Birmingham City manager Harry Redknapp has confirmed to the Birmingham Mail that the club have enquired about bringing Ajax left-back Mitchell Dijks to St. Andrew’s.
Dijks, 24, spent the second half of last season on loan at Championship rivals Norwich where he made 15 appearances and scored once during that time.
With Redknapp confirming the news about Dijks, it’s clear that he’s on the hunt for a left-back to bolster his options.
Currently, Jonathan Grounds is our only out-and-out left-back available to us and the search for another one clears up something else.
That is the future of Cheick Keita going forward. It’s clear to us all that the 21-year-old is much better attacking than he is defending and a role as a left-back just doesn’t suit him.
The youngster has bags of potential and his unique style of play means that he can’t be trusted defensively and requires more freedom down that left side.
You could say that he works best in a five-at-the-back formation where there is cover for him should he find himself out of position.
However, I can’t imagine that Redknapp will deploy a system that has five defenders in so Keita, in my opinion, is very much seen as a left midfielder/winger.
It’s now up to Redknapp to help Keita in making that transition that will allow him to fulfil that potential.
You could, in someways, compare this situation to one that Redknapp had to deal with at Tottenham with Gareth Bale.
He helped covert him into a winger and move him further up the pitch. Obviously this situation is totally different but you can see the similarity.
There’s a fair bit of competition on that left side with the likes of Jaques Maghoma, Kerim Frei and even Che Adams so Keita may have his work cut out but hopefully it’s something he`ll relish.
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