adminDirector gives update as Birmingham City target £4.2M forward Antoine Griezmann raved about
Birmingham City appear to have missed out on Kwame Poku to Rangers but, as the Championship newcomers eye yet more Eredivisie talent, alternatives to the Peterborough United talisman are still plentiful enough.
Chris Davies’ League One champions Birmingham City held talks with Kwame Poku as they stormed to the third-tier title last season.
But while the second city giants have become accustomed to landing their top targets in the Tom Wagner era, this is one which looks increasingly likely to slip through the net.
Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony fears Poku is on his way to Rangers instead. Thus, denying Posh the sort of considerable compensation fee they would have demanded from St Andrews. And also robbing Birmingham City of a winger they had placed near the top of their summer wishlist.
“He’s considering his options,” football correspondent Graeme Bailey exclusively told EFL Analysis last week. “Darragh MacAnthony is a very worried man in case Poku decides to go abroad [or to Scotland].
“There is interest from the Championship, with Birmingham mentioned before, but Rangers is definitely a move Poku is open to.”
The Blues bosses, then, may find themselves in the relatively rare situation of having to cast their sights over alternative transfer targets. Take NEC Nijmegen wideman Sontje Hansen, for instance.
Birmingham City yet to make an offer for NEC Nijmegen star Sontje Hansen
While Birmingham have considered bringing Demarai Gray back to where it all began – EFL Analysis have learned that he can leave Al-Ettifaq for around £6 million – Hansen is expected to be available for much less than that.
He is, therefore, more affordable than Blues academy graduate Gray. And more attainable than the seemingly-Ibrox bound Poku.
NEC Nijmegen are reportedly holding out for £4.2 million, having turned down offers from Sheffield United and Burnley during the January transfer window.
Birmingham were also linked with Sontje Hansen during the winter. Presuming they kept their eyes on the Netherlands Under-21 international – and Sky Sports believe they did – they will have seen Hansen end the 2024/25 campaign with seven goals and four assists across all competitions.
Formerly of the feted Ajax academy, this was the 23-year-old’s best return in senior football.
Technical director Carlos Aalbers, though, insists that there are no official offers yet from Birmingham City or beyond. Furthermore, with NEC keen to force their way into continental competition after their dramatic defeat by FC Twente in the European play-offs, the Gelderland outfit are unlikely to be greeting Birmingham’s interest with much encouragement.
“[Our] policy is built on multiple pillars. We want to create even more value on the field,” Aalbers tells De Gelderlander. “Young players [like Hansen] with potential must then continue to grow. And of course we want to score high in the Eredivisie.
“There must be a quality improvement in every area.”
Aalbers accepts that Hansen, like many of the club’s key performers, has plenty of admirers. There are, he says, ‘a lot of enquires’. But ‘no concrete offers’ just yet.
Antoine Griezmann was impressed by Hansen during U17 World Cup
That could change, though, if Rangers complete the signing of Kwame Poku and if Birmingham settle on Sontje Hansen as their next priority target to reinforce the wide areas of Chris Davies’ squad.
“I think he’s a really good player,” Karim El Ahmadi, the Eredivisie Player of the Year when Feyenoord won the league in 2017, tells ESPN of Hansen. “In Ajax’s academy, he was already considered a great talent. He now has to make sure he continues to develop and keeps playing minutes.
“Hansen is certainly a weapon for NEC. He is a really good player.”
According to The Guardian, Manchester City, Inter Milan and Juventus all took note of Hansen when he won the Golden Boot at the U17 World Cup back in 2020.
The iconic Antoine Griezmann even contacted him to tell the jet-heeled forward just how impressed he had been in a footballer who, half a decade later, still has more than enough time on his side as he looks to unleash his potential to its fullest.
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