Birmingham City are promotion dark horses as takeover and inspired signings elevate Eustace’s men | OneFootball

Birmingham City trio John Eustace, Ethan Laird and Krystian Bielik.

Birmingham City have made a dream start to the summer window and the hype is building. They *could* be dark horses for promotion in the Championship…

The incoming loan arrival of Callum Doyle from Man City adds more weight to my argument that Leicester City are the prime candidates to win the Championship in 2023/24.

As for the rest, Leeds United, Middlesbrough and Southampton are among the sides expected to be in the running for automatic promotion.

But as proven by Luton Town’s triumph in the play-offs (and Coventry City’s run to Wembley) last season, dark horses will be saddled and Birmingham City could be next in line for a shock promotion push in the Championship.

The Blues are in a drastically different position this summer compared to the weeks leading up to their 2022/23 campaign.

This time last year, John Eustace had been in the hot seat at Birmingham for around a week following Lee Bowyer’s exit. After they finished 20th under Bowyer in 2021/22, Birmingham (along with Rotherham United and Wigan Athletic) were written off as near-certainties for relegation, with few expecting inexperienced boss Eustace and his below-par (on paper) squad to achieve anything of note.

Yet Eustace proved a lot of his doubters wrong last season (to become an outside contender for Manager of the Year) as he helped 17th-placed Birmingham avoid relegation without too much stress.

This was especially impressive given that the takeover saga at the West Midlands outfit (which has dragged on even longer than Man Utd’s own tedious process) was bubbling away in the background throughout the 2022/23 season.

So it’ll be to the delight of Birmingham supporters that this saga has finally reached an end, with a company owned by American businessman Tom Wagner (who was previously linked with Derby County) completing a takeover.

Plans are already being put into place to move Birmingham City into an all-new stadium but in the short term, the club are doing some astute work in the transfer market.

It was revealed on Wednesday afternoon that former Man Utd academy product Tahith Chong is set to leave Birmingham and join newly promoted Luton for around £4m.

Birmingham are earning a handy profit of around £2.5m from this sale and while Chong’s natural ability was showcased with some moments of magic, he is certainly replaceable and the Championship outfit are moving fast to use their increased funds (boosted further by the £3m earned from selling Jobe Bellingham to Sunderland) to strengthen in various areas.

Ethan Laird, Tyler Roberts and Krystian Bielik have all joined Birmingham for fees this summer, but if reports are to be believed, the cost of these deals do not exceed a combined £2m and this is a bloody snip.

Bielik has had some terrible luck with injuries, but Derby signed him from Arsenal for £10m four years ago and the Poland international is a class act when he’s not hamstrung by his fitness woes.

Roberts – who Leeds United bought for £2.5m in 2018 and was on loan at QPR last term – has only cost Birmingham a reported £350,000 after he missed the final few months of the 22/23 season due to injury.

The attacker was found out somewhat in the Premier League with Leeds but his stop-start loan at QPR has enabled Birmingham to snap him up for a fee far below his potential value.

But Birmingham’s best signing to date is Laird, who has been purchased for £750,000 after he stood out in a poor QPR side last season. The right wing-back is not yet the final product but he’s a Premier League player in the making and he will earn his new team a major profit at some point in the coming years.

These three players are low-risk bargain signings for Birmingham and most importantly, they all have a point to prove heading into next season.

And with the cost of signing players from English rivals only on the rise, second-tier clubs are starting to look at cheaper imports from European leagues.

Millwall and Coventry City benefited from this with Zian Flemming and Viktor Gyokeres and now Birmingham will hope that the free signing of former Royal Antwerp attacking midfielder Koji Miyoshi will come up trumps.

The Japan international is another player with injury issues, but he comes with rave reviews and having watched a few clips of him in action, it’s clear to see that he is a highly technical and versatile attacker who could potentially light up St Andrew’s.

A scour through the Birmingham hashtag on a dying social media app (Twitter for those living under a rock) suggests that Josh Maja, Dion Sanderson and Oliver Burke are also seemingly being targeted by Eustace, while former Blackpool man Keshi Anderson has been taken on trial.

These potential additions will see Birmingham continue their recent trend of focusing on sensible targets who still provide Eustace with a clear upgrade on his current crop of players.

And Birmingham should be commended for not blowing their load as soon as their takeover has been finalised. Gradual progress is more sustainable while improvements are being made behind the scenes, most notably with a new stadium.

But saying that, the positive vibes are already back at Birmingham ahead of next season and this *could* help to carry them to a tilt at promotion.

While they finished 17th last year, they were only 16 points adrift of the play-off spots and with f*** all separating the mid-table Championship clubs, steady improvements may be all that is required for a club like Birmingham to break out and sustain a push for the top six.

Everyone knows that the Championship is a daft league, which was made clear last season by QPR’s extraordinary decline and Middlesbrough’s stunning rise. And early-summer indications suggest that Birmingham could profit from a shuffling of the pack.

This is not to say that promotion should be expected by Birmingham supporters. A top-half finish is a far more realistic target to aim towards and it shows how far they have come in a short time that this – rather than another relegation scrap – is expected for a Championship side on the rise.