Birmingham U20

7 Aug 2026
Friday
Process
1 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Birmingham say no — this time

The offer from Ferencvaros for Christoph Klarer was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Market

Carlos Vicente wants more than Birmingham are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Max Bird signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Max Bird commits to Birmingham for another 4 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Birmingham

Carlos Vicente was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Christoph Klarer falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Transfer targets

New England Revolution tell Birmingham: Ilay Feingold is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Market

Salford City watching Lee Buchanan

The interest is real enough to have reached print. Birmingham have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.

Market

Talks stall between Birmingham and Dael Fry

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

Squad

8 new faces, and Birmingham are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

In brief