“No regrets” - Jobe Bellingham, Birmingham City claim made after huge Sunderland AFC transfer windfall | OneFootball

Birmingham City sold Jobe Bellingham to Sunderland for around £3m, with the midfielder joining Borussia Dortmund for over £30m two years later.

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 were right to sell Jobe Bellingham, even though the player has gone on to flourish at Sunderland, which earned him a big-money move to Borussia Dortmund.

Like his brother, Real Madrid star, Jude, Jobe came through the ranks at St. Andrew’s, and he made 24 league appearances in a royal blue shirt before he made the move to Sunderland in an initial £3m deal.

That turned out to be a smart decision by Bellingham, as he has featured regularly for the Black Cats over the past two years, which included starring as they won promotion to the Premier League this season.

Birmingham City miss out on huge Jobe Bellingham sale

Such form saw Bellingham named as the Young Player of the Year in the Championship, and it put him on the radar of clubs around Europe.

It was Dortmund who won the race for the signature of the England youth international, as they agreed a deal worth up to £31m for the midfielder.

Whilst Blues were in line to benefit from a sell-on clause as part of the agreement, it naturally left some wondering whether it was a missed opportunity by the club, as they could’ve enjoyed the bumper payday.

Yet, when quizzed by FLW on that, Birmingham fan pundit Aaron Bastable explained that Bellingham needed to leave St. Andrew’s to fulfil his potential for various reasons.

“No regrets with Jobe leaving. As good a player as he has become, I don’t think he will become that player if he stayed with us. Where we were at that time, isn’t the position we are now - we weren’t going to be able to grant him game time.

“We didn’t have the luxury of, and I’m not saying he was a passenger at times with Sunderland, but when you’re fighting at the top of the table, you have the ability to give players a chance to develop, and to let them grow.

“When you’re in a dog fight every week, and we were relegated a year or so later. We were struggling, so you can’t afford to have youngsters in the team all the time.

“Not only that, George Hall was flying, and Jobe just wasn’t getting any minutes. So, even though he had brilliant potential, it made sense with the money we were getting at the time. There was also a stigma from his brother, the name, so the best thing for him was to get out of the limelight with us - and I’m not saying we’re bigger than Sunderland in any way, but he didn’t have the magnifying glass on him for being Jude’s brother at his old club and the pressure that comes with it.

“So, no regrets, as I don’t think he would’ve turned out to be the same player. We got about £6-7m so we can’t regret that, especially given the financial predicament we were in, and also the position in the league table. Both of those coincided means he wouldn’t have had the same development path.”

Birmingham City will build around their star men moving forward

It will have been frustrating for Birmingham that they didn’t get to see Bellingham show his ability at St. Andrew’s for longer.

But, as outlined above, Bellingham left a very different club to the Blues that are kicking on right now.

If he was coming through the ranks now, you can be sure that Bellingham would have a key role under Chris Davies, but it wasn’t to be, and he left at a time when the club was in a bit of a mess.

So, it has worked out well for all parties, and Blues’ academy should be proud that they helped develop a player who will be playing in the Champions League with Dortmund next season.