League One rival holds transfer talks with Birmingham City, Huddersfield, Rotherham, and Barnsley target

Birmingham City’s League One rivals will hold transfer talks with one of their reported transfer targets.

George Byers is of interest to Blues, but there is competition from clubs in the Championship and in League One. The Star reported in May that that Huddersfield Town, Rotherham United, Bolton Wanderers and Barnsley along with play-off winners Oxford United were all keen on signing the midfielder.

The 28-year-old is a free agent after Sheffield Wednesday opted not to extend his contract. He spent the last six months out on loan at Blackpool, and they could be best positioned to sign the former Owls man. 

David Downes is Blackpool’s sporting director and he brought Byers to Hillsborough in 2021. He also played a role in recruiting Byers for the Seasiders in January and now he’s attempting to sign him for a third time, this time on a permanent basis. He was in attendance at a fans forum and was asked about Blackpool's current state of play on transfers. 

"It’s difficult to speak about individual players,” responded Downes at a Blackpool fan forum where they were on signing Byers and Hayden Coulson. 

"I’ve signed George Byers twice- once for Sheffield Wednesday and once here, so naturally I know his agent very well so we are in discussions.

"He will have a lot of options, he’s a good player. He’s a free transfer so he’s probably easier to speak about. 

"In terms of recruitment, we’ve done a lot of planning so we’re in the execution phase and trying to get one or two over the line,” Downes added.

"Last summer we all came in at different times, and I like to think in January everything looked more aligned into what we wanted to do. Me and Neil (Critchley - Blackpool manager) have had nine months of working with each other now, we kind of know where we want to be and where we want to get to.”