Their first Stansfield: Birmingham must regret ever signing £12m flop.
Birmingham City’s extravagant spending practices are now widely known; this summer, the Blues added a whopping 17 new players.
The move that made the most headlines was the permanent return of Jay Stansfield to the Blues following a successful loan in the Championship; the former Fulham striker had left Craven Cottage for good, having paid an eye-watering £20 million.
He has already proven himself to be a deadly striker at League One level, with Wrexham and Rotherham United already feeling the 21-year-old’s goalscoring wrath in league action.
Stansfield’s form this season
Stansfield already has three strikes next to his name playing in the third tier, with a double coming his way on his League One debut back with the Blues against Phil Parkinson’s Red Dragons.
The much-discussed young player then followed up that outstanding performance at St Andrew’s with another outstanding performance away at the Millers. In the first half, the electrifying Blues number 28 looped a shot over the head of the Rotherham custodian to put his team ahead 2-0.
The costly summer acquisition will want to maintain this excellent play during the upcoming campaign, while Birmingham also wants to earn promotion back up to the Championship as soon as possible in order to shorten their time in League One.
Although the aspirational Blues appear to have gotten Stansfield exactly right, they haven’t always benefited from deals that have gone through; this striker, who came in with a lot of hype in 2021, sadly didn’t live up to expectations.
Scott Hogan’s transfer to Birmingham
Scott Hogan once cost Birmingham’s arch rivals Aston Villa a hefty £12m to get into the building in 2017, after he had garnered a reputation for being an ice-cold goal machine in the EFL at Brentford.
Prior to this move to Villa Park, Hogan had scored 21 goals in 36 games for the Bees. He would subsequently struggle in his new, intense environment, managing just 10 goals in 61 games, before making the contentious decision to cross enemy lines and join St. Andrew’s official.
| Hogan’s goal record at Birmingham | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Games | Goals | Assists |
| 23/24 | 28 | 1 | 2 |
| 22/23 | 40 | 10 | 2 |
| 21/22 | 37 | 10 | 1 |
| 20/21 | 34 | 7 | 0 |
| 19/20 | 18 | 7 | 1 |
| Sourced by Transfermarkt | |||
Hogan was never quite able to recapture his Brentford best at Birmingham, with another move not exactly going to plan for the now 32-year-old striker, who very much struggled last campaign as the Blues fell down to League One.
He only managed three goal contributions the entire second tier season, as Stansfield upstaged the ageing attacker with 12 league strikes from 43 clashes.
The former Bees player never quite lived up to his reputation as a statement signing in the shape of Stansfield, as Hogan would only manage to record a dismal 36 strikes from 158 games in all.
The seasoned EFL player found himself jobless and looking for a new club to call home as Birmingham took a different approach this summer with an extravagant deal after a lavish acquisition. Hogan would ultimately have his contract torn up in the West Midlands.
While there were many magical moments when he played for Birmingham, Davies’ team had no room for emotion this summer as they looked to return to the top division.
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