Birmingham City’s craziest transfer rumour this summer included £21.5million-a-year striker

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Birmingham City’s Championship squad could have been even stronger had one of their summer transfer rumours come true.

The Blues had been linked with a number of stars over the window, including former Liverpool ace Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, whose Besiktas contract was terminated recently.

Birmingham have had a busy transfer window, picking up household names such as Blues academy graduate Demarai Gray and Kyogo Furuhashi without having to spend as much as Wrexham and the Championship’s parachute payment clubs.

But there was one well-known star Birmingham were linked with that would have stolen all the headlines had he arrived in B9.

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Birmingham City were linked with former Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic

After winning the League One title with a record-breaking 111 points and having continuing investment from co-owner NFL legend Tom Brady and co., it felt like the sky was the limit for Chris Davies’ side.

So when the name Aleksandar Mitrovic started being linked with a move to St Andrew’s, it didn’t feel that out of the question. In August, reports emerged from talkSPORT that Birmingham wanted more forwards and that Al Hilal striker Mitrovic was one star they were interested in.

However, EFL Analysis’ chief football correspondent Graeme Bailey revealed Birmingham sources stated there was no interest in the Serbian, and that Mitrovic would return to England with a Premier League club rather than one in the second tier.

Looking back now, that would have been a crazily good coup for the Championship side, given his ridiculous goalscoring record at that level for Fulham. His 43 goals in 44 appearances in the 2021/22 season broke Ivan Toney’s previous scoring record of 31 and beat Guy Whittingham’s record of 42 in a 46-game campaign.

He was also on a whopping £21.5million a year in Saudi Arabia, as per capology.

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Aleksandar Mitrovic seals move to Al Rayyan from Al Hilal

Mitrovic sealed a move to Qatar Stars League outfit Al Rayyan on Thursday.

He had been in Saudi Arabia since 2023 following Fulham’s £50million club record transfer deal with Al Hilal. The striker played with fellow ex-Premier League stars Ruben Neves and Joao Cancelo as he fired his side to the Saudi Pro League title in 2024.

Still only 30, Mitrovic was still banging in goals in the Middle East, bagging 68 in 79 appearances.

Now, rather than returning to England with Birmingham, he has left Al Hilal by mutual agreement and has now sealed a move to Qatar.