Birmingham City strike 'agreement' with Premier League talent after Sheffield Wednesday loan

Birmingham City are preparing for life back in the Championship. They stormed to the League One title at the first time of asking last season. The Blues also smashed the record points tally in the process.

Chris Davies was appointed as their head coach 12 months ago and he has since done an impressive job. Prior to his move, he worked as the number of the likes of Leicester City, Celtic and Tottenham Hotspur. He has the chance to bring in some new faces this summer.

Birmingham City reach James Beadle agreement

Birmingham City are poised to bring in goalkeeper James Beadle on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion. He spent the last campaign with Sheffield Wednesday. The Telegraph journalist Mike McGrath has posted this update on X: “England Under-21 goalkeeper James Beadle to move to Birmingham after agreement reached with Brighton made over a season-long loan. The 20y-old officially #SWFC until end of month.”

Beadle, 20, rose up through the academy ranks at Charlton Athletic and was a regular for the Addicks at various different youth levels. He then switched to the AMEX Stadium in 2022 and has been loaned out a couple of times since then. The stopper was shipped out for the first time in 2023 for spells at Crewe Alexandra and Oxford United to get some experience under his belt.

The youngster then linked up with Sheffield Wednesday in January 2024. He helped the Owls stay up in the second tier in his first stint under Danny Rohl. The England youth international then re-signed for the Yorkshire club last summer and went on to make 38 appearances in all competitions last term as they finished 12th.

Will James Beadle be Birmingham City’s number one?

Beadle will battle it out with Ryan Allsop for the Birmingham number one spot. The latter was snapped up from Hull City 12 months ago. Bailey Peacock-Farrell is now facing an uncertain future and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him head out the exit door.

The London-born man lost his place between the sticks at Sheffield Wednesday to Pierce Charles during the latter stages of his Hillsborough loan. He has since said, as per The Yorkshire Post: "Overall it was a big learning experience to grow as a player and grow as a person. I think a lot of things happened – good games, bad games, but overall just a good time of improvement for me. Towards the end of my time at Wednesday I don't think I really performed to my best for whatever reason. Now after taking a step back I understand why and in this tournament and looking ahead I know what I need to do to be at my best more consistently."

Beadle is still young and has bags of potential. Davies will hope that he is able to get the best out of him with Birmingham. Allsop is a more experienced option and the pair will provide great competition for each other over the course of next season.