Standout players at Birmingham City since League One relegation

National World - LocalTV

A look at the top performers for Blues.

Transcript

00:00Charlie, looking at Birmingham City and obviously a massive window in the summer and a huge

00:05sort of reset and that sort of relegation to League One and obviously they've just avoided

00:12it a number of times over the last sort of five, six, seven years, even in the Championship

00:17and then to go down and so much positivity coming out of the Birmingham City fan camp

00:22as well, which was incredibly interesting at the time and myself and you were talking

00:27about it and how Wolves went through a similar thing where it was so toxic in the Championship,

00:33you just need a clear out, you need maybe a new owner and new faces at the side. So

00:39just on players who've come in, Birmingham City have obviously performed well in League

00:44One and with the investment it's certainly helped, but players who've come in and sort

00:49of shone under the new owners and been successful signings so far, maybe not just on the pitch

00:55as well, the fans might have taken a massive like to them as well. Who sort of stands out

01:00in that sort of conversation?

01:02Well, there's so many because it was such a huge window, a complete overhaul as you

01:06mentioned and the club feels entirely new and there's so much more positivity in League

01:10One than there was in the Championship, so it's great to see and the new faces have had

01:14a big impact on that. Alfie May coming in as last season's League One top scorer, you

01:18thought okay, he's probably going to be the best player this season and then Jay Stansfield

01:21arrives and you're like, wow, okay, he's potentially Premier League quality, if not

01:25higher Championship. We saw that last season in the Championship for Blues, he won every

01:29single Blues individual award. But Tomoki Iwata has really surprised people from Celtic

01:34as well, coming into midfield alongside Peik Sang-ho has been so, so impressive. Willem

01:40Willemsen as well, the Icelandic international coming into the right attack midfield role,

01:45tucking in, scoring and assisting plenty of goals so far. His physicality as well, he's

01:50absolutely huge and shrugs off players when he's running through on goal and can pick

01:54out a great pass as well. Christoph Klarer coming alongside new captain Christian Bielik

01:59in the centre of defence, cost a couple of million, he's definitely been worth it coming

02:04in and just being so physical in that side and a proper no-nonsense classic defender

02:09would put his head through a wall for Blues and you want someone like that playing for

02:13the badge who every single week is going to put everything into the games, he certainly

02:17offers that. I could go on and on really about just how impressive these new signings

02:21have been, but it's all about the core of the squad that Chris Davies is trying to create

02:24and eventually these won't be new players, a lot of them are going to be around for many

02:28years to come as they move up the divisions and hopefully one day into the Premier League.

02:34Obviously Blues are clearly building for the future, how do you think these players would

02:38fare in a Championship side if Blues in another timeline were in there, where do you think

02:43Blues would actually be in the Championship? It's difficult to say, you sometimes argue

02:48these things with the Scottish clubs, whereabouts would they fit in the Prem or would they be

02:51in the Championship, slightly different scenario I suppose, but the quality of players is completely

02:56different to the division they're in. I genuinely think they would escape relegation by a country

03:01mile in the Championship and I think they'd be competing around mid-table, potentially

03:05even higher. It just depends, when you see these clubs getting momentum and building

03:10confidence, teams that are meant to be in the mid-table, really, based on paper and

03:15their squads can sometimes move into playoff contention. We've sometimes seen that carry

03:19through as well to Wembley and then all the way to the Premier League, so you never know

03:23what can happen and that's the beauty of the Championship and I do believe that Blues could

03:28achieve something like that in a year or two's time. They're surely going to get promoted

03:32this season, there has been the old hiccup along the way, draws when they should have

03:37been winning games, the victories haven't quite been as comprehensive as fans would

03:40have liked, but I think that's just not greed, but it's an expectation because all the money

03:45has been spent, so many positive signs at the start, you're expecting Blues to just

03:50completely hammer teams. It's not going to be the reality every week, teams are going

03:53to sit deep and they're going to try and stop Blues from doing what they do best, but if

03:57they can carry on what they're doing and build a little bit more confidence, they should

04:00make it all the way.

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