Premier League club in attendance to watch over £10m Birmingham City star against Sunderland

Birmingham City could be at the heart of a transfer saga in the summer after news emerged of Crystal Palace's interest in one of their players.

The Eagles according to talkSPORT are monitoring Jordan James' situation at St Andrew's. It is reported by the broadcaster that Dougie Freedman, Palace's sporting director was in attendance at Saturday's 2-1 win over Sunderland. James was on target for Birmingham as he netted an equaliser against the Black Cats before Koji Miyoshi won the match.

Birmingham throughout January wondered whether a club would meet their £10m valuation of the player but no one did. Atlanta made a bid for James in the early stages of the window whilst they were managerless after sacking Wayne Rooney but did not meet City's valuation.

The 19-year-old is under contract until the summer of 2025 and following the conclusion of the 2023/24 season, he will enter the final year of his original contract when the players return for pre-season. Birmingham do have an option to extend his stay by a further year however and that would offer them some security and would allow them to stick to their valuation.

Crystal Palace paid £22m to Blackburn Rovers for the services of midfielder Adam Wharton in the January transfer window and that would allow Birmingham to put themselves in a similar negotiating position. Wharton is slightly older than James and made just over 50 appearances for Blackburn before he departed Ewood Park. James is seven games shy of 100 senior games for Birmingham and so the club has every right to demand a fee that they deem right for them.

James has played for Birmingham 35 times this season with 20 of those being starts. He has limited to a substitute role under John Eustace but Wayne Rooney and Tony Mowbray made him a key part of their team. James has seven goals which all came in the Championship and that includes a brace against Leicester City.

A big summer lies in store for James as he will be hoping to be a part of EURO 2024 with Wales. They are involved in the play-offs in March against Finland and having travelled to Qatar for a learning experience for the FIFA World Cup, he will want to play a part in his first major tournament. James has eight caps for Wales after making his debut in March 2023 and has started the last six games.

In other news, Birmingham City Women have been dealt a huge blow after one of their players were ruled out for the remainder of the season. Jamie Finn has sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury according to WSL Full-Time. She was on international duty with the Republic of Ireland and is now expected to miss the remainder of the current campaign and the beginning of the 2024/25.

Birmingham are currently fifth in the FA Women's Championship and are five points off of league leaders Sunderland though they do have a game in hand. Their next game comes after the international break against Crystal Palace on Sunday, March 3 at 2.00 pm at the Borough Sports Ground.