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Bon Voyage, Beausejour
Confirmation broke yesterday evening that Chilean winger Jean Beausejour has left Birmingham City to join Wigan Athletic for an undisclosed fee. The 27 year old Beausejour made a total of fifty-six appearances for Birmingham City, scoring five goals in an eighteen month spell for the club. I thought I would take a look back at the stocky midfielder’s time with Blues.
Beausejour signed for Blues on the final day of the summer 2010 transfer window for an undisclosed fee from Club América of Mexico, and made his debut as a substitute in the 3-1 defeat to West Bromwich Albion as a late substitute. He made his first start in the next game, the 3-1 win in the Carling Cup 2nd round against MK Dons, setting up two of the goals. He made two more sub appearances in the league against Wigan and West Ham United but it wasn’t until the start of November when Jean made his debut – away to Stoke.
I think it’s fair to say that was one of the low points of his Blues career; he looked out of sorts and out of depth and I can remember many Blues fans wondering if Jean was going to play many games for us at all. It’s funny really – one thing that is often said of foreign players who look awesome in other leagues is the question if they could do it on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke – Beausejour clearly couldn’t.
It was another month before he appeared in the first team, but as he started to get a run of games there was a feeling that there was maybe something there; sure, he wasn’t a flying winger but his lower centre of gravity, his “hip shuffle” and occasionally his clever feet did point to a player who could be useful for Blues.
He really came into it in the second half of that season; in the Carling Cup final he came on as a sub and really gave Blues some balance, pinning the Arsenal full back Bacary Sagna way back in his own half and thus nullifying an Arsenal attacking threat whilst giving Blues another option wide going forwards. It was around that time Beausejour found his scoring boots also; scoring three goals in the three games either side of the Carling Cup final. The Everton game stands out clearly as the Chilean started out on the left flank, and then when Bentley came off after ten minutes with an injury took on the “hole” position, scored and played really well.
One thing I’ve always liked about Beausejour was his versatility; when we had a virtual scratch team against CD Nacional in Madeira he played really well in the middle; against Newcastle away in the relegation season he played left midfield, in the hole and left back. Whilst he was never a world beater, I think he always tried to give his best – the Wolves game where Gardner lost his head and got sent off Beausejour played really well despite being continually kicked.
I expected Beausejour to stand out this season; a player who went to South Africa 2010 and played well surely will stand out against the mediocrities of the Championship – and in some games he has – Millwall being one of note. However the meteoric rise of Nathan Redmond I think has made us look at Beausejour a bit more critically – maybe not so much as Tommy Mooney, but I do believe many of us have expected more from the bloke.
Don’t get me wrong though, I do believe we’ll miss him and I think Wigan are getting a good player – and one that is free of international commitments for the time being. I’m not that surprised Jean has gone either; if you look at his career he’s been a nomad; Wigan will be his 10th club in eleven years – surprisingly Blues has been only the second time he’s spent more than a year at any club. I noted Jean has signed a 2 and a half year deal with Wigan and I’ll be surprised if he’s still with them come the end of 2013.
The big thing now for Blues is to sort out his replacement; we’re now a bit barer in the midfield department and I think the squad could be interesting for the Sheffield United game if we don’t sign any form of replacement pronto; they have to be signed and cleared by midday tomorrow to be eligible for the game and any replays of the tie. Thanks Jean, and good wishes for the future.
Tags: Jean Beausejour
30 Responses to “Bon Voyage, Beausejour”
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Jean was complimentary about blues fans on Wigans website. Always gave his best for the Blues and was part of the Carling Cup winning team. I wish him all the best for his future career.
I liked Beausejour, he always put a shift in and gave Murphy cover down the left. He very rarely got knocked off the ball and he had an eye for a pass, although they didn’t always come off. We are definitely going to miss him.
I’m not convinced that he really wanted to leave but he had little choice once Blues accepted Wigan’s bid.
He’s got a two and a half year contract, is that 6 months in the Premier League and 2 years in the Championship?
