Birmingham City dodged a transfer bullet after losing out on £1m Burnley transfer agreement | OneFootball

Birmingham City dodged a transfer bullet after losing out on £1m Burnley transfer agreement | OneFootball

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·5 luglio 2025

Birmingham City dodged a transfer bullet after losing out on £1m Burnley transfer agreement

Immagine dell'articolo:Birmingham City dodged a transfer bullet after losing out on £1m Burnley transfer agreement

Birmingham City dodged a bullet when Barnsley instead agreed a deal with Burnley over the signing of Josh Benson.

Back in the summer of 2021, Barnsley won the very competitive and hotly contested race to sign winger Josh Benson from Burnley, beating off Birmingham City in the process.


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The highly-rated Benson had initially been in the academy of Arsenal before moving to the Clarets in 2018 at the age of 18, and had made 12 appearances for Burnley in the 2020/21 campaign.

The former Arsenal man, who enjoyed a loan spell with Grimsby Town in the 2019/20 League Two season, made six Premier League appearances during that campaign for Burnley, and he was earning a positive reputation quite quickly.

That is why there was so much promise and hope for him, and thus so much competition for his signature, but it hasn’t gone according to plan for Benson since moving to Oakwell.

Benson’s struggles after moving from Burnley to Barnsley

Something of a marquee addition, Benson joined the Tykes in the summer after they finished fifth and reached the Championship play-offs, under the management of Valerian Ismael.

Ismael departed before Benson’s arrival, though, and the Brentwood-born attacker immediately struggled to find any rhythm or fluency as Barnsley finished rock-bottom in the second-tier with Markus Schopp sacked mid-way through the campaign and then Poya Asbaghi sacked in April before Martin Devaney was placed in caretaker charge.

Immagine dell'articolo:Birmingham City dodged a transfer bullet after losing out on £1m Burnley transfer agreement

In League One in the 2022/23 campaign, coached by Michael Duff, Barnsley performed well and reached the play-off final, losing to Sheffield Wednesday deep into extra-time.

Benson managed 35 appearances and scored three goals during that campaign and, whilst not a key man for the South Yorkshire outfit, he had begun to contribute to the team, which was imperative based on the outlay that Barnsley made to get him.

The last couple of seasons, though, have seen Benson once again struggle with both injuries and a complete lack of form or any semblance of what appeared to once be there having vanished.

He is leaving Oakwell this summer at the end of his contract, and it is a clear sign that Birmingham very much dodged a bullet by missing out on his signing.

Birmingham dodged a bullet with Benson

It had been reported that Birmingham had been chasing Benson alongside Barnsley, but the winger eventually departed Turf Moor for South Yorkshire for a fee believe to be in the region of £1 million.

Immagine dell'articolo:Birmingham City dodged a transfer bullet after losing out on £1m Burnley transfer agreement

In that summer, Blues were looking to build under the management of Lee Bowyer, but eventually finished in a fairly disappointing 20th place in the Championship.

Surprisingly, despite missing out on Benson, Birmingham didn’t bring in any other players in his position, either permanently or on loan, for the rest of that transfer window.

Therefore, not only did Birmingham simply avoid shelling out a fair sum for a player who, four years down the line, now finds himself as a free agent having barely contributed in the third-tier, it would also suggest that they avoided signing a player they didn’t actually desperately need and it would have been a bonus addition – an extremely expensive bonus addition at that, too.

Birmingham made many costly transfer blunders before Knighthead's transformative purchase of the club two years ago, and the evidence suggests that Benson could have been yet another, had he signed.

Alternatively, Benson could have been unlocked in the Second City - but we'll never quite know for sure. All that's clear is that, in restrospect, Blues may be relieved that Barnsley won the race for his signature.

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