“They didn’t spend £35m” – Club owner makes Birmingham City claim involving Ipswich Town.

Owner Darragh MacAnthony of Peterborough United has justified Birmingham City’s summer transfer window investment, saying the team may earn back-to-back

promotions similar to that of Ipswich Town.

Following their relegation from the Championship the previous season, the Blues are playing in the third tier of English football for the first time in nearly thirty years.

However, following a summer of heavy expenditure, they are well-positioned to make a significant comeback. With 17 new players arriving to St Andrew’s at Knighthead

Park this summer—it’s been reported that they spent up to £35 million—the aspirational Birmingham board strongly supported new manager Chris Davies.

Having already shattered the League One transfer record twice in the summer—when they paid roughly £3.5 million for Willum Thor Willumsson and Christoph Klarer—the

Blues broke it again on deadline day when they signed Fulham striker Jay Stansfield to a permanent deal for an estimated cost of more than £15 million.

Birmingham not only made great hiring decisions this summer, but they also retained the majority of its players; the only players that were let go were Alex Pritchard,

Jordan James, Juninho Bacuna, Siriki Dembele, and Koji Miyoshi. With 10 points from their first four league games, Chris Davies’ team is third in the standings going into the international break. The Blues have had a strong start to the season on the field.

Darragh MacAnthony issues bold Birmingham City prediction

Though MacAnthony maintains that he has no issue with Birmingham investing this summer, he thinks the Blues have a chance to repeat Ipswich’s feat of winning back-to-

back promotions from League One to the Premier League. On talkSPORT, Anthony stated, “Let’s get it straight, they didn’t spend £35m.

I believe it’s easy when you throw add-ons in and everything else. Let’s say they spent £20-25 million.” “I thought they had a budget of £20 million to enter League One and

start again. During the summer, they made four attempts to purchase our players.

“I don’t disagree with what Birmingham did; they recently hired a new owner and changed the direction of the Championship, which included a number of ageing players

with large contracts. “They’ll be primed, in my opinion, for an Ipswich-like run in which they might win both games in a row.

“Considering that at his age, if he scores 20 goals in the Championship, he’s going to be worth £26-27 million if you go on the lad that moved from Coventry abroad (Viktor

Gyokeres), even the Stansfield deal that everyone is criticising them for overspending, makes sense.

They are conducting reasonable business, and I don’t believe they will need to do a great deal of business when they get promoted from League One.

“I don’t disagree with Birmingham’s actions, but I suppose everyone wants to take a go at all these teams for spending so much money.”