Tom Wagner must avoid costly £6.3m Birmingham City transfer repeat this summer | OneFootball

Birmingham City are set to spend a lot of money this summer, but they need to avoid a repeat of a £6m mistake they made six years ago.

Birmingham City have a busy summer ahead in the transfer market and seem set to spend a vast amount of money, but there is one blast from the past that they should bear in mind as an example of how spending a lot of money doesn't always return what you'd expect.

Having won promotion from League One with a record-busting 111 points, Birmingham City have a lot to look forward to.

The ambitions of owner Tom Wagner don't seem to have any limits, with plans already moving forward to build a new, 62,000-capacity stadium less than a mile from St Andrew's.

But there is always an element of gamble to bringing in new players, and the gamble is greater the more money you're spending. And there's a salutary lesson in the club's own recent past of how these things can go badly wrong.

Spending £6.3m on one player was a big gamble for Birmingham

Birmingham City were not in very good condition by the end of the 2018/19 season.

They'd been deducted 9 points for breaches of financial regulations and had ended it in 17th place in the Championship. Manager Garry Monk had paid for this position with his job at the start of June, replaced by Pep Clotet.

A product of the youth system at Dinamo Zagreb, midfielder Ivan Sunjic looked like a good prospect.

He'd played for Croatia at every youth level and had even made one appearance for their senior team, in a friendly against Mexico in 2017.

The Blues agreed to pay £6.3m for him, as well as handing him a five-year contract, an amount of money which, considering their points deduction during the previous season, was something that they could ill-afford to lose.

Sunjic couldn't live up to expectations at St Andrew's

Such spending brings elevated expectations, but Sunjic couldn't meet them.

He was a mainstay in their first team for four of the next five seasons, but to little effect.

Birmingham ended the first three of those 20th, 18th and 20th again in the Championship, still weighed down by ongoing issues concerning the club's opaque ownership.

Sunjic's adjustment to life in England wasn't helped by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. “Every day is the same,” he told the club's official website, in a now-deleted interview: "It’s boring. It’s taking too long. It’s the first time that you’re basically doing nothing. There’s no training, no football."

He was sent out on loan to Hertha Berlin for the 2022/23 season but had further problems there. And huge changes came behind the scenes at his parent club, with the 2023 takeover.

From here on, money wasn't so much of an issue for the club. Sunjic returned from Berlin for the 2023/24 season, making 36 appearances, but at the end of that season Birmingham were relegated from the Championship, and he was released, ending up playing in Cyprus for Pafos.

Season 2022/23 spent on loan with Hertha Berlin - Figures from Sofascore

There is a warning in all this for Tom Wagner. Birmingham City certainly seem to be going places at the moment, but every new player is a risk, whether in terms of their transfer fee or the commitment to wages that comes with their contracts.

As the club prepares for a lavish summer of spending in the transfer market, he'll need to steer clear of costly and ultimately underwhelming signings such as this.