"It’s a no from me" - Emanuel Aiwu claim made as Birmingham City face transfer call | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Birmingham City’s loan agreement with Cremonense for Emanuel Aiwu included an option to buy clause.

The club confirmed back in August upon his arrival that they could activate a clause to keep him at St. Andrew’s beyond this season.

However, he has featured just 15 times in the Championship since arriving from Italy at the end of the summer, including 13 starts (all stats from Fbref).

His last appearance for the side came in an FA Cup fourth round defeat to Leicester City at the end of January.

The last time the 23-year-old featured in the league was a 2-2 draw against Swansea City on 13 January, coming off the bench in the closing stages.

Birmingham fan pundit not keen on Aiwu stay

FLW’s Birmingham fan pundit Mike Gibbs believes the club should not activate the option to make Aiwu’s deal a permanent one.

He has claimed that the money spent on signing him could instead be better spent improving the team elsewhere.

“I think the short answer on Aiwu is no,” Gibbs told Football League World.

“He’s definitely not pulled up any trees in terms of how he played, he’s fallen out of favour under Mowbray and, from what I hear, the fee to make it permanent was around the £3 to 4 million mark.

“I think that would be money well spent elsewhere, personally.

“I think he’s certainly not hit the heights that everyone hoped he would hit.

Birmingham City league position

The centre-back didn’t make his first start with the team until 28 October under Wayne Rooney, with all of his starts coming under the 37-year-old.

Mowbray was appointed as manager on 8 January, with Aiwu featuring just twice in all competitions since then, as Birmingham look to avoid relegation to League One.

The Blues have moved up to 15th in the table due to back-to-back wins over Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers.

The gap to the relegation zone is still just six points, with 14 games remaining in the Blues’ season.

Mowbray will miss Saturday’s clash against Ipswich Town, with the veteran coach set to be absent for the next six to eight weeks due to illness.

Aiwu hasn’t done enough to earn permanent move

Aiwu’s time at Birmingham hasn’t been convincing enough to suggest he is worth keeping beyond this term.

The defender was a regular presence in the side under Rooney, when the team’s form was at its worst.

He didn’t get a look in under John Eustace, and has barely played for Mowbray, so it would be a surprise if the option to buy clause was triggered.

Given the likely size of Birmingham’s summer transfer budget, spending up to £3 or 4 million on the Austrian would be a mistake.