West Ham ‘preparing £10m bid’ for Birmingham City-linked midfielder

West Ham United are reportedly preparing a summer bid for Sunderland wonderkid Chris Rigg, several months after Birmingham City were linked with an audacious swoop.

Rigg, still just 17 years of age, has racked up an impressive 2,500 minutes across 34 Championship appearances so far this season. The central midfielder made his breakthrough as an impact substitute last campaign and has kicked on in 2024/25, contributing four goals and one assist in his 29 league starts.

Sunderland have impressed this term and are on track to comfortably qualify for the Championship play-offs. The Black Cats are rather in no man’s land in fourth spot, nine points behind Burnley in third and 10 points ahead of sixth-placed Coventry City. The gap up to Sheffield United and Leeds United in the automatic promotion positions, meanwhile, stands at 11 points.

It would be foolish, perhaps, for Rigg to leave his boyhood club with Sunderland so close to achieving their promotion ambitions but a transfer to the Premier League could be tempting if the Black Cats fail to go up this year.

Sun journalist Alan Nixon reports - via his Patreon page - that West Ham have “initiated talks” to sign Rigg and have already proposed a deal worth £10 million. Sunderland are said to be holding out for closer to £20 million in order to sell their prized youngster.

It was only last July that Rigg committed his long-term future to the Wearside club as he signed his first professional contract, but that deal only runs through to June 2027. As a result, Sunderland have leverage but only to an extent with only just over two years to be left on Rigg’s terms.

Could Birmingham sign Chris Rigg?

Blues were sensationally linked with Rigg last summer - also by Nixon - with a report suggesting Chris Davies’ side had been monitoring the midfielder’s progress. Although Blues wouldn’t offer a step up to the Premier League and it would ultimately be a step down to a team only just being promoted to the Championship, the finances of a potential deal could be tricky to turn down.

To meet Sunderland’s reported asking price of £20 million, Birmingham would have to break their transfer record again. The fee that brought Jay Stansfield to St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park from Fulham is understood to be just below £15 million after add-ons, so signing Rigg would blitz the record.

Bluenoses shouldn’t get too excited, however, as it’s extremely unlikely that Birmingham would be able to convince Rigg to leave Sunderland. As a result, it’s worth looking at alternative transfer targets.

One potential option - albeit far less thrilling than Rigg - could be Kieran Dowell, who is already in-house as such. On loan from Rangers, the attacking midfielder has made a superb impact in the number 10 and right winger roles since arriving in January.

The former Everton and Norwich City man has been in the top 10 per cent of League One players for seven different metrics per 90 minutes – including touches, shots on target, expected goals, expected assists, successful passes, successful crosses and accurate long balls.

As Rangers weren’t too bothered about keeping the 27-year-old around in January and his contract at the Ibrox Stadium comes to an end in June 2026, Birmingham could secure a cut-price deal – just as they did to sign Scott Wright. It awaits to be seen just how much Rangers would want for Dowell.