Birmingham are already bracing themselves for bids when it comes to Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund-linked Jude Bellingham, with Blues boss Pep Clotet conceding it could be a “busy summer”.
A highly-rated academy graduate at St Andrew’s is attracting mounting interest from afar at just 16 years of age.
Having burst onto the scene in the Championship, it is now being suggested that he could be offered a step up onto Premier League or Bundesliga stages. Plenty are willing to buy into his obvious potential, with leading sides across Europe eager to acquire the services of a player who could star for them over a prolonged period of time.
Birmingham will be reluctant sellers if there is a deal to be done, but Clotet concedes that fending off the advances for Bellingham is set to become ever more difficult.
He told Sky Sports, with the coronavirus outbreak expected to have some impact on transfer dealings: “What I’m very happy about now is that Jude is here with us and all the players are here with us as well. We focus on that really, but I understand there’s going to be more speculation when the games do come back.
“As a head coach, I don’t deal with transfers, it’s the club. But I can imagine the situation has all the clubs very worried about how to finish this season and what impact this season has into next season.
“That can change a lot of the future of the clubs. Possibly it’s going to be a busy summer, possibly it’s going to be less busy, we still don’t know what impact it will have.”
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Clotet concedes that Birmingham may be forced into parting with a prized asset in an effort to generate funds, with many Football League clubs facing up to a difficult future after seeing lockdown rid them of vital income sources.
The Blues manager added: “It's a lot up to what work every club is doing and how they're structured and organised, but I'm pretty sure that will always happen in the Championship, League One and League Two.
“We are talking a lot about how to finish this season, but we're forgetting that next season is only a month or two months after and the situation will have a huge impact.
“The season tickets will not be there because you can't access the stadium, so this will have an impact on the clubs.
“I do believe the football in England is healthy, the structure of the league and the support across the pyramid is strong - it's a trademark of English football - but in this moment in difficult times, football is feeling threatened as are all walks of life but it's important to stay together and find solutions especially when it comes to next season.”
