“Pundit Calls Birmingham’s Stansfield Deal ‘A Risky Roll of the Dice'”

EFL pundits Ali Maxwell and George Elek have issued their reaction to Birmingham City’s record-breaking deal which saw Jay Stansfield return to St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park.

Blues’ transfer business up until the late recapture of the forward from Fulham, this time for an extraordinary sum after impressing on loan last season, had been spoken about at length by many outsiders as Chris Davies oversaw a mass amount of player turnover in B9.

Links between Birmingham and the 21-year-old failed to dissipate across the summer, despite the fact Stansfield was an inclusion in Marco Silva’s matchday squads against Manchester United and Leicester City, before poetically finding the net in the EFL Cup Second Round for Fulham against the West Midlands side three days before his staggering Deadline Day switch.

Anticipation then remained rife among Blues supporters on Saturday afternoon as the former Exeter City man was unveiled before the League One encounter against Wigan Athletic, which saw fellow Deadline Day recruit Scott Wright become a last-minute hero, firing in from close-range in the 91st minute to give Davies’ men a third successive third tier victory.

But, despite the celebrations that have done the rounds over social media following the conclusion of the game, there’s no denying that Stansfield’s permanent move will continue to create discourse over the course of the campaign.

EFL pundits react as Birmingham City seal record-breaking Jay Stansfield deal

It was reported by The Telegraph’s Sam Dean in the late minutes of Deadline Day that Birmingham, who already saw a previous £10m bid turned down hours before, had agreed a deal of seismic proportions for League One standards, as well as smashing their club-record fee in the process.

Dean revealed that Birmingham would pay the Cottagers an upfront fee of £15m, as well as £5m in add-ons, with the deal including a 20 percent sell-on clause and £100k bonus should Davies’ side regain their Championship status at the first time of asking.

After discussing Blues’ dramatic win on Saturday, Elek and Maxwell then turned their focus to the addition of Stansfield, with the latter initially stating via the ‘NTT20’ Podcast: “Jay Stansfield. A reported £15m + £5m + £100k if they go up + maybe 20% to Fulham when they sell him. Biggest League One transfer fee ever. Loads of narrative, loads of discourse around it.”

“Is it disgraceful? How are they doing this? Why are they doing this? Will it make a difference to them? How good is Jay Stansfield? that’s just some of the questions that people are asking,”

Elek responded: “I can’t answer how they’re doing it. I’m also not a FFP or PSR expert and how that impacts League One.”

“From what I can tell, they’ve got a couple of seasons before they have to balance the books, which is seemingly why they’re able to do this,” the pundit added.

“I think it’s pretty rank. If you were a Birmingham fan, I could understand why you wouldn’t care, and why you’re happy to drink the tears of people who have issues with this. But, I guess it’s similar to how some Birmingham fans would’ve reacted when Derby had been overspending for a period of time, giving players long contracts to amortise the spend and then see it blew back in their face.”

“I’m not saying that will be the case with Birmingham,” Elek clarified. “The owners have clearly come in with a lot of money and are willing to spend it.”

“Personally, I don’t think its very good for football, basically, that you have teams who’ve just been promoted out of League Two, who are having to compete in the same league as a club who are able to spend effectively £20m on a player,” he continued.

“We want the need for an element of a level-playing field,”

Elek concluded: “In terms of the actual spend itself, what I find strange about it is that, I’ve seen a lot of Birmingham fans say ‘he’s that good’ that they will still make a profit on him, and I really struggle to reconcile that.”

Jay Stansfield signing is ominous for the rest of League One

Whilst transfer fees never guarantee success, the fact Birmingham have smashed the League One transfer record three times – previously Willum Willumssun and Christoph Klarer – with this statement addition, as well as their club-record, is an ominous sign for the other 23 teams in League One, with Wigan boss Shaun Maloney relaying such thoughts prior to Saturday’s encounter.

Stansfield netted 12 Championship goals for a side last season that weren’t notorious for creating chances, but now they have an abundance of attacking and creative outlets to call upon, even off the bench, Stansfield’s performances will be under the microscope on an array of occasions.

Birmingham haven’t exactly blown any opposition out of the water in terms of performances and scorelines, but having Stansfield alongside Alfie May, who now has 70 League One goals to his name since the beginning of the 2021/22 season for Blues, Charlton Athletic and Cheltenham Town, Davies definitely has the resources to do so if the opportunity arises.

It had already been confirmed by the Blues boss that Stansfield would make his second debut for the club in Tuesday night’s EFL Trophy clash with Walsall in B9, alongside former Celtic midfielder, Tomoki Iwata.