Six of Birmingham City’s league rivals didn’t spend a penny over the summer as clubs hold off on spending

It was a hectic summer for Birmingham City due to ongoing takeover issues.

Lee Bowyer also departed and was replaced by John Eustace.

As per a report by The Athletic, six of the Blues’ Championship rivals didn’t fork out anything on transfer fees in the last window.

QPR, Rotherham United, Bristol City, Stoke City, Coventry City and Reading didn’t spend anything, whilst Wigan Athletic and Preston North End only dealt with ‘nominal’ amounts.

Birmingham’s business

Despite not being in a position to properly splash the cash, Birmingham were still able to bring in eight signings over the summer.

The landscape of business in the Football League seems to have changed now, with Tahith Chong being the only player to arrive at St. Andrew’s for a fee of around £1.5million from Manchester United, according to a report by BBC Sport.

Experienced goalkeeper John Ruddy was the only other permanent arrival, with the rest coming in on loan.

Hannibal Mejbri (Manchester United), Auston Trusty (Arsenal), Dion Sanderson (Wolves), Krystian Bielek (Derby County), Przemysław Płacheta (Norwich City) and Emmanuel Longelo (West Ham United) are all due to return to their parent clubs next summer.

Bringing in loanees can work wonders for clubs as these types of players are eager to show what they can do. However, it is hard to really build a squad knowing that a lot are only playing for you temporarily.

Birmingham have had a tough start to the new campaign and find themselves 21st in the table, with two wins from their opening eight games.

They will be hoping their victory away at Preston North End last time out can help them kick-start their season and their match at home to Swansea City this weekend is an opportunity to pick up back-to-back victories.

Eustace seems to be a popular manager and went over to celebrate with the fans at Deepdale last time out (see tweet below):

The departing Ryan Woods, who left for Hull City last month, also had some kind words to say about him, as per a report by Hull Live:

“I was enjoying working with the gaffer (John Eustace), he’s a real good gaffer in my opinion, but it is what it is, it’s football.”