£2m man explains why his Birmingham City move collapsed in ‘strange’ circumstances

By his own admission, a player who saw a potential move to St Andrew’s fall through this summer had a rather ‘strange and intense’ fling with Birmingham City.

One that, once the flame died out, left both parties feeling a little disatisfied.

Despite an eye-catching summer in which Birmingham have demonstrated a pulling power and a financial firepower most clubs in League One history can only dream of, not everything has gone The Blues’ way.

Star man Jordan James swapped League One for Ligue 1 when joining Rennes.

Birmingham also missed out on Goduine Koyalipou. Last season’s Golden Boot winner in the Belgian second tier opted for Bulgarian outfit CSKA Sofia instead.

And, as for Mike Eerdhuijzen, De Telegraaf said at the end of June that Chris Davies’ side were willing to stump up around £2 million. The Sparta Rotterdam centre-half had also been offered a four-year contract in the Midlands.

But despite visiting Birmingham’s training ground, the deal eventually collapsed, per the Birmingham Mail.

The former Netherlands Under 20 international insists that the decision was not his but Sparta Rotterdam’s. The near neighbours of 2023 Eredivisie champions Feyenoord were keen to avoid losing another centre-half after the departure the highly-experienced Bart Vriends to Australian football.

“So much has happened with Birmingham. You want to forget about that. It was mentally tough. And then FC Twente quickly came around the corner.”

Eerdhuijzen was then targeted by FC Twente. Last season’s third-place side turned to the 6ft 5ins stopper after unexpectedly losing captain Robin Propper to Scottish Premiership challengers Rangers.

“I never say never, but I didn’t necessarily say yes to FC Twente either,” he adds, clearly affected by that whole Blues saga. “I did learn from Birmingham and don’t want to get hit again. Something so strange and intense had happened with Birmingham.