Birmingham City should try sign Sunderland player - It can fix issue Chris Davies has | OneFootball

Blues are in the market for further defensive cover

Birmingham City's summer transfer business has caught the eye of many once again, and with the West Midlands side coupling such activity with a strong points return thus far, supporters have remained as optimistic as ever about the club's prospects.

Several new additions have already made an impression on Bluenoses, such as Kyogo Furuhashi, Tommy Doyle, Phil Neumann and the returning academy graduate, Demarai Gray.

Knighthead Capital Management haven't held back from providing Chris Davies with a large sum of funds to ensure that Blues' return to the Premier League for the first time since 2011 is achieved as quickly as possible, meaning a squad full of depth and quality across all departments is required to sustain a promotion bid over the course of 46 games.

The 40-year-old has also had to make plenty of ruthless calls, too, which included the departure of club captain Krystian Bielik to local rivals West Bromwich Albion, and it has left the former Tottenham Hotspur assistant in search of an adequate replacement, with Birmingham Live recently revealing that another loan incoming between now and Monday's 7PM transfer deadline cannot be ruled out.

Of course, there are plenty of avenues in which Davies and Craig Gardner could explore to further bolster a rearguard which picked up it's first clean sheet of the campaign against Oxford United on Saturday, and they have potentially been provided one by a Premier League manager.

Sunderland find themselves in a similar boat to Birmingham at present, with the Black Cats' transfer business being rather eye-catching since their play-off final success over Sheffield United in May, with the North East club investing over £130m.

Some of those additions have come in the left-back department which already included Dennis Cirkin and Leo Hjelde from their Championship squad, with the duo now falling down the pecking order following the arrivals of Reinildo Mandava and Arthur Masuaku.

Hjelde underwent achilles surgery after featuring 15 times in the regular second-tier campaign last term, with Regis Le Bris hinting that a temporary exit from the Stadium of Light could be on the cards for the 22-year-old, who has made 40 appearances in the division overall.

"Leo made a really strong decision last year to help the team," the Frenchman said via the Northern Echo. "Even if he wasn't involved in many games during the training sessions, at the end he helped the squad."

"We can decide together whether he can find a solution to have more game time. If it's possible for him it could be useful for his career and for us later. We'll decide next week."

Chris Davies could solve Birmingham City's defensive depth issue with Leo Hjelde loan swoop

At present, Davies has the extremely reliable Alex Cochrane and Lee Buchanan as his natural left-sided defensive options, although the former Brighton and Hove Albion man sustained a recent knock after featuring over 50 times for Blues last term due to Buchanan's well-documented fitness issues.

Ethan Laird performed admirably at left-back against Blackburn Rovers and posted an assist for Seung-Ho Paik from that particular position against Oxford, but he would ideally be jostling for a starting berth at right-back against Bright Osayi-Samuel.

Therefore, whilst his lack of gametime may concern some supporters, a loan swoop for Hjelde to provide extra cover at left-back and as a player capable of slotting in at centre-back when required. This represents a low-risk, potentially high-reward move, especially with the Nottingham-born Norwegian youth international ESTIMATED to be earning just £5,000 per week on Wearside.

Birmingham Live's aforementioned report also claimed that any incoming to the defensive ranks couldn't expect to start immediately, although a manager such as Davies would also then be encouraged by the former Rotherham United loanee's work ethic based on Le Bris' comments, where the defender's mentality was welcomed by those who were offered much more gametime in the Black Cats' promotion bid.

Overall, this would be a move that could benefit all parties involved, although the defender isn't likely to be short on offers as clubs scramble for players in order to finalise the assembling of their own squads before a four-month period of non-stop action.