Birmingham City: George Hall set for transfer exit ahead of August 30 deadline | OneFootball

The 20-year-old has struggled to get into the team in recent times.

Chris Davies has revealed that Birmingham City midfielder George Hall is likely to leave the club on loan this summer in order for him to get more minutes on the pitch.

Birmingham got their first win of the new campaign on Tuesday night, beating fellow League One rivals Charlton Athletic 1-0 in the EFL Cup thanks to Brandon Khela's wonder-goal.

As is often the case with these games, especially so early in the season, the sides that can afford to rotate their teams will make lots of changes.

Davies swapped out eight members of his starting 11 from their 1-1 draw with Reading at St. Andrew's, for alternative options at The Valley against Nathan Jones' side.

Two members of City's youth squad, Romelle Donovan and Josh Home, went with the squad to The Valley but didn't make the 20-man squad.

Hall, however, didn't even travel with the team - he also didn't feature in the squad that took on the Royals.

Blues boss Davies revealed after the game that the 20-year-old's short-term future lies away from the club.

"For him, the future is probably going to be a case of getting the right exposure to game minutes that he might not be able to get here," said Davies, via Birmingham Live.

After playing 30 games for the club in the 22/23 season, Hall has struggled to find consistent minutes in a blue shirt. Injuries have played a big role in this. He suffered a number of hamstring injuries in the previous campaign, limiting him to just eight league appearances.

The centre of the park is an area where Birmingham are very strong. Many of their summer acquisitions, including Marc Leonard, Willum Thor Willumsson and Luke Harris that all play a roughly similar position to Hall.

Davies spoke last week about what may lie ahead of Hall. He said: "For the players that we don’t think will get enough game time, that need the minutes to go and develop somewhere else, then we would definitely look at that and George might fall into that category.

"We will map all of that out for George in the next few weeks."

George Hall could benefit from temporary Birmingham City exit

In just over a fortnight's time, the transfer window will be closed and the mega £20 million budget that Birmingham are reported to be working with will not be able to be used until January - unless they delve into the free agent market.

They've made an abundance of additions so far, and there will always be some collateral when that amount of new faces arrive.

People get pushed down the pecking order, and Davies doesn't need the likes of Hall and others sitting around not doing much, being paid a full wage by the club, when somebody else could take on at least part of that financial load and he could get some minutes.

Birmingham need to make sure players like him are taken care of in the time they have left to do something about it.

Let's not forget, Hall has been linked with some top clubs in his young career, including Liverpool, Tottenham and West Ham, so the potential is there for all to see, but he needs game-time under his belt after an injury nightmare - and that isn't going to come at St. Andrew's, with perhaps a League One loan or maybe even the Scottish Premiership the ideal location.