Birmingham City must always regret Notts County sale - Magpies got early glimpse of Liverpool favourite | OneFootball

The sale of full-back Steve Finnan to Notts County made perfect sense to Birmingham City at the time, but they'd misjudged where he might end up.

You can't always tell what a player will be capable of at a later point in his career when you sell him, and Birmingham City ended up with something to regret when they sold a full-back to Notts County in 1996.

By the middle of the 1990s, Birmingham City were undergoing something of a renaissance. They'd dropped as low as the third tier in 1989, and while they returned in 1992, they fell back again two years later. This time their stay in the third tier was brief, just the one season, and they were promoted back to Division One of the Football League as champions in 1995.

Blues manager Barry Fry had come from a non-league background from his time at Barnet, and wasn't afraid to scour the fifth division for new players. And in June 1995 he found a gem, in the form of a full-back who'd been playing non-league football for the previous two years after failing to make the grade in the academy at a Premier League club.

Steve Finnan was unable to breakthrough at Birmingham City after his move from the non-league game

Born in Ireland but raised in Essex, Steve Finnan joined the academy at Wimbledon in 1990, at 14 years old. This was a tumultuous time for the club. A year after his arrival, they left Plough Lane to share Selhurst Park with Crystal Palace. But they maintained their top-flight place for the formation of the Premier League in 1992, and in 1993 they decided that Finnan wasn't going to make the grade with them.

As an untested 17-year-old yet to make his senior debut, offers were thin on the ground, but one did come through. Welling United weren't a very good Conference team. They'd finished the previous season just above the relegation places. But they offered his career a lifeline, and over the next couple of seasons Finnan shone for them, to the extent that he attracted the interest of Fry and Birmingham City. A £100,000 transfer fee was enough to take him to St Andrew's in June 1995.

The 1995-96 season was a reasonably successful one for the Blues. If avoiding relegation is the primary aim of any newly-promoted club, then mission accomplished.

Blues finished the season in 15th place in the table, but it wasn't a successful time for Finnan. He made just 12 league appearances throughout the season and scored one goal, but he couldn't tie down a regular place in the Birmingham first-team, and in March 1996 he was sent out on loan to Notts County, who were in the third tier of English football.

Finnan was a success at Meadow Lane, and Notts only missed out on promotion after losing the play-off final to Bradford City. But Birmingham City had changed by the time of his return at the end of the season. Barry Fry had left and his replacement, Trevor Francis, evidently didn't fancy Finnan much. He made just three appearances throughout the opening weeks of the following season before Notts County offered him a lifeline, paying £300,000 to take him to Meadow Lane permanently in October 1996.

Steve Finnan would star in the Premier League for Fulham, Liverpool and Portsmouth - Birmingham City missed a trick

Initially, it may have looked to Finnan as though moving to Notts County was a mistake. Although he was getting regular first-team football again, his team finished bottom of Division Two, dropping to the fourth tier for the first time since 1971.

Just five years earlier, they'd been in the top-flight themselves. But the following season, Notts bounced back, racing to the title with a record-breaking 99 points. And Finnan was a key member of this season, an ever-present, with 51 appearances for them in all competitions.

It would be Finnan's next move that would really grow him as a player. Fulham were another club undergoing a revival after years in the doldrums, and manager Kevin Keegan was persuaded to pay £600,000 to take him to Craven Cottage in November 1998. With Finnan again an integral part of the team, they ended the 1998-99 season as champions of the Second Division, his second league champions medal in a row.

The upward momentum didn't end there. By the end of that season, Keegan had left for the England job, but under Jean Tigana, Fulham continued to improve, and in 2000-01 they were promoted again, picking up 101 points for the second time in three seasons, and securing a return to the top flight for the first time since 1968.

Finally given the opportunity to prove himself in the Premier League, Finnan impressed again, ending the 2001-02 season as Fulham's Player of the Year. He'd also made his international debut for Ireland in 2000, and was a regular starter for them as they reached the finals of the 2002 World Cup.

A real big money move was clearly coming, and in the summer of 2003 it came. Finnan had interested a number of clubs, when it did come it couldn't have done so in a much bigger way, with Liverpool agreeing to pay £4 million to take him to Anfield in June 2003.

What followed would see Finnan reach new heights. He was in the starting 11 for the 2005 Champions League final against Milan, which they dramatically won on penalty kicks after coming from three down to draw 3-3. The following season brought another 3-3 draw in a cup final which was followed by a penalty shootout win, this time against West Ham United in the FA Cup. He was an ever-present throughout the 2005-06 season.

By 2008, there was growing competition for his position, and after a potential move to Aston Villa in a swap deal with Gareth Barry fell through, he moved to the Spanish club Espanyol on transfer deadline day. His stay in Barcelona only lasted a season, and it almost didn't last that long. Beset by injuries, a move back to England to join Hull City in the January 2009 transfer window fell through after he failed a medical.

Nevertheless, he'd still have the opportunity to have an Indian summer to his playing career. Having agreed a cancellation of his contract with Espanyol following just four League appearrances for them and returned to England.

The 2008 FA Cup winners Portsmouth were his next destination, but by this time the club was starting to unravel. Finnan would make 21 appearances in the Premier League that season, but he did end his playing career at the top of the game, with the final appearance of his career being their defeat to Chelsea in the 2010 FA Cup final.

Birmingham City had seemed okay without Steve Finnan. They were promoted to the Premier League themselves in 2002 and would spend most of the rest of the decade in the top-flight themselves. But they were relegated in 2006 and 2008 - they bounced straight back both times - and there may well have been times, when playing against Finnan at his peak, when they wondered what they missed out on by selling him for £300,000 all those years earlier.