Emmanuel Longelo has left West Ham to join Birmingham on loan.
The 21-year-old is set to spend the rest of the season with the Championship club after struggling to make a breakthrough at the Hammers.
Longelo has made just two senior appearances for the Hammers, playing 90 minutes in the Europa League against Dinamo Zagreb last season.
He has been a fixture for the youth sides, playing 72 times for the U21s and 34 times for the U18s.
Longelo has not been loaned out previously and will be hoping to play regularly during his time with the second-tier Blues.
Birmingham have embarked on a major recruitment drive this summer, signing seven players in total, but they have struggled throughout the first few weeks of the Championship season.
They have won just one of their seven games, drawing two and losing four, and Longelo will aim to help turn their fortunes around in the Championship.
Quoted by BBC Sport, he said: “I am here to play games and get experience as well.
“To come to a team like Birmingham, it will help me develop a lot.”
Wishing you good luck Manny a very good footballer.
Our talented youngsters on the verge of a breakthrough, need game-time experience to push on and it is good to see that a fair few of our academy players have recently gone out on loan.
All we can hope for is that all get as much game-time experience as possible so that they can come back and with a little luck make that breakthrough. Chelsea has been very good with getting their youngster’s loan move experience.
Very glad that Longelo has gone out on loan rather than being sold as there has been a suspicion that Moyes does not rate him. Hopefully he will get plenty of meaningful game time in a challenging division and prove his true worth. He is an excellent prospect and has all the qualities needed by a modern full back. Potentially he and Ashby could be our full backs in the long term. Good luck to him at Birmingham.
Ashby will be our right back by the end of the season if he stays…word is…