Eiran Cashin’s loan move to Birmingham City is not working out. With just one league start for the Blues since agreeing a season-long loan from Brighton & Hove Albion in the summer, the highly-rated central defender is not getting the game time he needs to develop as a player and reports have suggested a return to the south coast is imminent.

Cashin was signed by Brighton in the January 2025 transfer window from Derby County for £9 million, but only made two appearances for Albion throughout the second half of the 2024-25 season. If his loan spell at St Andrew’s is not going according to plan, it may make sense for his parent club to recall and send him out somewhere else for the second half of the season, and the club at which he started his career could be an option.

John Eustace tipped to avoid Derby County, Eiran Cashin transfer return

Football League World have spoken to our Derby County fan pundit Shaun Woodward about the possibility of Cashin returning to Pride Park, and Shaun couldn’t be more effusive in his praise for the defender, though he understands that some players just don’t suit some clubs: “Some players just don’t suit some clubs, depending on the formation they play or the style they play. Cashin at Derby was immense.”

“Cashin at Derby was immense,” he continued, “He read the game superbly. He was one of our best starters of attacks. His ball-playing was brilliant. His diagonal passing was up there with some of the best in the Championship for a defender. He wasn’t the quickest or the tallest, but he read the game so well. He was an absolutely superb centre-half at this level.”

Shaun sees very clearly that Cashin’s move to Birmingham City has not worked out: “I’m surprised he hasn’t got himself into the team at Birmingham, but he’s not the kind of player who’s going to come off the bench and set the world alight, so he needed a run of games to show what he’s capable of, but Birmingham fans don’t rate him. They’ve made their minds up on him, so it’s probably best he does leave.”

But while Shaun would love to see Cashin back at Derby, he has doubts over whether it would actually happen: “I would love to see him back at Derby. I still believe he’s a better player than Sanderson. Whether Eustace agrees or not, I don’t know. But if we could get him back on loan, then great. It would be amazing to see him back in the set-up. But I’ve got a feeling Eustace would rather keep Sanderson, seeing as he’s a player that he brought in, and he clearly likes from having him at other clubs that he’s been at. He’s someone I’d love to see back, but I don’t think it’ll happen.”

Eiran Cashin has not had a successful 2025 following his big money move to Brighton

There was no little disappointment at Pride Park when Eiran Cashin left Derby for Brighton & Hove Albion at the end of the January 2025 transfer window for £9 million. Cashin was not only an accomplished defender, but he was also one of their own, a hometown player who’d come through the club’s academy.

But Cashin has not had a successful 2025. He only made two Premier League appearances from the bench for Brighton, totalling just 19 minutes on the pitch, and he was sent to St Andrew’s on a season-long loan in the summer, only for that to not work out.

Cashin has made just six League appearances for Birmingham City since arriving at St Andrew’s, and only one of those was a start, though he did also play in both of their matches in the Carabao Cup.

It would make sense for either Birmingham or Brighton to end the loan early. Birmingham could use one of those loan spots more productively, while Brighton could send the player to another club where he’d have a better chance of getting the game-time that he was sent out to get.

But the question of whether he’d get that game-time at Pride Park is a fair one to ask, if the Derby manager John Eustace prefers Dion Sanderson at centre-half. With Sanderson having arrived in the summer from Birmingham City after spending 2024-25 on loan at Blackburn Rovers, where he’d worked with Eustace, and having made 19 appearances for the Rams, including 18 starts already this season, it may be that even a returning Eiran Cashin may not be able to reclaim a place in the Derby starting eleven.

The return of Eiran Cashin to Pride Park might be one that would appeal to Derby County fans, but in the unsentimental world of professional football, it might not be one that would work out for the player or his current parent club, and the signs are that John Eustace would not be able to guarantee Cashin the first-team football that he will crave.