Jude Bellingham is a rare chance for Birmingham City to make serious money.
This once in a lifetime opportunity that puts BCFC in the right headlines for once, has to be handled by the right people. Forget the Clotet and Ren side of things, but by the higher ranking business world attached to TTA. Simply put, we need every possible expertise at hand to secure not only a mouth watering deal but a deal to stabilise the club’s finances for the future.
This unbelievably rare opportunity is not for the emotional, where supporters want to see ‘one of their own’ grace St.Andrews, although very understandable outlook. Trevor Francis was similar but we had him for a few seasons. Jim Smith had to sell TF, as the first £1m transfer was unheard of at that time.
Jude is similar but in a different way. He needs top Coaching, top players around him and top advisors in order to forge a career path that will undoubtedly lead to international honours for most of his career. Blues need to sell at the very highest and hopefully our hierarchy will be able to succeed.
The question is whether he goes now, or later on – a big, big call.
We all have our views and we all want the best for the player, no doubting that. Our club is not big and it is not clever at the moment, with prospects of Premier League football very dim, players of worth will go just like Redmond, Butland and Gray before, but if money received from the Bellingham deal is spent on certain areas of the playing side then who knows.
Between now and next week’s closing of the transfer window, we will be wiser about this talked about transfer. Figures around £30m will probably be quashed and different ones come out -whatever – the most important thing for me is that this is handled by top people and professionally.
We do not want past episodes of disastrous handling of the club’s crucial decisions at crucial times to be repeated. Let us hope they get it right this time as a similar scenario may be many years away. Jude Bellingham is a one-off situation where top management must be astute.