Bristol City target set to make loan move to Robins’ Championship rivals Birmingham City

Brighton and Hove Albion attacker Reda Khadra is to join Birmingham City on loan after having his deal with Sheffield United scrapped early.

Khadra has found it difficult to break into the Blades’ starting XI and hasn’t even been named amongst the substitutes in the last few games, leading to the Germany u21 international to request his loan deal at Bramall Lane be torn up.

United manager Paul Heckingbottom revealed last week that Khadra had asked to leave and as a result was left out of the squad.

He will now head to St Andrew’s to help steer the Blues away from the relegation zone. They currently sit two placed above City in 17th place.

Khadra informed United he wanted to move on over Christmas, and was subsequently omitted from their squads for games against Blackpool and Queens Park Rangers.

After spending a period on loan at Blackburn last season, Khadra was on Nigel Pearson’s radar in the summer and having had limited opportunities at promotion-chasing United, there were hopes among some City fans that interest may be rekindled.

Pearson made a point of talking about Khadra earlier this season after the attacker was substituted by United early in the first half when the teams met in Bristol.

“It shows you that players have to make decisions about their career rather than their agents,” said Pearson over the failure to land the midfielder. “I don’t know exactly what happened but I’ve been asked about loan players on many occasions.

“He was a player that we were very keen to take. It’s an example of how it has to be all three parties that are in line with each other. It is the club that owns the player, the club he goes to and the player himself.”

He added: “I like him as a player, he’s a match-winner. He’s probably high-maintenance but that’s where I think our dressing room could do with somebody like that now when in the past they couldn’t.”