"Minimum of £3 million" - Birmingham City player fee prediction delivered after relegation | OneFootball

Highlights

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Birmingham City were relegated to the third tier of English football for the first time since 1995 and will be wary of losing key players such as Krystian Bielik this summer.

Last summer, Blues confirmed the permanent signing of Bielik from Derby County for an initial fee reported to be below £1 million after spending the season prior on loan to St. Andrew's and impressed under John Eustace.

He signed a three-year deal with the West Midlands club. After suffering multiple cruciate ligament injuries, Bielik's career could have already been over. Still, he managed to stay fit for the Blues for the last two seasons and justified why they made a move for him last year for a low-risk fee.

Bielik is the sort of profile that could be transformative for Birmingham if they are able to retain him in League One, as he is the sort of midfielder that can help them dominate games, and a player to build the team around for a promotion push.

He was one of the players to emerge with real credit in spite of the club's relegation from the Championship and proved to be a snip at such a low fee, in part due to the fact Derby once paid a club-record £9.5 million fee to Arsenal for the Polish midfielder.

The verdict on Krystian Bielik

Blues fans will be hopeful that they can keep Bielik at the club this summer, especially with Bielik one of the stars of the new kit reveal, sparking debate about where his future lies. However, such a fee paid by Derby helps to highlight the midfielder's quality and explains why Birmingham may have very little chance of keeping him for 2024/25.

FLW's Birmingham City fan pundit, Mike Gibbs, has weighed in on the recent discussion and believes that Bielik could even have Premier League suitors, whilst not remaining very optimistic about the club's chances of keeping him in the third tier.

He said: "I think that is a tough one with Bielik.

"There's part of me that can see him sticking around, primarily because there's not an international tournament at the end of next summer.

"There, he doesn't need to be playing Championship football to get that, like it was when he first moved to Birmingham. "At the same time, he easily can play at a higher level than League One. I'd argue that he could pushing for the Premier League. "I'd love to see him stay. I think, realistically, that I don't believe he will. "I expect that he'll move on but we have him under contract for a few years, and he's a good age. "We paid about a million for him. My personal view is that he's easily worth £5 million. "Now, I don't know if we will be able to dictate that amount [in League One] and we may be willing to accept a lower amount.

"I think we should be looking for an absolute minimum of £3 million, personally."

Birmingham's chances of retaining Bielik

Bielik is a strong, aggressive, combative, and comfortable midfielder in possession. He can progress the ball, has good press-resistant qualities, can break up play, and at his best has a real engine in midfield as well.

All of that, and his age, is exactly why he will have suitors at a higher level, as Mike alludes to. For the price paid last summer, a whole host of clubs at the top end of the Championship should have been taking a chance on his injury record, especially when taking into account his age as well.

Had they survived in the Championship, it would have been totally unsurprising if Birmingham had turned a large profit on the Polish international, who could have had enormous resale value for Blues.

As it is, there is far less chance of achieving a fee of £5 million or more, with £3 million perhaps a more realistic outcome for the Polish international to depart Birmingham this summer.