This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk‘ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Coventry City are said to be eyeing up a transfer move for Derby County midfielder Max Bird, according to Football Insider.
The 21-year-old is not the first Rams player to be linked with a move to the Sky Blues in recent weeks, with both Louie Sibley and Lee Buchanan - who has since signed for Werder Bremen - also reportedly interesting Mark Robins.
Bird was a regular contributor to Wayne Rooney's County side in the Championship last season, appearing 42 times and scoring twice in his outings.
He is being weighed up as an option as Robins looks to potentially strengthen his hand in the engine room, but on a long-term deal at Pride Park, Bird will likely only depart for a significant fee.
Speaking on Coventry's apparent interest, FLW's Sky Blues fan pundit Neil Littlewood believes
"I think Max Bird would be a fantastic signing," Neil said.
"I think it just shows the progression we need to be going at looking at signings like him.
"In terms of if he's needed - I don't know as we've got Gustavo Hamer, we've got Ben Sheaf that tends to start in that kind of role, maybe he can be a replacement for Liam Kelly and the three can rotate, which would be brilliant - I'm just hoping he's not a replacement for Hamer.
"But at the same time, if we want to keep following that Brentford model that I've spoken about before, selling Hamer for £10 million and bringing Max Bird in - I think that would be fantastic business because he is a brilliant player.
"So, I'd happily have him at Coventry and I know in pre-season he was working out with Tyler Walker in Portugal, so he knows a couple of the lads - I think he'd be a great signing and realistic as well, so fingers crossed it happens."
The Verdict
Bird is a midfielder quite clearly on the up and is maturing year-on-year with more first-team football he gets, and he perhaps deserves to still be playing in the Championship.
But with Derby now seemingly on a sound financial footing, they will not have a desperation to sell their star assets from last season anymore.
It would take a decent seven-figure fee to prize Bird away from Pride Park this summer, and Coventry can only probably afford to do that if Callum O'Hare or Gus Hamer depart.
For now, it's probably a deal to put on the back-burner for the Sky Blues, but one they could potentially re-visit later in the window.