Last summer, Birmingham had a new group take ownership of the club. In that year, there was a mixture of thoughts and feelings, which ultimately saw The Blues suffer relegation to the third tier, for the first time in 29 years.
There were some questionable decisions made by the board, especially when John Eustace was relieved of his duties in favour of Wayne Rooney who was sacked 15 games in.
Heading into the new season, Tom Wagner and his team knew they needed a plan in action to take the club back to the championship, while also building for a bright future beyond next season. That’s what they have tried to achieve by appointing Chris Davis as manager, after moving from Spurs as their assistant boss.
Davis has had backing from the board, as the club has gone on to spend over £12 million, 12 times more than Charlton Athletic who have spent the second most amount on transfers in League One this summer. Here’s a dive into who they have splashed their money on, and how they can push Birmingham back into the Championship.
Big Money Deals
Davis has been able to add two players over £3 million to his team. Christoph Klarer joined the club from Darmstadt 98, after the club was relegated to the 2. Bundesliga.
The centre-back has featured for the Austria national team at all youth levels while also bagging over 5000 minutes in the 2. Bundesliga and just over 2000 minuets in the Bundesliga. It’s clear the defender has experience at high levels at just 24 years old, and adding that to this team is a massive benefit if they are fighting at the top of the table.
Looking at his style of play, he’s someone who regularly has the ball at his feet, but he doesn’t try anything over the top with it. He’s a player who sets the tempo with short, simple passes, maintaining possession. He is constantly engaging in duels and being part of defensive actions. Last season he had a 78.9% success rate in his duels in a poor Darmstadt team, in comparison to Birmingham, who are heading into the season as the favourite for the title. There’s a lot to like about the defender, and he will certainly tighten things up at the back.
The other multi-million-pound transfer was Icelandic midfielder, Willum Thor Willumson. The 25-year-old played around 3000 minutes last season in the Eredivisie at Go Ahead Eagles where he predominantly played as an attacking midfielder, or slightly deeper as a central midfielder.
A noticeable thing about Willumson is that he didn’t really have a high number of progressive passes last season, but was high with key passes when compared to the rest of Europe’s top-league midfielders, showing the quality of passes into the final third and supplying passes into wide areas for the attacking width that Go Ahead Eagles had on offer.
Willumson is also a player who picks the ball up and drives into dangerous areas of the pitch where he can make the key difference, he has shown this by being in the 60th percentile of progressive carries. Overall when looking at both these players, they add high quality to the team to push them high up the table.
Lively Left Wing
Birmingham City have also introduced two new players to add more attacking variety to the left side of the pitch.
The Blues were able to sign 26-year-old, Swedish winger, Emil Hansson. Hansson has been playing in The Netherlands for several years now and has even gone on to win four trophies. Looking at his style, the winger isn’t someone who has scored a lot of goals but is rather a creative figure, as shown in the Heracles Almelo team.
In the 2023/24 season, he averaged 0.2xg per 90, whilst averaging around five progressive passes per 90. Ultimately, he’s a direct winger and someone who like Willumson, carries the ball forward. Birmingham already had Siriki Dembele on the left wing, but adding more quality to this area of the pitch is a positive depending on the opposition.
Just behind in the left-back position, Alex Cochrane has been added to the team. The fullback has spent three seasons at Hearts which have been a success for him, having featured 126 times for the Scottish club.
He is someone who offers a high attacking threat with threatening overlaps. He also offers a range of passing and isn’t afraid to pick someone out no matter where they are on the field or simply supplying his teammates with crosses into the area, as he came 6th with the most crosses in the Scottish League last season.
Adding two athletic, fast creators into the team shows Davis’ desire to attack his opponent. Dominating possession and chances is something that Birmingham are desperate to do, but after Scott Hogan was released from the club earlier this summer, the club needed a reliable forward who would finish the chances from these creative outlets.
Magneficent May
Replacing Hogan with Alfie May has arguably been just as important as all the other signings the club have made, despite being less expensive than the four previous names mentioned.
The forward has scored over 20 league goals in his last three seasons, including last season when he made a switch to Charlton Athletic from Cheltenham Town. It didn’t stop his appetite for finding the back of the net, as he went on to score 27 times in 50 outings in all competitions, plus one assist to go along with it.
Over time you can see a massive increase in his conversation rate due to how many more shots he’s hitting on target. The 31-year-old is improving his game with more experience in front of goal, and it doesn’t look like it will slow down in the West Midlands.
With his experience in the league and his personal success in it, as he featured in the shortlist for the 2023/24 League One player of the year, he can certainly help Birmingham climb back up the pyramid, and with the addition of creative talent, he might be looking to score more than he did last season.
It looks like Birmingham will be losing one of their star players in Jordan James after the club agreed terms with Ligue 1 side, Rennes. The midfielder has played over 100 times for the club and even featured 11 times for Wales at just 20.
Aside from James though, The Blues have kept hold of many of their key personnel such as Dembele, Krystain Bielik, George Hall and a list of many other players, whilst also adding Marc Leonard, Luke Harris, Ryan Allsop and Bailey Peacock-Farrell along the names previously mentioned, as well as possibly more during the rest of the window.
I think it’s a fair judgement that Birmingham fans wouldn’t be pleased if they don’t lift the title in May after the money that’s been spent, never mind promotion itself, despite a ball not even being kicked yet. The money put in is expected to bring success to St Andrew’s, and on paper, the quality of the new faces introduced at the club should be leaving Blues fans eager before Saturday’s kickoff and for the rest of the season.
Daniel Moffat
“Birmingham City FC – St Andrew’s Stadium – Coventry Road, Small Heath” by ell brown is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Final Whistle 