Birmingham City are ‘fighting hard’ to retain the services of Demarai Gray according to manager, Gary Rowett. The young player of the year is set to return next week following his England duties over the summer.
Gray has been the subject of various scouting missions for top clubs, and plenty of bids from a not so top club in Bournemouth, who in my opinion started off with some very insulting offers – trying to cash in on what they must have assumed was Blues weak financial position.
The club have stood firm, to the delight of the fans. But it has emerged that Gray’s people have been asking the club where they see themselves heading and obviously as a result of that, what level Gray will be playing at.
‘Without going into too much detail Demarai’s representatives want to know that the club is going in the right direction, they want to know where we see Demarai football-wise.’ Rowett told bcfc.com
There was also mention of wage negotiations, given that Gray may have the chance to head to the Premier league, without Blues, then they may be asking for a considerable pay increase. I do fear this is where Blues hands may be tied.
Yes the club can make assurances that the new owners are coming and that they are aiming to take the club up to the promised land, but can they break the wage budget? I’m not so sure.
As far as we know only Donaldson is paid above the wage budget after Clark told Mr Pavlakis that it was imperative that we sign him. Clark turned out to be right on that one.
Now will the club follow suit and promise Gray higher wages should he sign? Surely if any player in the squad is worth it, it is a player we can build a team around.
‘It’s always a situation with a player like him that we have got to fight hard to keep him because we want to send a good message out to the fans and we also want the team to be as competitive as possible next year and we see Demarai as being a huge part of that.’
Ahead of the first home fixture against, Reading. Check out the sensational first-half hat-trick last time they were at St Andrews.
Vital Birmingham credit the author and owner of this work as Birmingham City Football Club
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