Birmingham City have one of the best squads in League One history, if not the best, but there are always some casualties when you have such an outstanding team.
Thanks to the backing of their American owners, Birmingham were able to go out and transform their playing staff. In total, £20-25 million was reported to be spent, as per The Athletic, £12-15 million of which is said to have been spent on Jay Stansfield.
Everything about Chris Davies’ side is pretty much unprecedented at this level of English football. The spending, the team, the expected dominance; they are a Championship team in waiting, at the absolute least.
Their 17 new arrivals this summer made them as close to a guarantee for promotion as there has ever been, but it did have a negative effect on some. A fair few of the players who were part of the relegated squad were either pushed to the back of the queue or out of the door of St Andrew’s.
At the end of the day, that level of recruitment always needs to be balanced out, so offloading players was always likely in the summer.
Birmingham aren’t expected to be quite as active in the winter as they were in the summer – realistically, what more can they add? That may not stop them from shifting some of their current crop elsewhere, with these three being prime candidates for a move away from City in January.
Brandon Khela
Just like the rest of their squad, the options that Davies has in midfield are just bonkers. When the likes of Taylor Garnder-Hickman and Marc Leonard aren’t consistently making it into a League One starting midfield, that shows just how good the team is.
That level of depth doesn’t give much hope for those younger players who have come through the Birmingham ranks, like Brandon Khela, of getting much game time. Jude and Jobe Bellingham might have found themselves in a similar situation had they been born a few years later.
He has made a few appearances from the bench this season, but the 19-year-old really needs another loan move in order to aid his development.
Alfie Chang
Had it not been for a major ACL injury that he suffered in August 2023, which he is still recovering from, Alfie Chang might already have been a regular in the City matchday squad.
He’d started seven games for the club in the 2022/23 campaign and was on his way to becoming the next academy talent to properly emerge into the first-team.
Unfortunately, the extent of his injury was so severe that he is still working his way back to full health. Davies has said that he is getting there, step-by-step, and then, once he is back on the pitch, they will: “see where he gets to,” as per Birmingham Live.
That could suggest a move away from St Andrew’s for the 22-year-old.
Bradley Mayo
For the same reason as Khela, Bradley Mayo’s chances of playing in the first-team are slim to none, and that’s being pretty generous. Two Championship-level goalkeepers were signed in the summer – Ryan Allsop and Bailey Peacock-Farrell – leaving whoever ended up being the third choice in a pitiable position.
There would be some risk to sending Mayo on loan, as that would leave Birmingham potentially short of options in net if either Allsop or Peacock-Farrell were to get injured, but the chances are that they’d be able to recall him if absolutely necessary.
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