Birmingham City could land smart upgrade with cheeky offer for £2.5m Norwich City ace

Birmingham City will want the summer break to go by as quickly as possible as they look ahead to next season’s highly anticipated return to the Championship.

Blues obliterated records in League One and the EFL - as well as globally - with an extraordinary tally of 111 points from 46 games last term. Chris Davies went the entire season unbeaten in the league at St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park and only lost three games on the road, simultaneously meeting and exceeding all of their lofty expectations.

The Championship will be a different kettle of fish, though, and Birmingham will have to be at their very best to achieve their target of a play-off finish at the first time of asking. The current squad is clearly in a good place from last campaign’s success but further transfer business will be pivotal in helping Blues to shift closer to the Premier League sooner rather than later.

Blues are expected to have deep pockets if they require them this summer but that won’t stop the club from attempting cheap - or preferably feeless - transfers to plug gaps. There are so many great opportunities to utilise the free agents’ market and Birmingham, with their mega wage budget, can blow the competition out of the water to land targets in this area.

Birmingham swoop for reliable Norwich star makes sense

One player Blues should try to sign on a free transfer, in our opinion, is the outgoing Norwich City goalkeeper Angus Gunn. One of Birmingham’s priorities this summer is bringing in a new shot-stopper because current number two, Bailey Peacock-Farrell, simply hasn’t been up to standard.

Peacock-Farrell initially began just ahead of Ryan Allsop in the pecking order but the pair swapped around in the autumn as Davies realised the contrast in form and confidence between the two. Allsop, a boyhood Bluenose, extraordinarily clinched the League One Golden Glove with 21 clean sheets despite only playing 38 of the 46 matches available.

Although Allsop played very well for much of the season, it’s a real luxury to have two top-level goalkeepers and Blues have the finances to make that a reality. They don’t even need to fork out anything for a transfer fee, either, if they move for a free agent target.

Gunn, who has spent the past four seasons at Norwich following a £2.5 million move from Southampton in 2021, will be available for nothing from June 30 and is a viable option. The 15-time Scotland international conceded 42 goals and kept eight clean sheets in 35 Championship matches throughout 2024/25.

The 29-year-old has racked up a mega 172 appearances for Norwich, nine of which were in the Premier League and a further 151 have been in the Championship. Gunn played 22 times for Southampton in the top flight, too, while he started his career at Manchester City but never made a senior appearance.

It awaits to be seen if Birmingham are keen on signing Gunn but there’s bound to be widespread interest from Championship clubs given he’s so proven and experienced at this level. The goalkeeper has played on one of the biggest stages for Scotland, too, as he started all three of the Tartan Army’s three UEFA EURO 2024 matches in Germany.

AFC Bournemouth’s Mark Travers is a known transfer target for Blues but the 26-year-old would likely cost several million to sign. Gunn may not have played in the Premier League as recently as Travers, but there’s realistically not a huge gulf in quality between the two players. It’ll be interesting to see which direction Blues head in, but a swoop for Gunn surely has to be at least considered.