Birmingham City’s Secret Weapon: A Steal of a Striker

Chris Davies will give his Birmingham City squad a break after a breathless start to their League One promotion charge.

Blues now have 11 days before their next league clash against Wrexham after seven games in the first month of the season. While Blues have now exited the Carabao Cup and made a less-than-perfect start to their Bristol Street Motors Trophy campaign, they have taken 10 points from a possible 12 in the league.

Four members of Davies’ squad have jetted off on international duty, meaning this weekend’s planned fixture with Exeter City has been postponed. The Blues boss has factored a break into his players’ schedule before training is ramped up again next week in preparation for Wrexham’s visit to St Andrew’s.

Speaking after the draw with Walsall in the BSM Trophy on Tuesday, Davies said: “We will train, recover and analyse this game first and foremost and then we will have a few days to reset physically and mentally. The international boys will start to rejoin us and we will have an important training week, which we don’t often get, leading into a busy schedule of fixtures.

May: League One title the aim

There has been nothing cloak and dagger about Blues this season. Nobody has tried to hide the first team’s target: to win promotion back to the Championship at the first attempt.

League One’s most prolific marksman Alfie May – who has netted four goals in his opening four league games for Blues – wants the title.

May told TalkSPORT: “As the boys say, we know where we want to be at the end of the season and that is number one spot. We don’t want to finish number two. Winning the league is our priority and that’s where we want to aim for.”

Emile Heskey expecting ‘exceptional’ things

Blues’ former record buy Emile Heskey is confident that the club will indeed make an immediate return to the second tier. The former St Andrew’s striker has been impressed by the ambition of Blues’ owners Knighthead.

Heskey told BetMGM: “I am expecting an exceptional season from Birmingham, and I believe they will be promoted. I think those two signings just show the intent of the club and their desire to get back into the Championship as soon as possible.

“A lot of people will look at the buying of Birmingham and think it’s a bit Hollywood, but these guys are here to win, they aren’t invested in the club to mess about. They are here to make a statement and I’m sure if you give them five to ten years then you’ll see the progression of the club.

“I know they got relegated, but that is probably the start of what can be the bounce-back of a big club. They have shown their intent by spending £15 million in League One on Jay Stansfield and I expect them to be going straight back up automatically.”

While Blues fans are debating Jay Stansfield’s best position, the rest of the EFL is debating the fee – or the reported fee – Blues paid for the striker. Blues reportedly splashed out in excess of £12m to sign Stansfield permanently after his successful 13-goal loan spell. Some reports suggest the fee to Fulham could even rise to £20m.

But, as former EFL striker and now pundit Sam Parkin points out, maybe the financial hit on Stansfield is softened by the relatively cheap signing of Championship proven forward Lyndon Dykes. Blues are believed to have bagged Scotland international Dykes from Queens Park Rangers for around £1m.

On the subject of Stansfield, Parkin told Benjamin Bloom’s podcast: “He will expect to be in the Premier League in time and probably able to walk on water, because he’s been there since day dot. He’ll be taken care of in terms of his financial package, I’m absolutely sure of that and maybe they could afford to spend a considerable amount on him considering they got Dykes for peanuts.”