Birmingham City: £3.36m transfer offer submitted for 27-year-old | OneFootball

Birmingham City have seen €4 million bid rejected by Hannover 96 for Phil Neumann.

Highlights

Birmingham City have seen a €4 million bid - with possible add-ons included - rejected by Hannover 96 for defender Phil Neumann.

That is according to Sky Sports Germany reporter Florian Plettenburg, who states that Blues had a verbal agreement in place a few days ago with the player, but their offer has been rejected as the German side have no intention of selling him for now.

Chris Davies’ side are preparing for life in League One and have already been busy in the opening weeks of the transfer window, with the additions of Emil Hansson, Alfie May, Ryan Allsop, Bailey Peacock-Farrell, and, most recently, Alex Cochrane.

City don’t look like they are willing to finish there though, as they try to put a squad together that is capable of returning to the Championship at the first time of asking.

They have just further strengthened the left-hand side of their defence with the signing of Cochrane, but it appears they are still keen to strengthen the centre of it too as they eye a deal for Neumann.

Birmingham City see bid seven-figure offer rejected for Phil Neumann

According to the aforementioned Plettenburg, Birmingham City have seen a €4 million (£3.36 million) bid for Neumann rejected by Hannover 96.

Plettenburg states that the Blues have submitted this offer in the last few days after already having a verbal agreement in place for Neumann to arrive at St. Andrew's.

The offer is believed to be worth €4 million with possible add-ons included in the deal, but this offer was rejected immediately by the German side.

The 27-year-old is under contract with Hannover 96 until next summer, but despite his contract expiring, the German side is not willing to sell the defender.

Phil Neumann’s Hannover 96 stats

Neumann has been with Hannover 96 since July 2022, when he joined the club on a free transfer from Holstein Kol.

The 6ft 3in centre-back spent a lot of the early part of his career in the academy at Schalke 04, but he departed in 2017 in search of regular football.

Since joining Hannover, the 27-year-old has been a regular, featuring in 29 2. Bundesliga games in his first season and that was followed by 32 in 2023-24.

Neumann scored just once for the club in his first campaign, but he did significantly better last term in the final third, as he scored twice and also chipped in with two assists.

Capable of operating in a number of roles in the defensive line, such as at centre-back and right-back, while also being known to play in a deep midfield role as well when needed, Neumann could offer Davies some significant versatility, but most importantly a powerful presence at the back.

Birmingham City should keep pursuing a deal for Phil Neumann

Neumann has spent all of his football career playing in Germany, so it is hard to know how well the defender would do in England.

But the 27-year-old has performed rather well in recent seasons for Hannover 96, and given his flexibility in the defence, he could be a very good capture for Birmingham City.

Given that he has only 12 months left on his contract, Birmingham will not want to overpay for the player, but they should definitely consider a fresh offer, given that he may be keen on the move to England.

£3.36 million however - the offer that was turned down - would have been a League One record buy, eclipsing the £3 million that Sunderland paid for Will Grigg, and with little chance of any resale value, it would be a massive risk to go any higher for City, but perhaps it'll be worth it.