Exclusive: Sky Sports pundit reacts to "massive" Birmingham City, Sunderland transfer | OneFootball

EFL pundit Lee Hendrie believes that Patrick Roberts could be an excellent addition for Birmingham City this season.

Birmingham City amassed 111 points in League One last season as Blues romped to the third-tier title and immediate return to the Championship with the all-time EFL points tally.

Under the management of Chris Davies, the second city outfit were blessed with major spending from their ownership group that is headed up by Tom Wagner and includes Tom Brady.

The Blues have moved into the second-tier and have marked themselves out as one of the promotion favourites, and they finished off another ambitious transfer window with a couple of excellent additions.

Earlier on in the summer, Blues completed the permanent additions of Taylor Gardner-Hickman and Alfons Sampsted after their loan deals, whilst Phil Neumann joined on a free transfer from Hannover, having signed a pre-contract agreement in January.

After that, Birmingham added goalkeeper James Beadle and defender Eiran Cashin on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion, whilst Tommy Doyle and Lewis Koumas also moved to St Andrew’s on a temporary basis, from Wolverhampton Wanderers and Liverpool, respectively.

Demarai Gray completed a romantic return to Birmingham after a stint in Saudi Arabia, whilst Kanya Fujimoto and Bright Osayi-Samuel also joined on free transfers, with marquee attacking additions of Kyogo Furuhashi and Marvin Ducksch.

Then, on deadline day, Blues added Patrick Roberts on a season-long loan deal from Sunderland, as well as Jack Robinson for an undisclosed fee from Sheffield United.

Patrick Roberts could be a big player for Birmingham

The signing of Patrick Roberts in particular is an impressive and eye-catching one, with the former Manchester City man having been key to Sunderland’s promotion via the play-offs last season.

Roberts is expected to further raise the level of an already strong Blues attack, and EFL pundit Lee Hendrie has praised Birmingham for their business and his signing.

Speaking exclusively to FLW, Hendrie said: “This I think could be another massive addition alongside Jack Robinson going to Birmingham.

“You just look at the quality that they have brought in. The recruitment has been, for the last two seasons, outstanding for where they’ve got to.

“They signed players for League One and they’ve definitely signed players for the Championship to kick on for next season.

“It is a really good signing again and I think this is a massive, massive signing for Blues yet again.”

Birmingham will expect to challenge for promotion

The abundance of attacking talent now at Chris Davies’ disposal perhaps does leave one concern for City as they head into the rest of the season, and that is squad harmony.

Jay Stansfield is the club’s record signing and he will be expected to still start every game more or less, but the same has to be said for Furuhashi, and it is unlikely that Ducksch has dropped from the Bundesliga to be on the bench.

Gray has begun the season exceptionally well and will again be of the profile to likely demand a starting spot, and that is before getting to Roberts’ fellow loanee Lewis Koumas, who was impressive for Stoke City last season.

Keshi Anderson is a player who has arguably been one of the most consistent and his dropping, again, would seem extremely harsh, if that was to be the case.

Davies has his work cut out to keep players happy, but what is known is that he managed to do so last season, and he has the talent and depth to really propel Birmingham into a promotion challenge this season.