Former Celtic favourite Patrick Roberts sealed a deadline-day switch to Birmingham City.
The winger, who enjoyed a memorable spell at Parkhead under Brendan Rodgers during the club’s Invincible treble-winning season, joins Birmingham on a season-long loan from Sunderland. He links up with ex-Celtic assistant Chris Davies, now in charge at St Andrew’s, as well as fellow former Hoops players Kyogo Furuhashi and Tomoki Iwata.
The move comes just hours after Birmingham’s proposed £3m deal for Celtic’s Hyunjun Yang collapsed. The South Korean international had travelled south for a medical, only for the Parkhead hierarchy to delay sign-off and ultimately kill the move – despite Yang clearly being surplus to requirements.
Delighted to join @BCFC
Look forward to seeing you all at St Andrew’s 💙 pic.twitter.com/08e9fDgZHa— Patrick Roberts (@patrick7roberts) September 1, 2025
For many Celtic fans, seeing Roberts land in the Championship again is a hard one to take, given the situation we find ourselves in. The 28-year-old is still admired by the support and, crucially, plays in the very position the team has failed to strengthen. Well, one of the positions.
Rodgers has long made it clear he wants a right winger to replace Nicolas Kuhn. But with the window now shut, James Forrest remains the only natural option in that role, unless the manager chooses to shoehorn Balikwisha or Tounekti out of position.
With AFCON set to take Balikwisha and Tounekti away this winter, the lack of depth and versatility on the flanks could soon become a real problem. And watching a former fan favourite walk straight into a Championship side only adds to the sense of missed opportunity.
