Birmingham City have finally pulled out of their attempt to sign Blues target Chuba Akpom from Ajax.

On Monday, the 29-year-old was on the verge of signing for the Midlanders on loan until the Blues matched the terms of the deal, which includes the obligation to sign on a permanent basis for £7 million next summer, and the player opted for a move to Suffolk.

Having completed his medical with Town, Birmingham then made an approach to sign Akpom on a permanent basis for a fee understood to be £6 million but, as TWTD revealed yesterday morning, the former Arsenal youngster remained determined to join Town despite the St Andrew’s club’s continued pursuit.

The matter appeared to be settled when reports from Germany indicated Birmingham had turned their attention to Werder Bremen attacker Marvin Ducksch for €2 million (£1.7 million), however, as of last night, they looked to be maintaining their interest and were putting pressure on the player to move to St Andrew’s where the Blues play their opening Championship game of the season on Friday.


However, according to Sky Sports News and in line with TWTD’s understanding, they have now pulled out of the running and Akpom, who has remained in Suffolk since undergoing his medical on Monday, is now set to complete his switch to the Blues.

Newham-born Akpom came through the Gunners’ academy ranks and had spells on loan at Brentford, Coventry, Nottingham Forest, Hull City, Brighton and in Belgium with Sint-Truiden while a player at the Emirates.

Having made one senior start and 11 sub appearances, the 6ft tall striker moved on to PAOK Salonika in Greece for £900,000 in August 2018.

After two years, he joined Middlesbrough for £2.75 million, returning to PAOK on loan for 2021/22, before joining Ajax for an initial €12.3 million (£10.7 million), rising to €14.3 million (£12.4 million) with add-ons.

He spent the second half of last season on loan in Ligue 1 in France with Lille, who chose not to take up an option to sign him permanently at the end of his spell.

An England cap at U16, U17, U19, U20 and U21 levels, Akpom has scored 21 goals in 39 starts and 40 sub appearances for Ajax in all competitions and bagged three in six starts and nine games from the bench during his short spell with Lille. For the Teessiders, he netted 34 goals in 59 starts and 23 games from the bench.

Town are very much in the hunt for another striker - probably two - to compete with George Hirst, Liam Delap having moved to Chelsea at the end of last season for £30 million, while Akpom also operates as a number 10.

Photo: Stefan Koops - EYE4images via Reuters Connect

BobbyPetta11 added 11:09 - Aug 6 Bored.
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Uhlenbeek added 11:09 - Aug 6 This is good news. Just put a fiver on him coming off the bench and bagging a brace on Friday night...
15

eunos added 11:11 - Aug 6 Good. Hopefully we can get this finalised and announced today!
11

Bazza8564 added 11:11 - Aug 6 Let's get this over the line today and get Jens in too.
15

Bluewhiteboy added 11:12 - Aug 6 Hope we get the German guy off them too. He looks really impressive, probably the better of the two and a bargain.
3

lozklein added 11:14 - Aug 6 Good! Thought Town was about to do a Newcastle and have a player turn them down when a big name rich club comes in and the player opts for this other team!!
1

Phil1969 added 11:15 - Aug 6 Where’s Jens is he biking to Suffolk for medical ?
14

Ravanelly added 11:18 - Aug 6 Probably best to not keep referring to 'The Blues' in stories about Ipswich and Birmingham. Tad confusing for the hard of thinking like me
12

AlfBuksh added 11:18 - Aug 6 Agreed, boring. highlight of the transfer window is a fragile midfielder deciding after two months to come back to us on loan and a journeyman striker joining us with a few days to go before the season opener...
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JonDouglas4Ballondor added 11:20 - Aug 6 @AlfBuksh - Journeyman or not he bagged 28 goals in his last championship season and he has european football pedigree and a very good goals return considering his playing time. Can us fans ever be satisfied with anything?
28

ArnieM added 11:26 - Aug 6 Good. Now for God's s sake Town get the deal done and over that line.
8

ITFCMatt1 added 11:27 - Aug 6 Some of our "fans" need to bore off. not happy as we hadn't signed a striker, now not happy that the striker we have signed isn't Mbappe. Not sure if any of these "fans" remember the days of having Conor Sammon as our striker
35

BobbyBell added 11:28 - Aug 6 @Alfbuksh - I don't know quite what you expected but I suspect that you'd find something to complain about whoever we signed. That were lots of negative comments when we signed Delap and that went ok. We need to trust the judgement of KM and his staff.
17

BeattiesBackPocket added 11:29 - Aug 6 Itfcmatt1 bravo sir
5

Cookieboy added 11:33 - Aug 6 But him for £6m then sell him for £20m. !!!
0

muccletonjoe added 11:36 - Aug 6 No club is going to go after a player who prefers another club
4

runaround added 11:40 - Aug 6 So going on current timescales of how transfers seem to currently be I’m expecting him to be officially announced in about a fortnight!
4

ipswichone added 11:48 - Aug 6 phew, what a palaver
2

bluesteal74 added 11:51 - Aug 6 Happy for this news get signed by today hopefully can see him doing fine here COYB couple more through the door would be nice it's a long old season.
3

PackwoodBlue added 11:53 - Aug 6 Hope the deal is now done. No doubt he has his personal reasons for choosing us over B'ham as well. Perhaps still has family in Newham, so just a short drive down the A12 to see them. Hope he'll be happy and successful here. COYB.
5

planetblue_2011 added 11:53 - Aug 6 Hasn’t he signed yet? Get the deal done with Jens. COYB’S
0

bobble added 12:10 - Aug 6 He will score more than hirst because he play more games than hirst..
0

blues1 added 12:12 - Aug 6 Bluewhiteboy. So uve seen the German guy play regularly have you? No, of course not. Maybe a 5 minute video of his best bits. There's a reason hes a bargain. Ncse that's his much hes worth.
0

JewellintheTown added 12:16 - Aug 6 I hope after all this he's worth it. If he bags a brace or hattrick on Friday, he'll have covered his fee and more. Lets hope he understands he has a point to prove now. Ashton Masterclass for the deal.
1

itfc2024 added 12:20 - Aug 6 BORING NOW EITHER SIGN OR NOT STOP MESSING THE CLUB AND FANS ABOUT WE HAD THIS LAST SUMMER WITH PHILOGENE NOW WE HAVE IT AGAIN
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