"Best possible move" - Peterborough United star backed to snub Celtic, Rangers for Birmingham City | OneFootball

Football League World's resident Peterborough United fan pundit discussed the best potential next destination for in-demand winger Kwame Poku

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

In-demand forward Kwame Poku has a significant decision to make on his future after leaving Peterborough United at the end of his contract following the conclusion of the 2024/25 League One campaign.

The exciting winger starred in three of his four seasons with Peterborough, having first joined the club from Colchester United in August 2021.

Poku has emerged as one of the most sought-after talents throughout the English Football League, which is little surprise after spending the last three campaigns lighting up the third-tier.

He recorded 30 goals and 30 assists apiece from 147 appearances for Posh, enjoying his most productive league season in 24/25 by notching 12 strikes and setting up a further eight despite only featuring on 27 occasions owing to a three-month injury lay-off.

Poku, however, chose to leave Peterborough at the end of the season with his deal set to officially expire next month. There is naturally no shortage of interest in his much-coveted signature; Championship newcomers Birmingham City are long-time admirers and, as exclusively revealed by FLW, have offered a stunning £30,000 weekly contract in a bid to lure him to the Second City, while Scottish juggernauts Celtic and Rangers have both been keeping close tabs.

Peterborough, who finished the League One campaign in 18th position under Darren Ferguson, will be in line to receive a sizable compensation fee if he completes a move to a fellow domestic club due to the 23-year-old's age - he will not turn 24 until mid-August - although cross-border UEFA compensation rules mean that Celtic and Rangers would not have to fork out as much.

It will be interesting to see exactly where Poku ends up, with a tussle for his services surely set to take place.

Peterborough United's Kwame Poku tipped to join Birmingham City over Celtic, Rangers

FLW asked our resident Posh fan pundit, Alex Batt, which club he believes represents Poku's best next destination out of Birmingham, Celtic and Rangers.

Echoing the view of Posh director of football Barry Fry, who recently tipped Poku to join Birmingham despite the interest north of the border, Alex has also backed the winger to end up with Chris Davies' side.

In Alex's view, the exciting and lavish upwardly-mobile project at Birmingham, which many believe will see them contend for successive promotions to the Premier League next season, may outstrip the lure of European and top-flight football and, potentially, an even more lucrative contract in Glasgow with either Celtic or Rangers.

"I'm not surprised to see that Kwame Poku has got a lot of interest in him," Alex told FLW.

"He was a shining light in a very dim season for Posh. He proved, before he got injured and was out for three months, just how good he was with the numbers he was returning.

"He was one of the top goalscorers when he got injured.

"In terms of what's best for his career, if Celtic and Rangers are keen, then you've got European and top-flight football there. But the caveat to that is its in Scotland, whereas Birmingham have a big project with the American backing, have just got promoted to the Championship in convincing fashion and will probably want to go for back-to-back promotions just like Ipswich did.

"So I think Birmingham would be the best possible move for him.

Yes, Celtic and Rangers may offer more money and will offer top-flight and European football, but for his career I think Birmingham is a [more] suitable destination.

Peterborough United will be proud of Kwame Poku trajectory

Peterborough, of course, would have loved to retain Poku, but that was never going to be a realistic expectation. Even if they had achieved promotion, the risk of losing him would still have been significant, and they will now hope the blow is eased by a hefty compensation payment.

Once all is said and done, though, Posh can look back with pride at Poku's progression. Under chairman Darragh MacAnthony, Posh pride themselves on a sustainable recruitment philosophy of recruiting low-cost talent from the lower leagues before developing them accordingly to eventually receive significant profit.

There have been many players over the years who are examples of that, and Poku may have the highest ceiling of them all - save for Ivan Toney, perhaps.