Birmingham City have completed the signing of midfielder Max Bird from Bristol City, making him their sixth addition of the summer transfer window. The 25-year-old has put pen to paper on a three-year contract at St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park, bolstering Chris Davies' options in the engine room ahead of the new Championship season.
Blues have taken advantage of Bird entering the final 12 months of his contract at Bristol City to secure his services. The midfielder brings a wealth of second-tier experience, having played 162 Championship games for Bristol City and Derby County – a box Blues have looked to tick with their summer recruitment.
A Testing Campaign Behind Him
However, only 15 of those matches came last season in what was undoubtedly Bird's most challenging campaign to date. He struggled with injuries and barely featured in a season that saw the Robins start under Gerhard Struber and finish under ex-England boss Roy Hodgson.
“He missed pretty much the whole of pre-season with a calf issue,” BristolLive's Bristol City reporter Dan Carter told us. “I think he could have played at the beginning of last season but they held him back, Gerhard Struber worked really hard to manage him. He was coming on for 20, 30, 40 minutes, slowly building up, then he went down with a similar issue and it kept him out longer.
“He came back into the team under Roy Hodgson, again in that attacking midfield role. He's been fully fit all pre-season and it looks to me like he's shaken off whatever that issue was. It just looked like a run of bad luck.”
Versatility and Technical Quality
That's the downside done and dusted, now for Bird's upsides. In addition to his experience – Bird has already amassed 266 senior appearances – he is one of the more versatile midfielders in the Championship. Bird made his name as a box-to-box midfielder at Derby County, but he can also operate as a more traditional anchorman and at number 10. Blues appear to have signed the complete midfielder.
Carter explained: “If you asked the Bristol City managers that he's played under I'm not sure they would agree (on his best position). In his first season at Bristol City they started without a number 10, he was playing ahead of Jason Knight and Joe Williams who were the two holding midfielders, and if you look back at his best games for Bristol City that is probably where he was playing.
“There was a goal he scored against Millwall where he was getting on the ball, one and two touch passes and flicking balls round corners. He's really technically good so you can understand why people have been keen to play him as close to the opposition's box as possible. As that season wore on he ended up being pushed back alongside Jason Knight and he looked really good.
“He's not the biggest, he's not a destructive type, but he's more than capable of playing as an eight or a six. But I would say his best football has come as a 10. He's a good passer and he's really good technically, every manager who has coached him at Ashton Gate has been trying to get him as close to the opposition's goal as possible.
“He played most of his football under Liam Manning so that's where you naturally think he was at his best. He felt like a Liam Manning signing when he came in, someone who can look after the ball and there were a lot of games where Bristol City would have loads of possession and they were waiting for a chance to break through a line and Bird has that ability.”
Boosting Davies' Options
Bird takes Blues' complement of midfielders to four – excluding injured duo Marc Leonard and Taylor Gardner-Hickman – and gives Davies the option of a more creative number 10 if a game calls for it.
Concluding our conversation on the Keep Right On Podcast, Carter said: “He's a really intelligent footballer, one of those who can do everything. If I was a Birmingham City fan I would be really excited because at 25 years old, all the games played, you get the feeling he's someone who is going to explode at some point in the Championship and that might have been last season had he not had the fitness issues that he had.”
