Alex Cochrane was announced as a Blues player in July 2024, joining for an undisclosed fee from Hearts of Midlothian and penning a four-year contract.

Alex was born on Friday 21 April 2000 in Brighton and was quickly snapped up by then League One side Brighton & Hove Albion at the pre-academy age of seven-years-old.

As the young left-sided defender was impressing at youth level, the Seagulls were entering a period of drastic improvement, securing promotions to both the Sky Bet Championship and the Premier League within six years. Before featuring at Under-23s level, he was loaned to Isthmian League South side East Grinstead Town for a taste of senior football at just 17-years-old.

A Premier League 2 debut against Liverpool was achieved the following season alongside Arsenal's Ben White and Swedish star Victor Gyokeres. Cochrane also completed 90 minutes in a 5-0 rout of Manchester City and featured 17 times on Brighton's way to finishing third place in the top division of Under-23s football.

A first-team bow became more and more likely and arrived against Blues' Second City rivals on 25 September 2019 in the Carabao Cup.

After just one more senior run out for the left-back, he made the switch to Belgian First Division B side Royale Union Saint-Gilloise on a loan deal in October 2020. Having made his debut for Les Unionistes in a win over KMSK Deinze the following month, Cochrane would start in each of their next six fixtures, earning maximum points in all but one.

Just as the then 20-year-old was cementing himself as the team's starting full-back, a cruelly-timed ankle injury would rule him out for the rest of the 2020/21 season. Still, USG would go on to be crowned champions and gain promotion to the Belgian First Division A.

Upon returning to Brighton and recovering from injury, he went straight back out on loan, this time to Scottish Premiership outfit Heart of Midlothian in June 2021. An impressive stint over the border would start with an appearance against Peterhead in the Scottish League Cup, where his side won four consecutive games before bowing out.

Despite Hearts being one of the newly promoted sides, they began the 2021/22 Premiership campaign with a 2-1 upset victory over Celtic, with Cochrane playing all 90 minutes on the left of a back five. The Englishman notched up 40 games for the Jam Tarts in the season as they finished third in the league and runners-up in the Scottish Cup, having narrowly lost out to Rangers 2-0.

Following their impressive efforts, the Scottish side secured a permanent move for the full-back, who went on to make his European debut in the UEFA Europa League Qualifying game against FC Zurich. Cochrane would total 126 outings across three seasons in Edinburgh, tallying an impressive 20 goal involvements in that time.

The 24-year-old has also represented his country at youth level, setting up a goal in England Under-16s 3-3 draw against the USA in 2015 before being called upon twice for the Under-20s side four years later, learning under the guidance of former Blues coach, Keith Downing