How Birmingham City could save £20k p/w on wages in January 2026 | OneFootball

Birmingham City should try to raise wages from the departures of Lyndon Dykes and Lewis Koumas in the January transfer window.

Following their promotion from League One last season, with a record-breaking 111 points, big spending Birmingham City would have hoped to have been in the promotion race once again this season, pushing to get back into the Premier League.

It has been a mixed campaign for the Blues, though, under the management of Chris Davies, as they sit mid-table with a fair bit of room for improvement but from a good place on which to potentially build on in the January transfer window.

Birmingham have spent heavily in each of the last couple of seasons, with co-owner and chairman Tom Wagner explaining just how ambitious he is on regular occasions, and they will want to be busy and active in the winter once again.

In order to do so, as is the case for all clubs in the EFL, there will certainly have to be a balancing of the books a little bit, with that big squad not necessarily sustainable, both on and off the pitch.

As a result, FLW has looked at a couple of players who could be moved on in the winter in order to save £20,000 on weekly wages.

2 ? ? Lyndon Dykes

Having joined Birmingham from Queens Park Rangers for a fee believed to be in the region of £1 million in the summer of 2024, Lyndon Dykes have pretty much always been on the periphery of things at St Andrew's, despite his Championship pedigree and international experience.

The Australia-born striker was down the pecking order behind club-record signing Jay Stansfield, as well as Alfie May, in their promotion-winning campaign, with the Scotland international only starting nine of the 25 matches of which he was available for before a groin injury ended his season as early as February.

In those nine starts, the target man, who even played in the deeper so-called 'number ten' role on a couple of occasions in Chris Davies' 4-2-3-1 system, notched just once, in a 1-1 draw against eventual runners' up Wrexham, where he did indeed play in that deeper role.

Up in the Championship, following rumours over the summer that he could depart the second city after just one season, Dykes has perhaps fallen even further down the pecking order with the big money arrivals of Marvin Ducksch and Kyogo Furuhashi.

He scored twice in his first five appearances of the campaign, which all saw him introduced as a very late substitute, providing late winners against Blackburn Rovers and Swansea City as Birmingham began brightly.

That only saw him rewarded with two starts in three games after the 1-0 home defeat of Swansea before returning to the substitutes bench, coming off the bench in all but two games, but never making the starting eleven again.

Given the fact he will himself be desperate for extra minutes ahead of Scotland appearing at a FIFA World Cup for the first time in 28 years next summer, as well as the fact he earns £15,000 per week according to Capology, it appears to be in the best interests of both Birmingham and the player for Dykes to move on this winter.

Chris Davies has already even discussed his potential departure, too, lauding his energy but acknowledging Dykes' desire for more game time, also acknowledging it could well be a case that Dykes does soon leave:

Davies said: "I talk to Lyndon a lot. He wants more game-time.

"Since he’s been here, he’s such a good impact player for us. He comes on, he’s scored two winning goals.

"He gives a lot of energy. Even the other night at QPR he came on and won a few tackles and showed that physicality and personality.

"Due to the decisions I’ve made he’s not had the game-time he would want but I still value and trust him - that’s the other side of it.

"He knows that. I’ve told him that.

"But I think we have to work with our players, not against them.

"And if it comes to a stage where there’s not enough game-time for him and everyone’s in agreement that it’s best for him to move on, then we will work with him."

1 ? ? Lewis Koumas

Perhaps a victim of that big squad at Birmingham, one of the loanees brought in over the summer that has struggled to make an impact at City is Liverpool owned youngster Lewis Koumas.

The Wales international broke into the first-team picture, playing and scoring in the third round of the 2023/24 FA Cup for the Reds against Southampton, before being loaned out to Stoke City in the second-tier last season.

Koumas got a fair bit of game time with an underperforming Potters side last year, with 43 appearances across the Championship campaign, and he showed flashes of real quality and potential, but of his 26 starts at the Bet365 Stadium, only four of them came after January, pointing to Mark Robins, appointed on New Year's Day, not being overly keen on the youngster.

Birmingham swooped in the summer and it was deemed to be a bit of a coup for the newly-promoted outfit, but Koumas' lack of game time has again been an issue.

As well as Dykes' future, Davies has also discussed the potential for Koumas to depart, too, this winter, with the manager leaving the door open for his loan to potentially end, but also acknowledging that no decision will be rushed.

Davies explained: “Behind the scenes, we’re progressing with what we want to identify and bring in.

“You should be well underway with that process.

“But I just feel with it be too early to dismiss the likes of Lewis Koumas, who hasn't played as much as he would have liked.

“I’ve said to Lewis - and it’s not always easy for players to hear it - but there are going to be games where you are going to be playing soon because we just have so much going on in December.

“That situation can change really quickly. You can come into the team, you know, you play really well, you're get a goal and assist, and all of a sudden it can transform.

“So I think it'd be hasty to sort of rush into those sort of things, but I think it's also fair for these players - because they’re on loan - and if it's not working out for them in January, then there's obviously, a solution to it, and that keeps their spirits up and their motivation levels high.

“So on those ones, I would defer the decision until January because I think that’s the best time to make that decision.”

£5,000 per week wages, according to Capology, would not be the biggest of savings but is still something and, more crucially, opens the door for another loan spot, with Birmingham having already got four other players on temporary stays at the club.