Birmingham City defender 'agrees' League One move after failed Barnsley transfer
Birmingham City defender Emmanuel Longelo has reportedly agreed a move to a League One rival.
According to a post shared on the Twitter account of Football Insider, the left-back has agreed to join Cambridge United on a loan deal. A move away from St Andrew’s always seemed likely, especially given the recent comments of manager Chris Davies, who had hoped they’d seek pastures new.
Last week when asked about Longelo and Juninho Bacuna's future, he said to Birmingham Live: "They are still ongoing. My understanding is that both were close to a move that didn’t materialise. Hopefully in the next two weeks that will be settled and taken care of and they can move on to new challenges.”
The 23-year-old has not been included in any of Birmingham's games this season. In July, he was strongly linked with a move to Barnsley, and a deal had reportedly been agreed, but that didn't come to fruition. Alex Dicken, the Birmingham City reporter for Birmingham Live revealed that personal terms couldn’t be agreed with the Tykes, and he remained at the club.
Longelo is under contract until the summer of 2026, and so there's still more than a year to go until his contract expires. He only joined from West Ham 18 months ago, joining for a reported £400,000 after initially joining on loan.
His new club boss will be former Birmingham City manager Garry Monk, who already signed Gary Gardner following his departure this summer from St Andrew’s. It's been a winless start to the campaign for the U's, who lost to Stockport County and Crawley Town in the league, whilst also going out to QPR in the Carabao Cup.
Birmingham host Cambridge on Saturday, October 12, before meeting at the Abbey Stadium on the final day of the regular season. In most loan agreements, the parent club prohibits the player from playing against them, and so Longelo wouldn’t be able to play against Birmingham.