How likely Birmingham City are of signing Aston Villa star Emi Buendia | OneFootball

Birmingham City explored a move for Aston Villa midfielder Emi Buendia during the summer window

It was recently revealed that Birmingham City explored a move for Aston Villa midfielder Emi Buendia during the summer - but it proved to be fruitless.

Chris Davies’ side achieved promotion from League One in record-breaking fashion last term and carried that ambitious attitude through into the transfer market.

Blues wasted no time in recruiting talented operators such as Tommy Doyle, Kyogo Furuhashi and Demarai Gray, which set expectations sky high heading into the 2025/26 campaign.

The Steel City outfit have struggled to live up to the bill so far, languishing 11th in the table after five matches, following three straight defeats in all competitions.

Despite the number of high-profile transfers they made during the transfer window, Daily Mail reporter Tom Collomosse stated that Birmingham City tried to get a deal for Buendia over the line, which arguably would’ve been their most outrageous coup.

That move didn’t end up happening, and now Blues’ chances of securing the Argentinian’s signature in January have been revealed.

Birmingham City’s likelihood of signing Emi Buendia in January

If Birmingham can’t push their way further up the table by the time January rolls around, they could look to the transfer market once more to further bolster their squad.

However, they could struggle to get a move for Buendia over the line.

According to Football Insider, Aston Villa manager Unai Emery is unwilling to lose any more attacking players, amid his side’s poor start to the 2025/26 campaign.

Villa are yet to score a Premier League goal after four games, which sees them currently sat 19th in the standings.

It seemed almost certain that Buendia would exit Villa Park in the summer after spending the second half of last season on loan with German side Bayer Leverkusen.

That now no longer looks to be a possibility, with the 28-year-old starting three of the Villans’ first four Premier League fixtures.

Had the Argentinian moved to Birmingham City in the summer, he would’ve been the first player to move between the bitter Second City rivals since Scott Hogan went to St. Andrew’s back in 2020.

Emi Buendia would’ve been an outrageous signing for Birmingham City

It no longer seems likely that Birmingham City will be able to sign Buendia, given his current presence in the Aston Villa side, but the fact that they were exploring a deal for the 28-year-old shows just how ambitious Blues were in the transfer market.

Buendia is playing regularly in the top-flight of English football and will likely also get lots of minutes in the Europa League this season too.

If Davies and Co. had managed to sign the playmaker, he could’ve been instrumental in firing them towards the promotion-paying positions.