Birmingham rejected £10m Che Adams bid on Deadline Day, says Harry Redknapp
Thursday 14 September 2017 18:34, UK
Birmingham City rejected a £10m Deadline Day offer for forward Che Adams, Harry Redknapp has revealed.
Adams signed a new five-year contract at St Andrew's last week following the close of the summer transfer window, in which the club had already fended off interest in the player from Championship rivals Derby - managed by former Blues boss Gary Rowett.
"We turned down £10m for Che on the transfer deadline," said Redknapp. "If it's not public who it's from I wouldn't want to talk about that, but we did have a bid of that figure.
"We didn't want to sell him. We are building a team here, the owners are ambitious for this club.
"They are looking to build a team going forward that can get in the Premier League, that's the ambition of the club, that's my ambition, to take this club into the Premier League.
"Che has to buy into that as well. It is a good club and if he can help take us to where we want to go that's fantastic.
"It was a great offer but we are not a selling club. Birmingham now, with the owners, are not a selling club.
"They want to keep good players and build a squad around the good young players and build a team - it was never an option to sell him."
Birmingham will be without Adams, signed from Sheffield United for a fee which could rise to £1.9m, for this weekend's game against Preston after the 21-year-old's comeback from a hamstring injury against Leeds midweek resulted in him suffering another set back.
Adams injured his other hamstring on his return, while club-record £6m signing Jota also suffered a hamstring injury and will be unavailable for the visit of Preston.
"I think they are strains [rather than tears] hopefully, but they are going to be a few weeks - three or four weeks," said Redknapp, who has also had to wait for summer signing Isaac Vassell to recover from a hamstring injury.
"It's a bit of a blow. We have had bad luck this last week or two, Che has never been fit to start.
"You always do look [at patterns], but it can happen to anybody.
"[Paul] Pogba got a hamstring injury this week and he's out for four weeks for Manchester United."
