Birmingham City cruised to yet another victory in League One against Bolton Wanderers last time out, with both clubs once Premier League regulars now scrapping it out in the lower depths of the EFL.
Chris Davies’ men are certainly doing better this season, with the 2-0 win over Ian Evatt’s men helping matters, as the Blues sit top of the pile whilst the Trotters occupy an unsatisfactory 14th spot in the division.
Birmingham will already be dreaming about an immediate return to the Championship off the back of their top-of-the-table heroics, with fans that have stuck by the Blues throughout years of turbulence in the league above aware that there have been faces that shone in the tricky league over recent years, even as their side routinely fought off relegation.
Top performers for Birmingham in the Championship
They even have one on their books right now, with Jay Stansfield crowned Birmingham’s top scorer in league action last season with a promising return of 12 strikes from 43 games, as the ex-Fulham man consistently stood out as a bright spark even as relegation was confirmed.
Another striker by the name of Lukas Jutkiewicz also sticks out as a recent hall-of-Famer at St. Andrew’s – who is still present in Davies’ camp too – with the imposing centre-forward amassing 336 appearances for the Blues to date regularly playing in the second tier, reliably chipping in with 66 goals along the way.
Other notable names include Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham, who began his playing days at the Blues before going on to become a world-class talent in Spain, alongside the likes of Demarai Gray who now plays out in Saudi Arabia after scoring eight goals from 77 games once on the books of Davies’ men.
There is another figure that could spring to mind in the form of Che Adams, who ended his time with Birmingham by registering a sublime 22 league goals during the 2018/19 season, before a major switch to Southampton came to fruition.
Adams’ move to Southampton
Before that breakout campaign, the ex-Birmingham number nine hadn’t always been a devastating goal machine, only registering 12 league strikes the two seasons prior to his big moment in the spotlight.
Off the back of this goal-laden patch of games leading the line for the Championship club, however, a bumper move to the Premier League beckoned, with caretaker manager Pep Clotet selling on the Scotland international for £15m in the summer of 2019.
The goals haven’t dried up either for the now 28-year-old forward away from St. Andrew’s, as the one-time Blues youngster played a crucial role in Southampton’s recent promotion exploits by firing home 15 strikes from 41 league games last season.
Ex-Saints boss Ralph Hassenhuttl would even label Adams as “fantastic” when the striker competed in the Premier League, but the conclusion of his time on the South Coast will leave a bad taste in the mouth for those at St. Mary’s who regularly cheered his name.
He would up and leave for Torino on a free transfer this summer just gone, after failing to agree a new deal at Russell Martin’s men, with the Serie A club picking up a smart bargain in the process.
With four goals already under his belt in Italy, Southampton will curse that they couldn’t have at least got some money out of the sale, if he was dead set on departing England.
Birmingham will just be pleased they cashed in when they did, with Adams’ value now at Torino coming in at the £8m mark as per Football Transfers, meaning he is worth £7m less than his previous flashy £15m price tag.
Davies will have everything crossed that his current troops can make an immediate leap back up to the Championship come the end of the campaign, away from the Scotsman’s promising start to life in Serie A, with the likes of Stansfield eyeing up Adams’ 22 goals as a potential target to beat.
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