Beau stated clearly in the press that he was happy at Birmingham and his family had settled well. This is another play by the board to force a player out of the club under the excuse of ‘reducing the wage costs’ it also leaves the manager with a weakened team just when we had broken into the top six for the first time this season. Any other team in the same position would say, hey, let’s take a gamble and keep the team as it is until the end of the season. If the gamble works and we get promoted we keep the players etc if not we sell then and have the summer to rebuild with some more quality signings from non-league football. We were also informed that the club had a cash injection and no-one needed to leave, now we’re hearing Ridge, Davies and Ziggy could all be under offer. If the board are serious about the club (I doubt this very much) they need to back the manager rather than taking away the tools of his trade. KRO SoTV!
does any body now anything about this striker we have been linked with from ajax,or is it simply more paper talk.
I will be very surprised if that one comes off
why build us up by saying we dont need to sell then knocking us down. i understand that there is only a bid on the table for ridge but now beau has gone surely the board can see that selling ridge would decimate our left hand side completely leaving no cover for murphy and redmond who himself is not ready for full first team football imo. selling anyone else would imo just be giving up this league and crippling ch. personally i have to agree with the comment above why not wait till summer ?
kro
i think the ajax striker was wanted by espanyol and we offered zigic to them somehow in translation it seems than we are reportedly trying to sign the player
kro
I would say that CH did no that there was interest in Beausejour and that he was going, my only evidence of this is the inclusion of wade elliot in the squad for the last few league games, there was a time where he couldnt get on the bench but slowly over the last few weeks hes been included again. Obviously im not counting the FA cup games in this as he was selected to play. KRO!
Do we think other teams in the top six will take a similar gamble and sell off some of their key players during January?
Other teams in the top six wont have mid range players valued at £3-4 million!!
Noticed mooney,after the remarks on the radio,not heard off since !!
lot of additional pressure on the remain players, will Fahey now switch to left side with Mutch and N’Daw in the centre?
I can still see further sells, lets hope we don’t have an injury crisis aftert the Jan window closes.
Birmingham have to sell these players in order to survive, gates of under 20,000 every League game does not help either, we also have to prepare for the fair play system where you cant have what you cant afford.
the mail are today reporting that its espanyol interested in Mounir El Hamdaoui.not blues
kro
Not at all surprised by the sale of Jean B.He has been a Wigan target for some time. Can’t see them being too impressed. Thought his performances were patchy good and bad Jb is no Moses and certainly won’t be Wigan’s saviour! The real ongoing issue on the budget front has to be and always has been Zig with whom we are lumbered on 50k+ per week for the next 2 + years I think. If he gets farmed out we can pay 3 or 4 decent Championship players in his absence. The issue is who will take him ? Who would pay him? Who would see those special skills in him worth that kind of money? We need a shrewd football brain on this. Maybe Mc Duff is doing his ‘Due dilligence’ right now amd will make the bid !! Best serious hope is that someone will share his wages with us and we will then have the budget for a couple of loanees of reasonable ability and soon.
Africa’s Cup shock – Senegal one of the favourites knocked out at the first stage – Commiserations to N’Daw but great news for Blues!
We might be better off financially at the moment, which in my opinion means that we don’t have to sell players to stay afloat, but that does n’t mean we can buy players, or even bring players in on loan. I imagine that CH has been told in order to bring player/s in he must sell. If this is the case releasing JB was an obvious choice as we have at least 8 other midfield players at the club e.g. Gomis, Mutch, Fahey, N’Daw, Elliot, Spector, Redmond, Burke. Of these remaining players, who would command a reasonable fee and would be someone that we would want to let go? CH is looking to strengthen the forward line so you would n’t want to sell any of these players (Zigic aside) and it is a similar story at the back. As I say, JB was the obvious choice! If we are to seriously challenge for a place in the Premiership we can’t go into the last part of the season with 3 strikers and so now CH has some funds – a fee plus a saving in wages – I expect him to bring in a forward on loan – possibly a Premiership forward – that we can now pay the wages for (we could n’t havedone this before JB was sold). As for selling JB to keep the club afloat, I dare say the saving on his wages and his fee would n’t scratch the surface of the money owed!
