It’s fair to say that during the window there has been criticism of Blues’ transfer dealings – and I’ll admit quite a bit has come from these quarters.
On the face of it, the £25,000 per month retainer paid to Darren Dein might prove to be value for money with Blues concluding deals to bring in exciting talents such as Jota and Isaac Vassell as well as leader-types like Harlee Dean and Marc Roberts.
My doubts that the board would back Redknapp’s plans seem unfounded too with Blues breaking their transfer record to land Jota, with Brentford fansite Beesotted reporting that the Spaniard’s new contract with Blues is worth a whopping 40k per week.
Of course it’s not Blues without some disappointment and the audacious attempt to sign Alex Song from Rubin Kazan ended in failure.
While there has been no official word on what happened, there were strong rumours that there were some issues with Song’s medical. This meant Blues had to try and “Chucho” the situation, changing a permanent deal into a loan which ended in failure as they ran out of time to agree a loan fee with the Russian outfit.
That experience should also prove just how hard it is to say with any certainty that a transfer will happen.
Redknapp himself spoke on camera to a fan saying the deal for Song was done as he drove away from Wast Hills – and yet the deal was never confirmed.
Although Redknapp was happy to be quoted, the board kept a lower profile. However, there were some further clues as to the pecking order in the tweets made by Edward Zheng Gannan late on Thursday night.
Its not easy transfer window for all of us，but I must say the real Hero is @XuandongRen！He is an honorable man who made all of us BLUE? pic.twitter.com/GFRUkBwczP
— Edward Cheng (@Birmingnese) August 31, 2017
In some ways Blues’ season starts now as they will need to get their new players to quickly gel ahead of the next set of fixtures.
It also means the pressure is now back on Redknapp. Prior to the window closing he said he needed the players to improve the squad – and he’s got them. With no signings bar free agents possible until the January window it’s all about how well and how quickly Redknapp can mould this team together.
Although it’s going back some time, I can remember a good example of Redknapp doing just that.
In 2005/6 Portsmouth bought in eight players in the winter window, including Andres D’Alessandro on deadline day. Despite losing 5-0 to Blues in January in his second month in charge, Portsmouth lost just two of their last 10 games and finished 17th, four points ahead of Blues who were relegated.
Meanwhile in Hong Kong, a deadline of a different kind was extended further as once again the holding company Birmingham Sports Holdings delayed their release of information about their proposed Cambodian deal.
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