The reason people are mentioning Birmingham is they & Newcastle were the only clubs mentioned in your original link. I am still looking for the Emre link you mentioned, I did "CTRL & F" & was still unable to find a mention of Emre on Timesonline. Do you think just maybe the Madrid & Milan links are more than likely agent stories pumped into the media, to push clubs like Brum & us into action.
There's no mention of Emre in the article, but I remember him and Tuncay looked good friends before the Fener match, having a proper chinwag before kick off. Its an logical assumption for people to make that he would be influencial in Sanli coming here.
Im sure I read something linking him to Arsenal the other day, but that was probably you normal 2+2=5 story from journalist combining the fact that he's on a free and that Wenger made a comment about him being a future star a few years ago.