defender that signed a pre-contract agreement with the Blues back in January.

They had tried to buy the 27-year-old German from the Bundesliga 2 outfit last summer, but they weren't willing to sell him and Birmingham's bid was turned down.

Any return to St Andrew's for Davies could be delayed by former Southampton boss Russell Martin. He has recently taken the reins at Ibrox and wishes to assess the left-footed defender in pre-season before sanctioning any move for the 29-year-old.

Birmingham are also keen on fellow former Rangers loanee Kieran Dowell, but they are giving priority to the Davies deal, as per Birmingham World.

In case Davies, who has one year left on his Rangers deal, is not available this summer, a shortlist of alternatives has reportedly been put together.

Birmingham shouldn't prioritise buying Ben Davies

It is a little bit of a surprise to see such an emphasis being put on bulking up their resources at the back, given how solid they were last season.

Their glaring weakness, if there was one, was on the wings. Aside from Keshi Anderson, Birmingham didn't get great production from their wide attacking options.

They were looking at Kwame Poku, who now appears set to join Queens Park Rangers, but started to look at other options as they got frustrated with how long the free agent's decision on where to go next after Peterborough United was taking.

Ben Jacobs has reported that Blues have reached an agreement with Al-Ettifaq to sign Demarai Gray, with the last details of personal terms being worked on. A move like this makes a lot more sense for Birmingham than reinforcing an already strong area of their squad.