€4m Birmingham City bid rejected - League One transfer record would have been broken

Birmingham City have reportedly had a big-money offer for Phil Neumann turned down by Hannover 96.

According to Florian Plettenberg, a journalist for Sky Sports in Germany, an official offer was made for Neumann in the last few days. A verbal agreement was apparently already in place, but now have some hurdles to overcome.

Blues made an offer of €4m with add-ons included, but Hannover rejected it immediately after. The 2. Bundesliga club are 'still not willing' to sell Neumann, despite there being only one year left on his contract. He is also attracting interest from Serie A outfit Lecce, but as of Monday (July 15), no talks had taken place.

Neumann is a centre-back that is also capable of playing right-back, and could fit in to various different systems. The highest level Neumann has played at is the 2.Bundesliga which is the second tier of German football.

He was a part of a few Schalke squads during their time in the Bundesliga, and was even part of a Europa League squad, but he never got to enter the pitch with them. Neumann has been with Hannover since 2022, and has made 64 appearances for them so far. He has three goals and two assists, and last term he missed just two league games, starting 32 times as his club finished sixth.

Standing at six foot and three inches, Neumann could be a welcome addition to the Birmingham back line. Their current central defensive options are Dion Sanderson and Krystian Bielik, and so reinforcements in defence are needed to help cover what is a long campaign.

If the report is to be believed that a €4m offer was made then that would have broken the record for a fee paid by a club in League One. Sunderland paid a reported £3m to sign Will Grigg from Wigan Athletic in 2019, and just this summer, Emil Hansson became the fourth most expensive signing, having joined for a reported £1.5m.