Birmingham City struck gold with combined £2.9m expense on Sheffield United ace and class winger | OneFootball

Sebastian Larsson and Che Adams cost Birmingham a remarkable combined fee of just £2.9m.

Birmingham City have enjoyed the fruits of some highly shrewd transfer bargains over the years.

The Blues have been on a rollercoaster ride in recent times, with Premier League relegation in 2011 despite winning the League Cup, followed by numerous near escapes in the Championship before finally sinking into League One in 2024.

However, under the American ownership of Tom Wagner, the club has a clear vision to once again be competing with the big boys towards the top of the Premier League.

Throughout these times, Brum have seen their fair share of forgettable signings, but they've also pulled off some fantastic pieces of business along the way.

Two of which being the signings of Sebastian Larsson and Che Adams. A pair of Birmingham cult heroes who cost a combined fee of just £2.9m.

Birmingham City signed Sebastian Larsson from Arsenal for just £1m

Undoubtedly one of Birmingham City's all-time great right midfielders, and all for the cost of just £1m.

Sebastian Larsson would spend five years at St. Andrew's, and that's all he would need to cement his place in the club's folklore.

Having joined Birmingham on an initial season-long loan from Arsenal in 2006, by the halfway point of the season, Blues boss Steve Bruce already knew that the club had to secure his permanent signature.

So, in the final hours of the 2007 January transfer window, Birmingham completed a £1m deal for the then 21-year-old, with the Swedish youth international inking a four-year contract with the West Midlands outfit.

It wouldn't take long before everyone could see that Blues had bagged a winter sale bargain. The super Swede would play a big part in helping Steve Bruce's side win promotion to the Premier League that year, as well as scoring the club's goal of the season with an unforgettable piece of individual brilliance against Sheffield Wednesday.

Throughout his time with Birmingham, Larsson would rarely miss a game, and that consistency enabled him to provide many memorable moments of exquisite skill and technique in a blue and white shirt.

A free-kick specialist, opposition fans would cringe at the sight of their side giving away a foul just outside the box, as they knew that Birmingham's dead ball wizard could produce a piece of magic at any given opportunity.

It wasn't just his technical ability that saw him earn a place in the hearts of the Birmingham faithful, he matched his excellence with a ball at his feet with a relentless work rate and desire to run that extra yard for his team.

Larsson crowned his Blues career with a League Cup win over Arsenal in 2011, despite the club being relegated to the Championship that season, in what remains as one of the biggest upsets in English Football domestic cup final history.

He would call time on his St. Andrew's stay in the summer of 2011, signing for Sunderland on a free transfer where he would remain until 2017, and after spending the 2017/18 season with Hull, Larsson would finish his career with Swedish side AIK in December 2022.

Birmingham City would turn a huge profit on £1.9m gamble on Sheffield United's Che Adams

One of Birmingham's best centre-forwards in more recent times, Che Adams was signed from Sheffield United as a 20-year-old for just £1.9m in the summer of 2016.

Having joined the Blades in November 2014 from non-league side Ilkeston, the Scotsman exploded onto the EFL scene in the 2015/16 season, scoring 11 goals and providing two assists in 36 League One appearances for Sheffield United.

But, with no promotion to the Championship for the Blades that year, second tier side Birmingham presented an opportunity for Adams to take yet another step up the English football pyramid.

He enjoyed a modest start to his St. Andrew's career, bagging seven goals and three assists in 40 league appearances in his debut 2016/17 campaign, before hamstring problems would limit his Championship outings to just 30 games the following year.

Come the summer of 2018, whilst Adams wasn't being totally written off by the Birmingham support, questions were beginning to be raised regarding whether he was prolific enough to spearhead their attack at Championship level.

Those questions would be answered in emphatic fashion in the 2018/19 season, in what would go down as one of the most impressive individual campaigns by a Birmingham striker in many years.

Adams' 22 league goals saw him become the first Birmingham player to bag 20+ goals in a single season in the previous two decades, and truly cemented himself as a leading marksman in the second tier.

But with his goals not correlating to success in terms of Birmingham's league position that year (17th), Premier League side Southampton spotted an opportunity to secure the signature of an exciting young goalscorer.

The Saints would part with £15m to bring Adams to St. Mary's in the summer of 2019, and would go on to show himself to be a solid performer at top flight level.

This sale remains one of Birmingham's most impressive pieces of transfer business in recent times, and his exploits in a Blues shirt, particularly in that memorable 2018/19 season, would see him forever hold a place in the hearts of Brum supporters.