Charlie Lakin was described as a ‘trojan horse’ at Ross County by then-manager John Hughes – but now he’s hoping to put in the hard yards to create a Birmingham City future.
Lakin won Young Player of the Year during a successful 2020/21 loan stint in the Scottish Premiership at Ross County from Birmingham City. Now he has returned to his parent club, signing a new one-year deal with Gary Bowyer’s side ahead of the new English Championship season.
The Birmingham City talent impressed in Dingwall. (Photo by Ross Parker/SNS Group via Getty Images)
He discovered the details of his new Birmingham City deal while on loan at County, and speaking to NTOF, Lakin hopes to get the chances under Bowyer he never got under former boss Aitor Karanka: “There were talks of a new deal for three or four weeks before the end of the season, we had a rough idea but nothing was finalised.
“Anything can happen in football. Then I got a call the day before the Hamilton game at home [May 13] and I got a call off the assistant manage, Craig Gardner – and he said ‘How’s it going? Are you enjoying it?’ I said ‘I am loving playing games’. He said ‘We have been keeping track’ and he just said ‘We are going to take another year on you.’
“To get that news and finish a season knowing you are gong to go back home to your parent club and being able to show them what I can do again after all my experiences, I was absolutely buzzing with it. That takes a bit of relief off you because when you are coming out of contract, football is hard, you don’t know where you are going to be.
“I haven’t actually met Lee Bowyer face to face, I haven’t had a conversation with him. It will just be a case of going in preseason, showing what I can do, having a chat within the first couple of days with the gaffer, hopefully do well and then it will be a case of see what happens.”
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