‘Sounds Like’ – Birmingham City Boosted In Bid To Hold Off Middlesbrough For Chuba Akpom | OneFootball

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Birmingham City look to have seen off an attempt by Middlesbrough to hijack their swoop for Ajax attacker Chuba Akpom.

Blues have agreed a loan deal with Ajax for Akpom which contains an obligation to buy if they win promotion from the Championship this season.

Their move alerted Middlesbrough, who previously had Akpom on the books at the Riverside, and Boro launched a move to hijack Birmingham’s swoop.

It has been unclear which way the cookie would crumble, but according to journalist Alex Crook, it ‘sounds like’ Birmingham have managed to hold off Middlesbrough’s hijack.

That will be a boost for Blues and they will be looking to get the deal over the line as quickly as they can to make sure there is no room for the attacker to have second and third thoughts.

Despite Akpom knowing Middlesbrough and having scored goals for the club during a happy spell at the Riverside, the sheer ambition of Birmingham may have won the day.

Blues steamrollered League One last term and have made no secret of their desire to get up to the Premier League.

They have again shown their ambition in the transfer market, with the capture of former Celtic striker Kyogo Furuhashi standing out.

Despite Alfie May scoring goals to help Birmingham win promotion, he has been offloaded to League One side Huddersfield Town.

Adding Akpom to the mix would be another statement of intent on the part of Birmingham.

Ajax have been keen to offload the high-earning Akpom on a permanent basis after he struggled to live up to his billing in Amsterdam.

The Dutch side therefore will be crossing their fingers that Birmingham can secure a second successive promotion.