Over four seasons, Lazaridis played just 87 games for West Ham United and scored three goals. In 1999, he dropped a division to sign for Birmingham City when manager Trevor Francis signed him in a deal worth an eventual £1.7million. Settling much better at St Andrew's, he played an important role in guiding the team up to the Premiership for the 2002–03 season, scoring one of the penalties in the play-off final shootout to help them get promoted to the Premier League. While at Birmingham he played in the 2001 Football League Cup Final.