Birmingham City could be forced to pay eight figures for transfer target if club chief gets his way

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Birmingham City have been warned they could end up paying £10m for one of their summer transfer targets.

Birmingham City have completed one transfer already, signing Phil Neumann from Hannover 96 on a pre-contract agreement.

The defender’s deal will officially start from July 1, but he’s expected to be just one of many new faces at St Andrew’s this summer.

We revealed recently that Birmingham want to target five positions in the upcoming window as they eye another promotion.

EFL Analysis understands that the club are expected to be one of the biggest spenders in the EFL, and they may well need to be judging by the comments of one club chief this week.

• READ MORE: Birmingham City could match remarkable record in Championship next season, but Leicester will have a big say

Peterborough United chief wants £10m for Kwame Poku

A host of names have already been linked with a move to the newly-promoted side.

One of those is Peterborough United winger Kwame Poku, whom we exclusively revealed last month is wanted by Rangers and Birmingham.

Poku is out of contract with The Posh in June, but owing to his age, Peterborough and Birmingham would need to agree a compensation fee or go to a tribunal.

The second option may not be in the best interest of Tom Wagner’s side, however, given Peterborough’s director of football, Barry Fry, has now said that they would ask for £10m if they went to a tribunal.

He said, as per the Peterborough Telegraph: “We believe it doesn’t matter who signs him it would be in that club’s interest to agree a fee without the need for a tribunal.

“I have written offers in the millions for Kwame which all counts towards a judgement, but if we go to a tribunal the other club would offer tuppence and we’d ask for £10 million and we’d then see what happens.”

• READ MORE: Nine-goal Birmingham City star and ‘really confident’ player could leave for free after 25/26 season

Kwame Poku’s stance on signing for Birmingham City

The 23-year-old scored 12 and assisted 11 across all competitions during the most recent campaign.

His superb form is attracting the attention of many clubs and we recently gained an insight into how Poku currently feels about Birmingham via Graeme Bailey.

He told us: “Birmingham are certainly in for him. They do like him an awful lot. But I think Poku is obviously weighing it up as well. Is he going to go to Birmingham and be first choice? What I’m hearing about Birmingham’s plans, I think he’ll be on the edge. He’s not guaranteed to go there and start and I think that’s a consideration for him. It really is.

“So let’s see on that one. There’s certainly Birmingham in for him and Poku will be leaving Peterborough, but let’s see where that one goes because there are other clubs in for him.”