Birmingham City head coach Lee Bowyer has admitted that the club opted to sanction Ivan Sanchez's move to Real Valladolid after the winger outlined a desire to leave St Andrew's.

Sanchez is set to feature for the Segunda Division outfit for the remainder of the 2021/22 campaign after securing a loan switch to Spain on transfer deadline day.

Valladolid will be hoping that the winger will be able to help them in their quest to secure a return to La Liga later this year as they are currently fighting for automatic promotion.

When you consider that Sanchez is still struggling with a pelvic issue, he is not expected to feature in Valladolid's clash with CF Fuenlabrada this weekend.

Due to this aforementioned injury, the 29-year-old only made three appearances for Birmingham in all competitions during the first half of the 2021/22 campaign.

Ahead of the Blues' clash with Sheffield United tomorrow, Bowyer has revealed the reasoning behind the club's decision to loan out Sanchez.

Speaking to the Birmingham Mail about the winger, Bowyer said: "Would I have liked him to be in and around the squad?

"Of course I would have.

"But he has had two operations since the Luton game and he is still injured at the moment.

"Then he asked to leave in January.

"I don’t know if it’s because he’s had a baby, he’s a Spanish lad and he’s gone back to Spain.

 

 

"I don’t know if he wanted to go back and be around family.

"I am surmising, putting two and two together, because he knocked on Craig [Gardner]’s door and said ‘I want to leave and please let me go’.

"If that’s what he wanted to do, you can’t have people sitting around with the money that he is earning, doing nothing.

"So, the right thing for the club is give him his wishes and move on."

The Verdict

With Sanchez expressing a desire to leave Birmingham, it is hardly a surprise that the club granted him his wish as he failed to make an impact at St Andrew's this season due to a lack of fitness.

Whilst the winger did demonstrate that he is capable of competing at Championship level during the previous campaign by providing 10 direct goal contributions in this division for the Blues, keeping him at the club may have had a detrimental impact on the atmosphere in the dressing room.

If Sanchez goes on to produce some eye-catching performances in Spain, it will be intriguing to see whether Birmingham will try to convince him to stay when he returns from his loan spell.

The Blues will be determined to push on in Sanchez's absence by securing some positive results in the coming weeks.