Birmingham City consider pulling trigger for £1.5m midfielder transfer

Taylor Gardner-Hickman is hopeful Birmingham will make his loan move from Bristol permanent following an impressive start to the new season.

The versatile 22-year-old, capable of playing in the centre of the park or at right-back, has been a useful utility option for Blues this campaign. Gardner-Hickman has stepped up whenever called upon, particularly when Chris Davies needed a right wing-back in Ethan Laird’s absence throughout late August and September.

Gardner-Hickman played the full 90 minutes in central midfield as Birmingham beat Exeter City 2-1 in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday night. The former West Bromwich Albion man is loving life with Blues and wants to commit his long-term future to the club.

“I’m a Blues player for now and hopefully I show enough on the pitch and around the training ground to make them want to keep me on! We’ll see what happens,” he told Birmingham Live.

“I love playing in front of these fans. We have such a good away following. Credit to them for travelling three and a half, four hours, however long it was today. They showed up in their numbers and I feel like I’ve got a really good relationship with them.”

Birmingham have the option to buy Gardner-Hickman permanently from Bristol for a fee understood to be in the region of £1.5million. The clause hasn’t been activated yet but Davies could give the go-ahead in the upcoming January transfer window.

Although £1.5million is a significant fee at League One level, it’s an amount Blues are more than comfortable paying. It’s effectively a drop in the ocean for Tom Wagner given just how committed the chairman is to getting Birmingham promoted back to the Championship at the first time of asking.

Gardner-Hickman has made 15 appearances for Blues, accumulating 981 minutes. The former England under-20 international could rack up far more in the years to come.