Birmingham City completed the signing of forward Oliver Burke on a season-long loan from Werder Bremen on deadline day.
Burke joined the Bundesliga outfit from Sheffield United last summer, but his game time in Germany was limited and he spent the second half of last season on loan with Millwall, scoring two goals and providing two assists in 17 appearances for the Lions as they narrowly missed out on the Championship play-offs.
The 28-year-old featured twice for Bremen in the early weeks of the campaign, but he has been allowed to depart once again, this time moving to St Andrew’s.
Blues manager John Eustace was delighted to get a deal for Burke over the line and revealed the qualities he believes the 26-year-old will add to his side.
“Oliver is obviously a Championship proven player,” Eustace told Birmingham Live.
“He’s got lots of pace and power. He’s good on the transition and has great size as well.
“We’re delighted that he wanted to come to Birmingham. I know he had two or three other clubs that he could have gone to but it just shows that we are doing the right things here that he wanted to come and play for us.”
Burke completes Birmingham’s transfer business after a busy summer which has seen Tyler Roberts, Krystian Bielik, Ethan Laird, Koji Miyoshi, Siriki Dembele, Dion Sanderson, Keshi Anderson, Lee Buchanan, Jay Stansfield, Emanuel Aiwu and Cody Drameh arrive at the club as Eustace receives significant backing from new owner Tom Wagner.
Is Oliver Burke a good signing for Birmingham City?
FLW’s Birmingham City fan pundit Mike Gibbs believes Burke could prove to be a good signing for the club, but thinks that the Blues should have focused on strengthening other areas.
“I am happy with the signing, but I feel like we were already relatively well-stocked in the positions that he can play in,” Mike said.
“If you think we’ve bought Miyoshi, Anderson, Dembele, we’ve got the likes of George Hall already at the club, I felt like we were pretty well-stocked.
“I think one area where it potentially pays dividends for us though is another option through the middle, he’s not a prolific striker which I think we were crying out for, but he adds some additional competition up top.
“As a loan signing with no long-term commitment, I think he’s great.
“It’ll be interesting to see where he is at the end of the year, I think if he’s done well and we’re in with a shout of signing him permanently on a free transfer it would be great bit of business.
“I’m happy, but I thought we had other priorities that we could have focused on.”
What next for Birmingham City?
Burke could make his debut for Birmingham against Watford at Vicarage Road after the international break.
The Blues have enjoyed an excellent start to the season and they remain unbeaten in the Championship after a 1-1 home draw against Millwall on Saturday.
Eustace’s side have picked up 11 points from their opening five games and head into the break sitting fourth in the table, one point behind second-placed Ipswich Town and two points behind leaders Preston North End.
Optimism was high at St Andrew’s this summer after Wagner’s takeover of the club and that positivity has been backed up with results on the pitch so far.
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