Birmingham City told to "let him go" and sanction midfielder's exit to Huddersfield Town | OneFootball

Birmingham City's Marc Leonard has been backed to have a good career, even if he needs to leave St. Andrew's amid interest from Huddersfield.

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 have been told to sanction a move for Marc Leonard, even though he has the potential to have a good career.

There was a lot of excitement at Blues when they won the race to sign the midfielder from Brighton last year in a deal that looked like a real coup.

However, even though Leonard contributed to Chris Davies’ side winning the title in style, he didn’t feature as much as he would’ve liked, as Tomoki Iwata and Paik Seung-ho established themselves as the first-choice partnership in the middle of the park, so most of his appearances were from the bench.

Huddersfield Town plotting move to sign Birmingham City’s Marc Leonard

With Tommy Doyle having been added to Davies’ options this summer, Leonard has fallen further down the pecking order, and it seems he will struggle for game time moving forward.

Therefore, it has been claimed Huddersfield are looking to swoop in to sign the 23-year-old, although they do face competition for his signature from Championship and MLS clubs.

Nevertheless, it means a departure from St. Andrew’s feels inevitable, and when asked by FLW about the prospect of losing Leonard, FLW's Blues fan pundit Jason Moore admitted he does feel the midfielder is a good player, but he explained why he may not be ready to be part of a group that is looking to reach the Premier League.

“Leonard is a funny one. There’s definitely a player in there, and you can see he has come through at Brighton, but I think he is still really raw and needs a lot of development.

“I don’t think it helped last season that Chris Davies just loved Paik and Iwata, but I guess that also comes down to not having 100% trust in Leonard. There were times when he played, but you could see why Davies preferred the other two.

“I think he could develop into an absolute player, but it’s like the Alfie May situation where we’ve got to be ruthless, and if they’re not at that standard to get us promotion, which is what the owners want, then they’ve got to go if we can bring in a better calibre of player.

“If it means Leonard leaves, I’m all for it, as sad as it would be. Let him go if they’ve got someone lined up, as he needs to go and play football to develop, and I guess Huddersfield are doing what we did last season and building a super-team for League One.”

Marc Leonard needs to leave Birmingham City for the sake of his career

Most would agree with the assessment that Leonard has the potential to be a very good player, but, unfortunately for him, Paik and Iwata have been excellent as a duo for Blues.

With Doyle now in the mix, someone who has Premier League pedigree, it’s hard to see how Leonard won’t spend most of this season on the bench if he sticks around, and he is too good for that.

These things happen in football, and it’s a shame for Leonard, but he needs a fresh start, and to show what he can do on a weekly basis, even if that means dropping back down to League One with Huddersfield.