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New Deal For Dimmi
Birmingham City yesterday confirmed that teenage winger Demarai Gray has signed a new three year deal, hopefully ending speculation of a summer exit. Gray was previously only contracted til the end of the 2015-16 season and had been targeted by Bournemouth as a potential signing in the January transfer window.
Signing Gray to a new contract has to be seen as a positive move in many ways. While I agree with the opinion that contracts don’t demand further loyalty from a player, it does insure his value against going to a tribunal next summer (or indeed being forced to allow him to go for free abroad, something I had not previously realised but was indeed possible).
However what I think it does more is to show an intention from the club that they won’t be forced into letting players go lightly as they have been in the past. Sure, I have no doubt there is an escape clause in there somewhere, and I also have no doubt that Dimmi will go within 12 months if he continues to progress as he has – but I also have no doubt that it will be at a fee that is more beneficial to BCFC than it would have been previously.
I also think it shows that maybe there is a feeling among players that Blues as a club and Rowett as a manager are worth sticking with. Even though I think Dimmi will leave us down the line, if he hadn’t signed a contract then an exit would have been guaranteed within twelve months and at the behest of the player more than the club. Dimmi signing a deal says to me that he sees at least his short-term future with Blues and that he trusts Rowett to help his progression as a player – I wonder how many players felt that about Clark, or felt that the team would progress under the previous “acting chairman”?
Blues capped off what was a positive day with a 3-0 win over Nuneaton in their first pre-season friendly yesterday evening. I didn’t go to the game and unfortunately it wasn’t on Polish TV so I can’t comment on it myself – reports from elsewhere talk about good workouts for Reece Brown and Paul Caddis in the first half along with Andrew Shinnie and David Davis in the second.
Pre-season friendlies don’t mean much for results but are mainly about fitness and getting the team to gel together, as well as showing progression from the training camp. Hopefully his showing means that Reece Brown has knuckled down some more as he’s undoubtedly got the talent – his application hadn’t quite been there in the development squad at the end of last season.
Tags: Demarai Gray, Reece Brown
41 Responses to “New Deal For Dimmi”
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“Pre-season friendlies don’t mean much for results”
Have to disagree, they mean a lot more if you win, it raises morale in the dressing room, imagine being on the bus going home after losing to Nuneaton!
I still believe that we need to sign a stong defender and a good holding midfielder that can provide quality balls to Donaldson before our game with Reading, but I will take the two wins yesterday and am much happier than if they had been losses. Looking forward to the new season with hope and anticipation, I am after all a Blue Nose. Kro
Didn’t we lose almost all of our friendlies in our last promotion winning season or two?
Lets see what we can do when we win them?
Good news re Gray.
Also, Sherwood has gone public across the Expressway and said vile takeover bid is dead. Maybe they ain’t worth £150 million…
Unpopular as this may come across, but I am a touch disappointed about the Gray business. I had actually hoped that the summer activity would have secured a fairly sized fee in the region of £8m. Hoping that GR would get a fair chunk for SERIOUS players e.g. 4 “good uns” then the scene would be set for an exciting push for promotion. Gray is good but not enough to make a substantial difference to the team. Reality imo is without him we would float around lower half of table-with him perhaps pushing mid-table. This again imo was a great chance to sell and get the strong guys in-but in reality I suppose the offers just didn’t make the figure expected.
I know what you mean, but as you soon as you sell a player for big bucks, you have every agent in town knocking on your door trying to flog their starlet to you. Danger is, you end up pouring the money down the sink on weak players you buy in a rush — and then regret. Rowett is too canny for that.
Tend to agree that we’d be better with a decent fee. He’s Good but not that good but now at least if he flourishes the fee will be even bigger because he has a 3yr contract. he could still go in the Jan window but If he doesn’t progress then we will have missed the boat!
Gary said we were in for players that would surprise and excite supporters…. we are still waiting! Tesche looks like he’s getting into the Forrest team, a re loan of Fabrini will take till the season starts I suspect, so the surprise and excitement must be hidden under a bushell somewhere?
Mind you Rostyn Griffiths from Australia via Blackburn and Guagzhou??? That is a surprise though not at all exciting !
Also a great display from the u21 with Allen making 2 and Johnson scoring both. Also what a great kit. Kro4ever
I don’t wish to be pedantic Daddyblue1 but who are Allen and Johnson?
Johnstone scored 2 goals but who Allen is remains a mystery.
I do believe that Daddy, really meant Alex Jones, — Chuckle.
That’s impressive Oldie lol
It is great news that Gray has signed a new deal.
Blues only chance of progressing from last season is to bring through our own young talent. The club has little money to spend and cannot compete with teams such as Derby, Middlesbrough, Cardiff, QPR, Hull and Fulham in the transfer market.
So emerging talents like Gray, Arthur, Brown and Harding have an important opportunity to stake a claim to a regular starting spot.
Arthur and Brown should give us fire! Geddit?
More seriously, Richard is surely right to say Blues need to do everything possible to hang on to emerging talent at the club.
No thats just CRAZY !
