Report: Wolves and Aston Villa have already drawn up a list of targets from cash-strapped club

According to a report by The Athletic, Wolves and Aston Villa are looking to take advantage of Birmingham City’s academy restructure by signing some of their talented young players.

Indeed, the report states that the Midlands rivals have already drawn up lists of players they want to poach from the Blues.

Birmingham have plans to pretty much scrap their academy below U18 level and move to a B and C team approach, and that means that a number of talented young individuals may soon be on the market.

Add into this the fact that the Blues are in dire straits financially, and it seems as though there may be a few bargains to be had here.

The Athletic report that City owe £110 million to their parent company, and with the ongoing financial hit of the pandemic, they seemingly need to do a bit of cost-cutting, and that involves this academy restructure.

Names of individual players haven’t been mentioned at this point, but it is worth noting that Birmingham have run a successful academy over the years with the likes of Jude Bellingham, Nathan Redmond, Demarai Gray and Jack Butland coming through at St Andrew’s, so there may well be some top talent to be picked up.

This is definitely a situation that is worth keeping an eye on as Wolves and Villa look to swoop for some of the Blues’ best teenage talents.

In other news, Report: Newcastle want to re-sign £25m West Ham target Ivan Toney