I've always thought he was a decent player.....surely better than Ketsbaia with a wig?

Birmingham City manager Trevor Francis is hoping to boost his First Division side's promotion push by signing Derby County striker Dean Sturridge for a knock-down fee of around £300,000.

Francis agreed a fee with Derby last week but the deal floundered over personal terms even though Sturridge had agreed to take a pay cut.

Francis is now hoping that Birmingham's owners can come up with a pay deal that will tempt Sturridge to move to St Andrews.

"At the moment, even though Dean is willing to take a pay cut, the demands would still break our wage scale," said Francis.

"I will talk to the owners to see if there is any package that we can come up with which would be satisfactory to Dean.

"He clearly wants to come here which makes me hope something can be sorted out."

Sturridge, who is out of contract at Derby at the end of the season when he would be able to move as a free agent, was a target of Birmingham last season.

Francis needs to sign a striker after Mark Burchill's £1.5million move from Celtic broke down over personal terms following his successful three months on loan with Birmingham.



-- Anonymous, January 17, 2001

Answers

I'm kinda hoping that someone might agree with me that he's a decent player? obviously no-one at the club thinks so....or Derby for that matter ;))

-- Anonymous, January 17, 2001

OK, I'll agree with you Gav (just got home) - he's a canny player.

I don't think he's a 20 goals a season striker, but he is more than useful and an absolute snip at £300k.

Frankly, in our situation I'd take him, and if it didn't work out let him move on at the end of the season - if we had him under a 2-3 year Contract, I guarantee you'd get more than £300k back for him. Nothing to lose, but signing him would take some initiative, and quickly.

-- Anonymous, January 17, 2001

Thanks Clarky ;))

1 year deal so that he can move freely or re-negotiate at the end would be ideal I think....

-- Anonymous, January 17, 2001

I'd prefer to risk misguided class (Collymore) for a few months than very nice 110% chap.

-- Anonymous, January 17, 2001

Both Leicester and Birmingham have now agreed to pay Derby £300k for Dean Sturridge - the choice now being his.

NUFC waste more than this on booze and prawn sandwiches, and yet another decent player is moving on for a ridiculously small fee who could do a creditable job for us NOW. Just bizarre!

-- Anonymous, January 18, 2001

Sturridge has signed for Leicester for £350k.

IMO, another opportunity missed to get hold of a decent PL player, who could have helped us out of our current dire problems, for literally nothing more than 'small change'.

This guy was valued at £7mm only 18months ago, and has been sold for nowt primarily because he's on a Bosman at the end of the season. Here's a player who if then under say a 2 year contract could almost certainly have been sold on in 6-12 months at a profit if he didn't then fit.

-- Anonymous, January 19, 2001