Birmingham City head coach Chris Davies may be wondering how it did not work out for Lewis Koumas during his loan spell at St. Andrew's in the first half of the season.
The Wales international joined the Blues on loan from Liverpool last summer and only scored one goal in 23 appearances in the Championship before his loan was terminated in January.
Koumas joined Hull City to continue his season in the second tier during the January transfer window, and now he looks like a completely different player.
lewis-koumas-birmingham-city-hull
The 20-year-old forward has scored three goals in nine Championship matches for the Tigers, including what turned out to be the winning goal against Wrexham on Tuesday night.
It did not work out for him at Birmingham, unfortunately, and it will be interesting to see what direction the club go in with their recruitment if they remain in the second tier.
The change Birmingham need to make to their recruitment strategy this summer
The Blues signed 19 players this season, between the January and summer windows, but only Jack Robinson and Patrick Roberts, who scored the winner against QPR, were significantly experienced Championship players in the prime years of their careers.
Bright Osayi-Samuel, 27, could also fall into that category, but the majority of his 115 appearances for QPR came as a winger, rather than as a right-back.
With the young players Birmingham have at their disposal, including the likes of August Priske and Jhon Solis, signing a few experienced Championship players who have the physicality and quality to be key players in a promotion push could be the difference between falling short and achieving their goal.
august-priske-birmingham
Having a clutch of players who can be relied upon each week across a 46-game Championship season is needed in any team that is serious about earning promotion, which is why signing players who know the league, but are still at the right age to deliver quality performances, should be the target this summer.
The physicality of the league has caught out a few of Chris Davies' this season, including one forward who is starting to look like an even bigger flop than Koumas was.
The Birmingham forward who looks like a bigger flop than Koumas
Ultimately, the Wales international was only on loan at the club and he left without a significant financial cost for Birmingham, as they did not have to pay a transfer fee for his services.
chris-davies-birmingham
The Blues did have to pay a transfer fee when they splashed out a reported club-record fee of more than £15m on the signing of Jay Stansfield from Fulham in the summer of 2024.
Almost two years on from that deal, Davies needs to finally drop him from the starting line-up because his performances have been disappointing more often than not in recent months.
jay-stansfield-birmingham-championship
Stansfield has scored one goal in his last 21 appearances in all competitions for the Blues, playing as a centre-forward or as a second striker, and lost nine of his 11 duels without scoring a goal in the win over QPR this week.
The 23-year-old striker has scored nine goals from 9.20 xG in 35 appearances in the Championship, but six of those goals came in the first 11 matches of the season.
His lack of goals is not the most concerning part of his season, though. His struggles with the physicality of the Championship are concerning for his future in the team at this level and whether he is suited to the Premier League further down the line.
For the significant fee that Birmingham reportedly paid for the striker, the club may have expected Stansfield to have the potential to be a top-flight star who would pay his fee back with performances in the second and top divisions.
jay-stansfield-birmingham (2)
Leeds United striker Joel Piroe feels like an apt comparison to the England U21 international because the Dutch-born striker is a proven and prolific Championship goalscorer, but his struggles in the Premier League were not a surprise because of the struggles he had with the physicality of the second tier.
Stansfield has lost 73% of his ground duels and 90% of his aerial duels in the Championship this season, making it far too easy for opposition defenders to get the better of him.
Championship Stansfield (25/26) Piroe (24/25)
Appearances 35 46
xG 9.20 17.17
Goals 9 19
Assists 6 7
Dribble success rate 27% 32%
Ground duel success rate 27% 33%
Aerial duel success rate 10% 21%
Piroe won a higher share of his duels for Leeds, whilst scoring ten more goals, yet he has zero goals in 13 Premier League games and has fallen behind Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha, two physical strikers, in the pecking order for Leeds.
This suggests that, unless something drastically changes in his game, Stansfield is not on course to develop into a Premier League-grade centre-forward for Birmingham.
Jay-Stansfield-Birmingham
That is why he is looking like an even bigger flop than Koumas on current evidence, because the Welshman was a low-risk signing that did not quite work out, whilst Stansfield is a reported club-record signing who is struggling to deliver.
With his goalscoring woes and physical struggles in mind, Davies should drop the £15m forward from the team for the next few matches to provide Priske with an opportunity to nail down a place in the team ahead of next season.
patrick-roberts-birmingham (3) Related
Birmingham City star just made himself as undroppable as Roberts v QPR
Birmingham City got back to winning ways in the Championship on Tuesday night, as the Blues comfortably beat Queens Park Rangers 1-0.