29-year-old seals permanent departure from Birmingham City

Ivan Sanchez has sealed a permanent departure from Birmingham City.

As confirmed by Birmingham’s official website, Sanchez has joined Real Valladolid on a permanent basis and will officially become a full-time member of the Spanish side’s squad on July 1st.

The Blues have secured an undisclosed fee from Valladolid for the winger who has signed a two-year deal which will see him remain at the Estadio Jose Zorrilla until 2024.

Sanchez was loaned out to Valladolid earlier this year after being limited to just three senior appearances in the first half of the 2021/22 campaign.

In the 12 league games that he participated in, the 29-year-old managed to find the back of the net on two occasions for Valladolid.

Pacheta’s side will be looking to achieve a relative amount of success in La Liga with Sanchez in their side later this year following their promotion to this division last season.

As for Birmingham, they will be hoping to push forward as a club under the guidance of head coach Lee Bowyer in the upcoming term.

Having meandered their way to a 20th place finish in the Championship standings earlier this year, the Blues know that they will need to make significant improvements in terms of consistency next season.

The Verdict

When you consider that Sanchez did manage to produce some encouraging performances in the second-tier during his debut season at St Andrew’s, it is somewhat of a surprise that the club have allowed him to move on to pastures new.

During the 2020/21 campaign, the winger provided a respectable total of 10 direct goal contributions in 40 Championship appearances.

Sanchez did struggle to overcome injury in the opening stages of the previous term but has now returned to full fitness.

Having also recently