It’s a new month for Blues, and the new season is almost upon us. We’ve had a turbulent few weeks, and BCFC need to ride out the storm just a while longer before the football can do the talking. Accusations levelled against the board of a “fire sale” coming into operation are looking fairer, and with more transfers probable I thought it was worth talking about that in some more detail.

For me, the acid test of Blues’ resolve in this transfer window lies with two players; if one or either go I think it will show just how hard Blues have it. I’m not referring to Scott Dann, or Cameron Jerome, or even Nikola Zigic; the players I’m talking about are Liam Ridgewell and Stephen Carr. I understand to many fans that they are not the “crown jewels” in the team, but from everything I’ve heard they are two players who the club do not want to sell. However, it would appear that their agent (they have the same one, SEM Group) has other ideas.

There’s been a lot in the press about a move for Liam Ridgewell to WBA from Blues; figures of between £1mil and £3mil have been mooted, and many sceptics believed Liam didn’t play in the friendly against Everton because of an impending move. The club (eventually) put out the news that Liam was nursing a slight injury, and thus wouldn’t be playing, but that did nothing to assuage the rumours of Liam’s exit.

I have to admit, I’m torn. I like Liam Ridgewell a lot – he’s a bit of a cult hero in some ways because of the way he’s gone from being a bit, well, dodgy at centre back to a rampaging goalscoring left-back. Well, maybe I’m being a bit generous there, but Liam was certainly not our weakest link last year. Thus I don’t want him to go particularly; however the idea of holding onto what might be a potentially disinterested player doesn’t appeal either. If Liam doesn’t want to play for us – and there have been messageboard rumours that he wants out NOW – then is he going to give his all for us?

Then there is our captain fantastic Stephen Carr. Now, I have to admit, I’ve not heard via the grapevine if Stevie wants to stay or go, but I’ve certainly heard that the stories doing the rounds on Sky and the like are courtesy of his agents. The board don’t want to sell Carr – which is understandable, bearing in mind his performances for us. As the ever knowledgeable @richardfbarker pointed out to me at Hereford, Carr was probably one of the five best right backs in the Premier League last year. Why would he want to drop a division with us when he could probably quite comfortably hold down a position in the top flight? This is a player who retired because he didn’t want to drop down the divisions – what will have changed now?

One thing that should be taken from this is that transfers of players isn’t always down to the board “asset stripping” the club. There are often a multitude of reasons that a player could be sold for, and financials are only one of them. This summer has been a tough one, and it’s not over yet. My one hope is that Chris Hughton can demonstrate to the players that there is a future for Blues – a future that isn’t quite as rocky as the one that the newspapers seem happy to tag us with.

Tags: Liam Ridgewell, Stephen Carr