Birmingham City missed out on late January transfer deal for 16-cap international striker | OneFootball

Thanks to financial restrictions that seemingly affected many Championship clubs, Birmingham City had to be smart and select with their January transfer window signings, bringing in three new midfielders in Alex Pritchard, Paik Seung-ho and Andre Dozzell.

Many supporters though would argue that other positions also needed strengthening, with some fresh competition for Fulham loanee Jay Stansfield up-front being a main priority.

And whilst the transfer window came and went with Scott Hogan and Lukas Jutkiewicz still on the books as Stansfield's understudies, it appears that Birmingham were indeed trying to make deals happen - especially for Halil Dervisoglu.

Galatasaray striker Dervisoglu turns down Birmingham City move

According to reports in Türkiye from journalist Kaya Temal, Birmingham made a move for Dervisoglu late on in the January transfer window in a bid to strengthen their hand in attack.

However, whilst the 24-year-old's club - Turkish giants Galatasaray - were happy to sanction the right deal, Dervisoglu himself wasn't too keen on making the move back to England, having joined Gala on a permanent basis from Brentford in the summer of 2023.

And with Dervisoglu - who has amassed 16 caps for Türkiye's national side - turning down a move to St. Andrews, it meant that Tony Mowbray failed to bring in any fresh blood to his options in the final third, despite being able to add three midfielders.

Birmingham weren't the only club that saw themselves rejected by Dervisoglu though, as Dutch outfit FC Twente - who sold striker Manfred Ugalde for €15 million to Spartak Moscow in the transfer window - were also rejected by the ex-Bees man, who played for them in the past on loan.

If Dervisoglu has turned down other clubs to try and get more game-time with his current club though, then it's unlikely to happen.

Dervisoglu left Brentford for good last summer after playing just 12 times for the Londoners in four years, with loan spells in that time at Twente, Galatasaray and then last season Burnley, who he appeared in just nine matches for.

Galatasaray paid €500,000 to re-unite with Dervisoglu, and in the first half of the season he featured 20 times in all competitions - although just six of these were starts.

The return of Mauro Icardi from injury will now likely see Dervisoglu receive little game-time between now and the end of the season, but he would seemingly rather fight for his place in Istanbul than move to Birmingham or Twente.

Even though they had a big takeover from American hedge fund manager Tom Wagner last summer, Birmingham still need to live within their means thanks to big financial losses that were accumulated in recent years.

Many clubs are in the same boat, with the EFL's profit & sustainability rules accounting for a rolling three-year period, and it will be this coming summer where you will see more money spent.

Birmingham themselves spent a minimal amount on Sunderland's Alex Pritchard, signed Paik Seung-ho on a free and Andre Dozzell on loan, so it's clear that there wasn't much room in the budget unless a sale was made or big wages were shifted.

It will be good for fans to know though that Mowbray and co were actively looking for a new forward, but at the end of the day they will be left with Stansfield, Hogan and Jutkiewicz - the latter two have just three league goals between them this season and that could end up being a reason why Birmingham may struggle on until the end of the campaign.