I hadn’t thought of it like that…
Great signing but I do hope there are more on the way!
Apparently the two players were going after this week will walk straight into the first 11 according to Tatts so we’re wait and see on those but must be a centre half and a holding midfield player as they are our vulnerable positions! Kro
Pleased Davis had a good game and scored last night,. He was one of our best most influential signings of recent times Best player over the season for me till he lost his place for injury or suspension. Should be given another shot this season for his exemplary work-rate and ball winning skills all skills Rowett admires.
It’s Davis alongside whoever comes in and Morrison alongside whoever comes in for me and then someone for that behind Donaldson position .. That’s the three we need ! Kro
Keep Writ (Carson) on to the end of the road, sounds like the recievers want our money back.
New stock exchange announcement
Another 3 or 4 years then!
Interesting developments in Hong Kong;
http://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2015/0715/LTN20150715859.pdf
Hi
I will be discussing this, this evening.
PLEASE, please please do not treat this site as a messageboard and try to post links because I have to moderate every single message with a link it. If you want to discuss events as they happen, please use a forum. Thanks.
Dan
Apologies, won’t do it again.
No worries Mike – I’m conscious people want to discuss stuff as it happens but I don’t have the facilities for it :(
Definitely more cap to come…
With Dimi we have a situation of a star that the team is built around. The club now has shown their commitment to him and they are also showing their commitment to not finish mid-table. Rowett now has to be sure he has the players to justify keeping Dimi. This says push to the Prem. It reminds me of TF and the value of keeping him meaning commitment by owners to the club, promotion the next season and bigger crowds and better football. Let’s commit to that too.
Ha, Peter Pannu, we want our money back, I am beginning to like E&Y. :-)
This deal will be good for the club but we still need reinforcements as the starting 11 is weak
Andrew, when you say weak do you mean Donaldson , Gray, Cotterill , shinnie , Davis, Brown( who was quality last night) Morrison , Caddis & Grounds are not good enough for the championship and are in need of replacing ? Explain please ! Kro
I agree Dave. We are more than capable of finishing upper mid-table with the squad we have at the moment. A couple of quality additions and who knows where we could finish up. A play-off push could well be a possibility with the right signings.
Or do you mean that we’re to weak to have a playoff push ? Kro
Why all this negativity on Gray signing a new deal. It’s fantastic news for the club. According to reports he’s come back bigger and stronger so maybe still a candidate for the number 10 role. I don’t think we need another defender as Harding is good enough to be in the first team alongside Morrison. He’s a big, strong and quick lad whose very good in the air for those who don’t know. We need a defensive midfielder and another striker in case Donaldson gets injured. I’m still unsure on our other strikers though the strike pairing of Johnstone and Jones seem promising. The biggie for me is whether Brown makes the step up as I think our midfield without Tesche and Fabbrini lacks power and trickery
We’re see!
After today’s announcement loan there surely can be no doubt that E&Y are acting in the best interests of BCFC? For those of you who think Trillion are dodgy why would they expose themselves to a business deal with E&Y?
After today’s HKSE announcement there surely can be no doubt that E&Y are acting in the best interests of BCFC? For those of you who think Trillion are dodgy why would they expose themselves to a business deal with E&Y?
Julian,Trillion is a shell most probably with nominee directors.They will have to have disclosed the benificaries but reciprosity is rife .That is to say anyone can be a stooge beneficial owner.Im not saying that this is the case but…..As regards Dimi I think this is a good sign.As an earlier contributor says hes bigger and stronger.If he can really shine this year it will help us on the pitch and we will be able to sell him to a bigger and better purchaser which is good for him and most certainly good for our funds.We need more players of quality though -and the sooner the better.
Agree on Dimi. If he’s matured physically and is bigger and stronger he’s going to be frightening this season. If Liverpool can bag 49 mill for Stirling we would be mad not to hang on to him for a few years to see how far he can go.
There is a big difference between Raheem and Dimi, Liverpool, his club could afford to turn down an offer below expectation, if Raheem was at Blues we would have accepted 15million for him and would have been pleased with ourselves, we need to get ourselves into a position where every player we release is replaced by a superior player, superior in both value and playing ability, and there is enough surpluss for us to bring in potential players that can grow and gain experience and value. It has been said lots of times this is not just a game of football but a business and if the business is successful then so will the team be, and success breeds success, I appreciate we need investment but lets not sell short what we have already. Kro
I am not suggesting that Blues would get 49 mill for Dimmi. All I am saying is that if we kept him for another season or so it could be worth a lot more money to the club.
Your right Hillfield,we could maybe have got 7 million this time round-if you believe the speculation.If Dimmi really acheives this season it could be double that.15 mil-even if 5 went to the holding company and 10 was released for players would make one hell of a difference.I think the powers that be have made a shrewd decision here.GR knows what hes got with Dimmi in terms of attitude and behaviour etc.Its always a risk when you sign new players.They may appear to be gifted but may upset the dynamic of the dressing room ,are perhaps disruptive in training or are a liability off the pitch.A shrew decision.