Birmingham City’s worst signings of recent times named – £6m star features | OneFootball

Our Birmingham City fan pundit has identified the Blues’ worst two signings of the Trillion Trophy era

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Birmingham City’s signing of Sam Cosgrove from Aberdeen in 2021 was undoubtedly a misstep in hindsight.

He arrived with promise, having hit double figures for goals in the Scottish Premiership on two occasions, but his £2m signing led to just 17 outings for the Midlands side, scoring no goals and providing no assists. Cosgrove was quickly loaned out multiple times, before eventually departing for Barnsley on a free transfer.

For obvious reasons, it will go down as one of the club’s worst deals, towards the end of Birmingham’s Trillion Trophy ownership.

Despite that, when we asked our Birmingham fan pundit, Jason Moore, whether Cosgrove was one of the worst signings of that era, he immediately had two more than left a deeper scar.

Cheikh N’Doye and Jota were both worse signings than Sam Cosgrove

Speaking to Football League World, Jason said: “Sam Cosgrove is probably up there as one of the worst signings we've had in that era, but there was definitely worse.

“I think the second Sam Cosgrove came, you could just tell he wasn't fit for the Championship, but I don't think £2m for what he offered in the Scottish league was that bad.

“And, yeah, he just wasn't Championship quality. There was miles, miles worse signings than that though.

“Jota at £6m was awful. Cheikh N’Doye, he was absolutely awful, couldn't kick a ball. That was under Trillion Trophy, whatever they want to be called, BSHL.

“They’re the two that spring to mind. You had Cheikh N’Doye on an absolute wedge. I think he was on like £50k-£60k a week.

“Granted, he was free, but for the money he was earning, and he couldn't pass a ball straight, yeah, he was a miles worse signing than Sam Cosgrove.

“I don't think Sam Cosgrove was given a fair rub of the green as well, to be fair. And he also joined, let’s be honest, an absolutely shocking team.

“So yeah, there was a mixture of things that went wrong for Sam Cosgrove, but he's definitely not the worst signing in that era. Cheikh N’Doye and Jota were miles, miles worse.”

Jason revealed that he knew Cosgrove wasn’t up to the level the minute he saw him in a Birmingham shirt, and looking at the rest of the striker’s career, that hunch was right.

Loans to League One with Shrewsbury Town and AFC Wimbledon, delivered little, with a 12-goal spell at Plymouth Argyle the only outlier.

He found some success at Barnsley initially, but was later loaned out to Stockport County before heading off to play in Australia at 29 years old.

Looking back on his record in England, it’s difficult to confidently say he was up to the level of League One, so there are few doubts that he simply wasn’t a Championship player.

Cheikh N’Doye was a much more confusing signing

N’Doye is the one who makes the least sense of the Blues’ poor signings.

Granted, he had played two decent Ligue 1 seasons before swapping France for the Midlands, but he arrived from Angers as a 31-year-old, who had spent most of his career in the second and third tiers of French football.

The fact that he was a free transfer softens the blow, but it is symptomatic of a footballing structure that clearly wasn’t working, with money being wasted on wages, if not transfer fees as well.

Arriving as a goalscoring midfielder, Ndoye played 42 games for the Blues, never scoring and managing just one assist.

The fact that Birmingham have so many poor signings to choose from from that era shows just how chaotic the decision-making from higher up was.

Thankfully, the Blues are now on a different path entirely, and all those connected with the club will hope that deals likes Cosgrove, Jota and N’Doye are behind them.