Sport

Birmingham City’s Stansfield Dreams Shattered: Five Alternatives Emerge

Published

4 weeks ago

August 21, 2024

Fulham have sent Birmingham City back to the drawing board after refusing to sell striker Jay Stansfield.

Blues have tried to lure Stansfield back to St Andrew’s, where the 21-year-old enjoyed a superb 13-goal loan spell last season, but Fulham are not willing to part with their player. Fulham boss Marco Silva has insisted Stansfield will remain part of his squad this season.

Chris Davies and Blues’ recruitment team have been forced to look elsewhere in their pursuit of a new forward to compete with Alfie May and Lukas Jutkiewicz. May, who was crowned League One Player of the Year at this week’s PFA awards, has hit the ground running with two goals in Blues’ opening two matches but Davies needs an alternative.

Here are some players Blues could consider with Fulham playing hardball over Stansfield…

Ali Al-Hamadi

Al-Hamadi is reportedly of interest to Championship clubs just six months after moving to Ipswich Town. The 22-year-old Iraq international netted four times off the bench for Ipswich last season after earning his move to Portman Road with 13 goals in 23 League Two games for AFC Wimbledon.

Blues have the finances to compete with clubs in the Championship for Al-Hamadi and his recent form is exciting. The Tractor Boys paid around £1m to sign Al-Hamadi in January.

Kornelius Hansen

Norwegian striker Hansen is one of the most comparable players to Stansfield according to statistical analysis site FBREF. The 23-year-old scored nine goals last season for Eredivisie club Almere City.

Blues have scouted Dutch football heavily this summer with three players arriving from the Netherlands since Mike Eerdhuijzen’s proposed transfer from Sparta Rotterdam fell through. Hansen falls into the Stansfield category of a striker who can also play in more withdrawn roles.

Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan

Ehibhatiomhan isn’t a name Blues fans will forget in a hurry. The striker played superbly for Reading at St Andrew’s on the opening day of the season and scored the Royals’ goal in the 1-1 draw.

In addition, he linked extremely well with fellow attackers Harvey Knibbs and Sam Smith to cause Blues plenty of problems. Ehibhatiomhan’s goal scoring record of seven in 42 League One appearances is modest, but he is only 21 and has physical and finishing attributes that managers are always willing to work with.

Mo Faal

Faal is an option worth considering if West Bromwich Albion decide to let him go. That isn’t guaranteed at the moment given the shortage of players at Carlos Corberan’s disposal and Faal started and scored in their Carabao Cup defeat to Fleetwood last week.

The 21-year-old netted 14 goals in League Two last season during two separate loan spells with Doncaster and Walsall. What makes that number more impressive is that 16 of his 45 appearances came from the bench.

Standing at 6ft 3ins, Faal is well built but still very mobile and would provide Davies with a vastly different option to May and Jutkiewicz.

Will Lankshear

Should Tottenham Hotspur hot-shot Lankshear become available then half of the Championship will be in the running for him, but Blues manager Davies’ relationship with Ange Postecoglou could trump the lot of them.

Lankshear enjoyed a prolific season with Spurs’ under-21s last year to win the Golden Boot and Player of the Year in Premier League 2. It looked as though his first team chance might come this season but he was omitted from their squad on the opening day at Leicester.

With Dominic Solanke now leading Spurs’ forward line and Richarlison still in the building, there could be a loan in the offing for 19-year-old Lankshear.