We may have our share of midfield players but we don’t have a natural left sided one now that Beau has gone so need to get someone in on loan to replace him. Neither Elliot or Redmond have performed on the left hand side so we are unbalanced until CH sorts that one. Beau was a hit and miss player at times a real handful and full of fight and other times a lazy so and so who let games pass him by. At the start of the season he was our best player so yes I think he will be missed unless we get a good loaner in. Wigan have had a few players off us in the past and most have done nothing. Kapo and De Ridder come to mind. Palacios however they ended up selling for £18m to Spurs after we had him on loan and Big Eck at the end of the loan decided not to buy him at £500k! I am repeating myself here but up front we need to get someone in and Trotta at Fulham is a 19 year old Italian who scored 8 in 8 at Wycombe in a team that struggled to score and he has scored goals for fun in Fulham’s reserves and is available I believe. Hughton was Jol’s assistant at Spurs so they presumably get on!
The Ajax striker is rubbish – Espanyol are in talks with him – then we have offered him to them amongst other spainish sides; and since then he has been liked to us.
IMO we just need clarity – if Pannu came out tomorrow and said we are 20k a week over our budget – so we need to recoup £3m and lower our budget by 30k to make sure we survive – then thats fine; It’s just when they say theres no reason to sell and now 1 down and another being offered out on loan
Somethings up – I just hope that we haven’t just papered over the cracks.
Until then we must get behind the blues and hopefully we can get ourselves back up into the Prem and then review then – I trust Hughton and think he’ll have had a few players in mind for each player before they leave the club tbh
i don’t expext pannu to come out and tell the whole world any part of the club’s finances as that is sensitive business info which would only help other clubs / people.
what i would like to see is some action i.e. loans coming in so the rest of the season doesn’t just fizzle away in the next month or two.
we have two massive games next week and with no left winger and only two able strikers and one of trying to get over an injury it doesn’t inspire me that we will maintain the recent progress.
that won’t be because CH isn’t trying damn hard but because he constanly keeps having the rug pulled from under him.
i do think though that the board are trying their best not to do a portsmouth, but you can’t keep selling as then you end up like coventry with very little assets in player terms.
Does anyone know anything about how Valles has been playing & what position?
He’s a left footed midfielder
He’s a left footed midfielder
scored for the reserves this week but he has had more injuries than Parnaby had so not sure he is ready to step up to the plate
McFadden is up for grabs on loan!
This transfer may have carried over from the summer and if it does end up around £3m then thats probably good business for the form he has been in. Strange how the BCFC.com site never “wished him well”!!!.
the fair play rules as far as i am aware says you can have about £35 million debt over a two year period so this is no reason for us to sell as i don’t think we have that sort of debt.
i think it may be more to do with cash flow to see us through to the summer when we may have to sell again, just to see us through to August when another parachute payment will be due.
with only 6000 paying customers for two games a month bringing in about 300k and zigic’s wages taking 200k a month even with other revenue (sponsor, merchandise, tv money etc) it must be hard each month to actually get the finances to break even.
Makes sense financially to let him go – our wage bill is down, a bit, and we have just got £3m income. Football wise we probably would have wanted to keep him, but there you go. The board must be desperate to get shot of Zig.
i wish him well and thank him for his sterling efforts.he was off the boil.c.h will have a plan.in c.h i trust
C.H. has recently commented that it will be hard for Blues to remain in the top 6. I’ve no doubt he has made this statement because he knows what players he will likely be loosing and knows that they won’t be replaced. It’s not in his character to make negative remarks about the Owner/Board (or anything for that matter) and this is his way of preparing the fans for the frustration and anger we will doubtlessly feel at the end of the transfer window. C.H. will continue to get the best out of what he’s got until he eventually gets the ‘big’ job he deserves..