Birmingham City are contemplating one contract decision as the 2025/26 season draws to a close. Not so long ago, the club would have been considering numerous contract calls at this time of year. Back in 2023, Blues released six players at the end of their contracts – albeit Kevin Long re-signed two months later – and in 2024 another five were offloaded following relegation to League One.
Grant Hanley and Lee Myung-jae were the only two players released at the end of last season after signing short-term deals the previous January. Given the sums of money now being thrown around by Blues and the long contracts being handed out, it should come as no surprise that almost every player in Chris Davies’ squad is tied down for at least next season. Even returning loanees Marc Leonard (2028) and Scott Wright (2027) are under contract at St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park.
The only player whose future is in immediate doubt after Blues’ Championship finale at Portsmouth today is Jonathan Panzo. Panzo was a last-minute signing from Rio Ave on deadline day in January. Blues wanted a left-sided centre-back and having exhausted all other avenues, they landed on Panzo.
Two rock-solid showings against Leeds United and Norwich City earned him favour with Davies and a place in the starting XI at the expense of Phil Neumann in mid-February, but Panzo proved to be a false dawn. All along the fear of it being a façade existed because Panzo has never really put it together consistently in the Championship.
For all the promise of a youth career which saw him captain Chelsea’s academy teams and win the Under-17 World Cup for England alongside Phil Foden and Morgan Gibbs-White, Panzo’s potential hasn’t translated in the Championship. He played 29 league games for Coventry City in the 2022/23 season, in which they lost the Championship play-off final, but he barely featured for Cardiff City or Nottingham Forest.
Panzo has made six league starts for Blues, five of which have ended in defeat, and hasn’t been seen since a horror show at left-back against Ipswich on Easter Monday. In his defence, he isn’t a left-back. You can’t help but feel that Panzo hasn’t done enough to earn another Blues contract.
Davies wasn’t quite so blunt when asked if Blues will part ways with Panzo after Portsmouth. The Blues manager said: “I’ve spoken to Jonathan and praised him for what he’s done. He did have a really good spell in the team actually and he trains well every day. He’s been a good squad player, basically, and I think he knew what he was coming into in that sense. We will have to sit down with him and look at what we’ve got here for him and what he really wants. If those align then so be it, if they don’t then naturally he would move on.”
At 25, Panzo shouldn’t be warming a bench or missing out on squads. He isn’t what a promotion-chasing Blues side needs for next season and that, plain and simply, is why it is time to part ways.
