Pandini exit prompts striker search
Birmingham manager Steve Bruce is expected to step up his search to bring in a new striker next month with Walter Pandiani on the verge of joining Espanyol in a £1m (€1.46m) deal.
City are close to tying up the loose ends with the Spanish club for Pandiani who cost £3m (€4.4m) when he moved to St Andrews from Deportivo La Coruna last summer.
Pandiani had an initial successful spell on loan last season when he scored four times in 13 games and quickly became a favourite with supporters.
But the Uruguayan has failed to reproduce that form during the current campaign and has only a single Barclays Premiership goal to his name – against Liverpool in September’s 2-2 draw.
City are prepared to make a sizeable loss because Bruce is desperate to try and find a goalscorer in the January transfer window.
Mikael Forssell has failed to notch a single League goal this season and too much responsibility has fallen on the shoulders of Emile Heskey.
Bruce admitted earlier in the month that he would be interested in signing a quick striker in the mould of Crystal Palace’s Andy Johnson who was allowed to leave Birmingham four years ago.
Scoring goals has been a problem for City in the Premiership apart from their second season when Forssell scored 19 goals when on loan from Chelsea.
Bruce has already missed out on his number one transfer target in Austrian defender Paul Scharner who has chosen Wigan ahead of the midlands club.
Birmingham co-owner David Sullivan and chairman David Gold have always been prepared to put their hands into their pockets when the need has been there to strengthen the squad.
But Sullivan made it clear last week that players may have to leave next month to make room for new blood as City look for inspiration in their bid to move out of the Premiership’s bottom three.
Pandiani is set to sign a reported two-and-a-half year contract with Espanyol.
Club president Daniel Sanchez Llibre and the fourth major shareholder Sebastian Javier have used their personal fortunes to help finance the move, according to reports in Spain.
Espanyol believe that the 29-year-old Uruguayan is the answer to their problems in front of goal this season with Raul Tamudo and Luis Garcia finding it hard to score consistently.
