Jobe Bellingham, George Hall and the player Birmingham City should sign from League One

Latest Birmingham City news from BirminghamLive includes our weekly Q&A with Alex Dicken and Brian Dick

Jobe Bellingham’s potential switch to Championship rivals Sunderland has been the biggest Birmingham City talking point this week.

The teenager appears to be closing in on a switch to the Stadium of Light for a reported £3million – three years after his brother Jude Bellingham joined Borussia Dortmund. In addition to the news about Bellingham junior, Blues fans are also waiting for the club’s released and retained list.

Alex Dicken and Brian Dick joined supporters on Facebook on Friday afternoon to discuss both of those topics – and lots more. 

Jobe Bellingham

AD: “It’s been on the cards for a while. There is a big interest from Sunderland. Obviously Kristjaan Speakman, who was Blues’ academy director for a long time, is now their sporting director. Mike Dodds is part of their first team coaching staff and Stuart English is there as head of coaching. There is clearly a connection and a link to the Bellinghams. It’s not really a surprise.”

BD: “There was talk of it a year ago, around the time when there was a discussion over whether Jobe would sign his pro contract. Sometimes the easy links and the obvious links are the correct links. It’s not too difficult in football to trace relationships and the relationship with the Bellinghams does appear to be strong.

“It’s an interesting scenario with Sunderland now not going up. Does that give Jobe more of a chance if/when he goes at first team football? I’m quite strongly inclined to think it will happen.”

AD: “I think so. He was up there last week for the first leg of their play-off game with Luton and he’s obviously been up there previously to watch games. Blues started him in the last four games of last season and he got decent minutes – over 600 in the Championship. Whether that’s enough for him and his family, I don’t know. Sunderland are in a stronger position than Blues in terms of the players they have got, so it’s hard to see how Jobe will be better served going there for minutes. He would have started next season had he stayed at Blues as a first team player. I don’t know whether he would have always been in the XI, I suspect not.

“Bellingham is a name synonymous with Birmingham now, Jude especially did so much for the club. It’s hard to begrudge Jobe a move. If that’s what him and his family think is best for his development, then so be it.”

BD: “We’ve got to remember the fact that he’s 17. What I’ve always tried to do with Jobe is not compare him to Jude, and instead compare him to other 17-year-olds. And he is ahead of the curve. We can speculate about what he might become. At the moment all we can do is compare him to another 17-year-old and he is right up there.

“I thought on his first start, in the last game before the World Cup against Sunderland, it was a tough watch. People might not like that, but I was uncomfortable watching him because it was clearly difficult for him. What I saw in the spring was signs that he was becoming more comfortable at Championship level.”

AD: “I first saw him in the starting XI at Millwall and it was a world away from what you described to me against Sunderland. I thought he actually looked really composed and took the ball in dangerous positions. I thought he looked like a Championship player that night, even at 17. In the games that followed I don’t think he was as good, but towards the end of the season he showed he can play at this level. There’s been obvious growth in him as well throughout the season. In stature, I think he’s taller than Jude so he clearly has that physique and frame as well. I think he’ll be a good Championship player next season wherever he is. Who knows what he will go on to achieve but, at his age, there aren’t many better in the country – hence why he is a regular for the England under-18s.”

BD: “It depends on what position he settles in as well. I know John Eustace likes his eights doesn’t he? With that comes defensive responsibility as well and I think that’s the hardest thing for young players to learn. He’s played as a 10 – I don’t know that Blues do that going forward.

AD: “I think £3m is about right. It’s so hard to put a fee on Jobe because of his limited first team experience. He has just come around in the last year and hasn’t played loads. With Jude it was easy because he was a 16-year-old who had played a lot of minutes in this league. With Jobe it’s difficult. For what Jobe has done in Blues’ first team, I think £3m is fair. You would hope there’s a little sell-on in there like there has been with Jude. If he then develops at a good rate and gets a Premier League move in the next few years, Blues would benefit from that as well. They have after all put in an awful lot of work to his development.”

BD: “I agree. That is almost as key as the initial fee. I think he has probably got the toughest gig in world football. It’s not just who his brother is, he’s at his brother’s club as well and all the emotional attachment that goes with that. I really want the lad to succeed and do well, and if that means ploughing his own furrow then that’s not necessarily a bad thing.”

AD: “Going to Sunderland would see him escape that association between Blues and Jude a little bit. He’s made his name at Blues and obviously he’s come through the ranks at Blues, but he could create his own path with Sunderland.”