Sadle up in battle for left back

Birmingham City left back Matt Sadler is being chased by Watford after seeing his first team chances limited at St Andrews, according to the Sunday Mercury.

The 22-year old defender, who is also being touted as possible signing for Wolves, would be welcomed with open arms at Vicarage Road as Aidy Boothroyd looks to reinforce the left hand side of his leaky defence and find decent competition for the out-of-touch Jordan Stewart.

The Hornets were linked to a loan swoop for Sadler back in November, with Norwich also making the right noises, but the left back went on to feature in a handful of Premier League games and seemed back in favour.

Yet a change of gaffer at St Andrews has put Sadler`s place under fire - he's yet to feature this year - and the defender could be frozen out by Alex McLeish if £1.5m rated Hibs left-back David Murphy joins the Midlands club during the January window.

In fact the Brummie gaffer recently said of the former England U18 and U19 captain "He [Sadler] will know that you can`t keep making mistakes in the Premier League".

Damning stuff indeed and there's lots of 'ifs' and 'buts' in there But hey, one man`s loss and all that…