Birmingham City urged to ship 2025 signing off to Turkish club - "He has been shocking" | OneFootball

FLW's Blues expert has weighed in on the Nigeria international's potential departure

Birmingham City’s summer transfer window could now see it’s third departure.

Reports in Turkey from Sozcu suggest that Bright Osayi-Samuel could be making a return to his old club, Fenerbahce.

The defender - who made 19 Championship starts for the Blues last season - is believed to have contacted former manager Ismail Kartal in a bid to secure a move back to the Süper Lig, raising fresh questions over Chris Davies' squad planning ahead of the new campaign.

With Birmingham already seeing Kai Wagner leave and continuing to reshape their squad following an encouraging first season back in the Championship, another exit would leave Davies with even more work to do before the transfer window closes.

Bright Osayi-Samuel exit given the green light by Birmingham City expert

Football League World spoke to in-house Blues expert Jason Moore for his take on whether Osayi-Samuel would be welcome to depart St Andrews for the right price.

“When we first saw him, Bright, in those first few games I thought, we had a real, real good player on our hands,” Moore told FLW.

“But since the first couple of games this season, he's just been, for me, he's on par - maybe just below - but on par with Kyogo with how disappointing he's been.

“He has been shocking, he's not put many good performances in. And yeah I've said it to quite a few people that if he was one to let go, I would let him go.

“It's a hard one to gauge, mainly because Ethan Laird is so injury prone, but I think if you looked at them both and you had to pick one, for me, even if he is injury prone, I'd rather Ethan Laird. And that's probably saying something about how bad Bright's been.

“If Fenerbahce want to give us a bit of money for him, I'd be happy to see him go. We get a bit of money for someone that we didn't pay any money for, and he's probably on decent wages and we get him out.

“So, yeah, I'm not too bothered by it. It's just slowly becoming a summer where we thought we needed like 6 players turned into oh no, you now need 9 to 10 players and we can't keep doing this churn and get players out, replace them with another bunch of players.

“It's just not sustainable whatsoever.”

Bright Osayi-Samuel exit would increase pressure on Birmingham City’s recruitment drive

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While Osayi-Samuel's departure would not necessarily be viewed as a major footballing loss after an underwhelming debut campaign, it would still leave Birmingham with another problem to solve in what is becoming an increasingly busy summer.

The Nigeria international arrived with an impressive reputation after four-and-a-half years at Fenerbahce, but he never consistently showed the level that made him one of the more highly-rated full-backs in Turkey.

If anything, his first season only strengthened Ethan Laird's position when both players were available.

From Birmingham's perspective, this is one of those situations where the financial aspect is just as important as the sporting one.

Having signed Osayi-Samuel on a free transfer last summer, the Blues are in a position where any reasonable fee would represent a profit, while also removing what is likely to be a sizeable wage from the books.

The bigger concern is the cumulative effect of departures.

Knighthead have shown throughout their ownership that they are willing to back the manager, and Birmingham have already brought in reinforcements this summer. However, recruitment becomes significantly more difficult when replacing established squad members takes priority over adding quality to an already competitive group.

If Osayi-Samuel's desire to return to Fenerbahce is genuine, a deal could ultimately suit everyone involved.

Birmingham simply have to ensure they receive a fee that reflects the value of an experienced international, because allowing another senior player to leave without adequate compensation would only make Davies' job that much harder.