Exclusive: Don Goodman urges Birmingham City action on Chris Davies outcast - it makes "perfect sense" | OneFootball

Dion Sanderson's Birmingham City career looks all-but over at present

Don Goodman has urged Birmingham City to take action on Dion Sanderson's immediate future at St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park as the defender looks to have fallen further down the pecking order.

Blues return to the Championship as a different beast altogether in comparison to the club which was relegated after a chaotic and unsettling season in 2023/24, with Chris Davies continuing to receive ample backing from Knighthead Capital Management when it comes to pursuing a whole host of transfer targets.

Many outsiders have already tipped last season's runaway League One champions and EFL points-record holders to make an immediate mark on the second tier this season, and those claims have been backed up by several high-profile additions such as former Celtic cult hero, Kyogo Furuhashi, who significantly bolsters an already impressive attacking department.

Shifting focus back to Davies' rearguard, Phil Neumann was a previous long-term target for the 40-year-old, and his move from Hannover 96 to the West Midlands was made official on July 1st after a pre-contract agreement was concluded in mid-January, the same period which Sanderson made a temporary switch away from the Second City to reunite with former Blues boss, John Eustace, at Blackburn Rovers - albeit briefly.

It was exclusively revealed by Football League World earlier this month that Sanderson, alongside Tyler Roberts, Emil Hansson and Alfons Sampsted, had been omitted from Davies' early pre-season training camp in Portugal.

Therefore, with the defender still having two years left to run on his current deal, Goodman has urged the club to strike an agreement which allows the 25-year-old to source regular minutes at a pivotal period in his individual career.

"It feels pretty clear from the outside looking in that Dion Sanderson isn't going to be in the plans of Chris Davies at Birmingham City," the Sky Sports pundit exclusively told Football League World.

"Therefore, it would make perfect sense if they could get a bit of money for him, and it would make perfect sense for him, if he was going to go to a team where he'd be playing week-in, week-out, which wasn't actually the case when he went on loan to Blackburn Rovers last season," Goodman explained.

"I noticed, of the 12 matches he played (for Blackburn), he only started four of them. So, a fresh start for a player who is 25 years old, in his prime, and obviously needs to be looking for a club where he's going to play week-in, week-out," he added.

Dion Sanderson needs to consider a fresh start away from Birmingham City

Sanderson's three spells with Blues have been extremely mixed, having impressed supporters during the second of his loan switches from local rivals Wolves, which led to the aforementioned Eustace pressing forward with a £2m permanent switch two summers ago.

However, the centre-back's form took a massive dip as Blues nose-dived towards the third-tier under several permanent and temporary managers. Sanderson also lost hold of the club captaincy during this period, before finding his minutes extremely limited under Davies at the beginning of the season, largely due to the performance levels of Krystian Bielik, Christoph Klarer and Ben Davies, as well as injury-related issues.

The Wednesfield-born man's last league appearance for Blues came in a two-minute cameo against Northampton Town last November, in which Mitch Pinnock netted a 96th-minute equaliser for the Cobblers, with many supporters giving the defender a fair share of blame for the concession.

There is no doubt that a fresh start is needed for all parties, although it remains to be seen where Sanderson's next move could take him, with talk of a reunion