Birmingham City should forget Aynsley Pears and make Ipswich Town player top target: View

Birmingham City are looking at for a new goalkeeper and they should make Ipswich Town player Christian Walton a top target.

•  Birmingham City aims to focus on retaining their Championship status before making any significant transfer moves in the summer window.
•  They are considering signing a new goalkeeper, with Christian Walton from Ipswich Town emerging as a more ambitious target than Aynsley Pears.
•  Walton’s impressive records and experience in the Championship make him an ideal choice for Birmingham, offering a reliable option for the club.
• It is expected that Birmingham City will be busy in the summer transfer window, barring that they retain their Championship status.
• The Blues were backed to have a busy January, but with the club’s decline to near the bottom end of the table and Wayne Rooney just being sacked, the club decided to go for a more sensible approach.

  Birmingham’s main focus now is retaining their Championship status and once that is done their focus will sure turn to what they plan to do in the summer with incomings and outgoings.

  It seems signing a new goalkeeper is a priority for the club, as both John Ruddy and Neil Etheridge are out of contract in the summer and will leave if a new deal isn’t agreed.

  In fact, journalist Alan Nixon has reported that the Blues are looking to sign a new goalkeeper with Blackburn Rovers’ Aynsley Pears a potential target.

  Birmingham City interested in Aynsley Pears

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• Aynsley Pears has been at Ewood Park since 2020, when he joined the club from Middlesbrough, with now Birmingham manager Tony Mowbray in charge at Blackburn at the time.

  It now seems as though Mowbray could be interested in linking up with the goalkeeper once again, with Alan Nixon reporting that Birmingham are looking to sign a new goalkeeper and Pears is an option.

  The report goes on to add that the Lancashire side would be willing to sell the goalkeeper if a suitable offer arrived, despite the 25-year-old being the club’s current number-one choice in goal.

• Pears hardly featured under Mowbray, but he remained patient and finally got his chance at Blackburn last season, becoming the club’s number one in goal midway through the campaign.
• The 25-year-old has retained that starting spot into this season; even when he missed a chunk of games through injury, he returned and got his spot back.

  While Mowbray and Pears know each other and could make sense, Birmingham should be looking to be a bit more ambitious when signing a goalkeeper, and Ipswich Town shot stopper Christian Walton could be the perfect example.

  Birmingham should target Christian Walton instead of Pears

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• Christian Walton has established himself as a very good goalkeeper at this level in the last couple of seasons, after loan spells at Wigan Athletic, Blackburn Rovers, and Ipswich.

  The 28-year-old impressed enormously, with every loan spell earning him a chance for the next season, but it wasn’t until he joined the Tractor Boys that he performed very well and earned a permanent move to Portman Road.

• Walton kept 14 clean sheets in his first campaign with Ipswich before improving on that tally significantly last season, with 22 out of the 46 league games he played.
• Furthermore, Walton was on average conceding just 0.7 goals per game, as he was named in team of the week on two separate occasions, as per SofaScore.com.

  Walton was making 1.8 saves per game and saved two of the six penalties he faced in League One last term. The Ipswich man made 84 saves all season, with 60 of them coming inside the 18-yard box.

  The 28-year-old had a 69% pass accuracy per game last season, with only one of his mistakes leading to a goal, as per SofaScore.com.

  Walton was one of the best performers in League One last season but suffered an injury in pre-season that resulted in him missing Ipswich’s opening nine league games of the campaign. That meant he lost his regular starting spot at Portman Road to Vaclav Hladky, and that still remains the case now.

  Walton has yet to play a single minute in the Championship this season, with his only appearances coming in the FA Cup and EFL Cup. Now, the 28-year-old is out of contract this summer, but Ipswich do have the option to extend that by a year, but with him currently being a second choice, Walton may be looking for a fresh start in the summer.

• This is where Birmingham could come in, as they are clearly looking for a goalkeeper in the summer, and Walton could be a perfect addition.

  He has a lot of experience in the Championship, and he is someone that Mowbray is very familiar with, given that he signed him at Blackburn.

• Furthermore, if Ipswich seal promotion to the Premier League, they could look to move Walton on and maybe secure a new goalkeeper for the long term.

  Therefore, Birmingham should be very interested, as he’s proven in the second tier and, on his day, can be one of the best goalkeepers in this division.

  Walton could end up being a very smart addition for the Blues, as he’s still got plenty left to offer and could be rather cheap than say what Blackburn may want for Pears.