Birmingham City have beaten Rangers, Cardiff City and Preston North End to the £1 million signing of Lyndon Dykes with the Queens Park Rangers striker set to become League One’s highest-paid player.
- Exclusive from Graeme Bailey
Despite their relegation to the third tier last season, there is a sense of genuine optimism surrounding St Andrews at the moment.
A feeling fuelled by a host of high-profile signings, the sort of which would be beyond the wildest dreams of most if not all League One clubs.
Birmingham City have snapped up three players from the Dutch Eredivisie – Emil Hansson, Alfons Sampsted and Willum Thor Willumson – while bringing in League One’s reigning Golden Boot winner Alfie May and a few other players who would surely not look out of place at Championship level.
See Marc Leonard, Bailey Peacock-Farrell, former Preston stalwart Ben Davies, and £4 million centre-half Christoph Klarer.
HITC have now been told that Birmingham have won the race to bring in Lyndon Dykes from the division above too.
Lyndon Dykes set to leave QPR for Birmingham City
The Australian-born Scotland international is moving to the Midlands for a fee of £1 million.
HITC can also confirm that – while fighting off competition from clubs in higher places – Dykes will become the best-paid player in the whole of England’s third tier.
The 28-year-old targetman is not the most prolific of centre-forwards. But, owing to his fearsome physical presence and his aerial ability, Dykes is a fine link-man when used in a system alongside talented, mobile forwards and attacking midfielders.
Scotland often played their most effective football when the 6ft 2ins powerhouse was leading the line. At Birmingham, the box-crashing Willumson and the diminutive May feel certain to benefit from the space Dykes will open up and the defenders he will occupy in the final third.
Dykes scored 38 goals in 167 appearances for Queens Park Rangers.
His most recent – and probably last – came during the recent 2-2 draw with Sheffield United. The former Livingston, Queen of the South and Gold Coast City man fizzed a clinical if atypical finish into the far corner from the edge of the box.
Interestingly, in what now feels like a hint at his impending departure, Dykes was left out of the QPR squad for Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Plymouth Argyle.
“I just pick players based on availability. He wasn’t available,” head coach Marti Cifuentes told BBC Sport.
“I don’t know (if he is staying or going).”
Rangers and a host of Championship clubs miss out
HITC can confirm that Scottish giants and long-time admirers Rangers had ran the rule over Dykes this summer. As had QPR’s Championship rivals Cardiff City, Preston North End, Millwall, Plymouth and Stoke.
Birmingham, then, can claim to have fought off competition from five second-tier clubs, as well as a Rangers team offering European football.
One player who will not be ending up at St Andrew’s, however, is Jordan Jones.
His departure from Wigan Athletic confirmed last week, Jones is a free-agent. HITC reported a fortnight ago that Birmingham had shown an interest, alongside Millwall, Blackburn Rovers and Derby County.
But it can now be revealed that the well-travelled wideman is set to make a surprise switch to Carlisle United in England’s fourth tier.
Carlisle, like Birmingham, have made a few eye-catching, rather big-name signings this summer. Chief among them the returning Charlie Wyke, a prolific centre-forward who plundered 31 goals for Sunderland as recently as 2020/21.
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