Birmingham City pledge to be careful with the £40million transfer fund
Dec 19 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail
PAUL Montgomery has warned against Blues being reckless in the January transfer window.
The chief scout said that although Carson Yeung has pledged up to £40 million for fee and wages, Blues had to be careful not to get burned.
“January is the worst transfer window of the lot,” said Montgomery.
“Basically, it’s the window where everybody thinks you’re desperate and teams don’t want to let the better players go because they could be in the mire, or challenging for something; and can they replace a player they are letting go?
“The January window is one of inflated prices and players being bought for those inflated and unrealistic prices.
“This is something you have to be wary of, and what is a little bit scary is that we have made it known we have got money to spend.
“So then you have to be strong in the market and be aware that you’re not going to pay over the odds for players. You must decide the level that a particular player is worth – and that is it.”
Already Blues have found clubs, players and agents talking telephone numbers.
Kevin Kuranyi, out of contract in June, is valued at £5 million by Schalke O4 and is after £130,000-a-week. Luca Toni is up for grabs from Bayern Munich but he also is asking a six-figure weekly salary.
Montgomery continued: “Look what happened with Sunderland two or three years ago: paying over the odds for players, £7 million, £9 million. I think the players would put their hands up and say ‘was I worth that money?’
“That’s something Birmingham City have not got to get into. We have got to be certain that the quality brought in will enhance the present side and squad and be realistic and financially sound for the club.”
Yeung’s arrival has given Blues more financial muscle.
“It has changed the market we can look for,” admitted Montgomery. “We can now look for players who have a decent transfer fee put on their head. Before we couldn’t.
“The parameters were minimalistic. You can see from the players we’ve got in the past. There’s been a lot of free transfers, low cost transfer fees et cetera.
“Now, if you have got money to spend, you can look at other levels of quality. However, you still come back to the common denominator of being sensible in the market. We cannot just get carried away and sign willy-nilly for over the odds money and regret it at a later day.”
