Birmingham City’s £30k-a-week transfer ploy is a huge risk | OneFootball

Blues are set to offer Peterborough winger Kwame Poku a weekly wage of around £30,000 - it could prove to be a mistake

Birmingham City are planning to make Peterborough United winger Kwame Poku their highest earner this summer with a contract offer worth £30,000 per week, which seems like a big risk to take given his lack of experience in the Championship, despite his impressive lower league form.

Blues stopped at nothing to give themselves the best chance of bouncing straight back up last summer, following a turbulent Championship season and eventual relegation in May.

Their total outlay was claimed to be a record spend in a single window at the level, and that strategy has paid off as they now prepare to return to the second-tier.

Chris Davies' side have long confirmed themselves as League One champions, and even broke the all-time points record for the third-tier with a 4-0 thrashing of Mansfield Town this past weekend.

They are set to make further improvements to their squad this summer, with Poku reportedly in their sights as his Posh contract comes to an end, but may want to think twice about making him such a high-earner, despite his standout form in this campaign.

Kwame Poku has been a standout in League One this season - Blues are set to make a stunning contract offer

Poku was one of the most in-form players in English football at the start of the season as he notched 10 goals and five assists in his first 15 matches, while he picked up the third-tier's Player of the Month award for both September and October as a result of his standout showings.

Posh boss Darren Ferguson dubbed him "unplayable" in the wake of his November hat-trick against rivals Cambridge United, and the club were trying to tie down their star man to a new contract at that time, but he soon picked up a serious hamstring injury and was ruled out until the start of March.

He has returned to form in recent weeks to help Peterborough avoid a shock relegation to League Two, with two goals and three assists in his last eight league games. The Ghanaian international also helped the club to a successive EFL Trophy victory earlier this month, with a 2-0 win over Birmingham in the final, no less.

The 23-year-old is bound to attract widespread transfer attention in the upcoming summer window, and speculation around his future has already begun, after Football Insider reported in mid-April that Blues had opened talks to sign him this summer after their promotion back to the Championship was confirmed.

Football League World have followed those claims up by revealing that the Second City outfit plan to offer Poku a stunning £30,000-a-week contract in order to beat Rangers, who are also interested in signing him, to his signature in the months to come.

Blues are taking a risk with their high contract offer - Poku is yet to prove himself above League One

Birmingham have certainly not been averse to spending sizeable figures on incoming players to achieve on-field success since Tom Wagner took over as chairman and owner in 2023.

Their well-publicised plight to sign Jay Stansfield last summer saw the 22-year-old eventually join the club for a club and League One transfer record of around £15 million, which was a huge fee for a third-tier team to spend on one player.

It seems unlikely that they will stray away from such a strategy this summer, even though the majority of their squad seems ready-made for the Championship, and a potential weekly wage of £30,000 would undoubtedly make Poku the club's highest earner if he were to sign on those terms ahead of next season.

While he would obviously be a marquee signing, given his impressive League One form and likely suitors from across the second-tier, the sizeable contract offer would also open Blues up to the possibility of him being a real flop signing if he is unable to adapt and transfer his strong showings to the Championship.

The 23-year-old has been a professional footballer for close to six full seasons now, but just one of those has been spent in the Championship so far, as he made 20 second-tier appearances in his maiden campaign at the Weston Homes Stadium in 2021/22 as Posh were relegated back to the third-tier.

Four years on, and Poku's talents certainly feel more transferable to the Championship, but it is fair to say that Blues are taking a risk by potentially giving him a contract worth close to £1.5m each year.

That figure undoubtedly dwarfs his current earnings at Peterborough, as his time there seemingly edges closer to an end, but could turn out to be a wildly expensive deal for a player who is yet to impress above League One level and may well struggle in the second-tier once again.