By his own admission, a player who saw a potential move to St Andrew’s fall through this summer had a rather ‘strange and intense’ fling with Birmingham City.
One that, once the flame died out, left both parties feeling a little disatisfied.
Despite an eye-catching summer in which Birmingham have demonstrated a pulling power and a financial firepower most clubs in League One history can only dream of, not everything has gone The Blues’ way.
Star man Jordan James swapped League One for Ligue 1 when joining Rennes.
Birmingham also missed out on Goduine Koyalipou. Last season’s Golden Boot winner in the Belgian second tier opted for Bulgarian outfit CSKA Sofia instead.
And, as for Mike Eerdhuijzen, De Telegraaf said at the end of June that Chris Davies’ side were willing to stump up around £2 million. The Sparta Rotterdam centre-half had also been offered a four-year contract in the Midlands.
But despite visiting Birmingham’s training ground, the deal eventually collapsed, per the Birmingham Mail.
Birmingham City miss out on Mike Eerdhuijzen
Eerdhuijzen now provides a reason why.
The former Netherlands Under 20 international insists that the decision was not his but Sparta Rotterdam’s. The near neighbours of 2023 Eredivisie champions Feyenoord were keen to avoid losing another centre-half after the departure the highly-experienced Bart Vriends to Australian football.
“It is logical that they do not want to lose me,” Eerdhuijzen tells RTV Rijnmond. “It was up to the club and not really up to me.
“So much has happened with Birmingham. You want to forget about that. It was mentally tough. And then FC Twente quickly came around the corner.”
Eerdhuijzen was then targeted by FC Twente. Last season’s third-place side turned to the 6ft 5ins stopper after unexpectedly losing captain Robin Propper to Scottish Premiership challengers Rangers.
“I never say never, but I didn’t necessarily say yes to FC Twente either,” he adds, clearly affected by that whole Blues saga. “I did learn from Birmingham and don’t want to get hit again. Something so strange and intense had happened with Birmingham.
“I didn’t expect anything anymore. I was just busy playing football.”
Birmingham did succeed in signing three other players from the Dutch top flight, however. Emil Hansson joins from Heracles while Willum Thor Willumson – the elegant, rangy, box-crashing attacking midfielder – will be a revelation if he can replicate his Go Ahead Eagles form in England’s third tier.
Alfons Sampsted, the former Bodo/Glimt right-back, has since joined on loan from Twente.
Chris Davies’ League One title favourites eyeing more signings
“I am very pleased actually. It has been a couple of days coming but it is very nice that everything is set up and ready,” Sampsted, who was part of that Bodo/Glimt side which thrashed Jose Mourinho’s Roma 6-1 in Europe, tells the Birmingham website.
“The last 24 hours, I was waiting for the go-ahead from the clubs that I could travel to here. So, I took the train to Amsterdam and stayed at a friend’s place five minutes from the airport ready to hop on the plane.”
Former Celtic and Tottenham Hotspur assistant Davies, meanwhile, insists that Birmingham are not done just yet in the transfer market.
“We have still got a way to go,” Davies, who’s side face Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday afternoon, explains to the Birmingham Mail. “We still need to finish the squad off and build some more and get a few players in, absolutely, there’s no doubt about that. But it was good to see those players can come in and affect it (against Charlton).”
HITC understands that Jordan Jones of Wigan Athletic is a target. There is, however, Championship interest in the former Rangers winger.
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