Lee Hendrie names two Birmingham City players to watch out for in the 2025/26 season | OneFootball

Lee Hendrie has given his thoughts on who the players to watch are at St Andrew's this season

Former Aston Villa midfielder Lee Hendrie has named Wolves loanee Tommy Doyle and last season's marquee signing Jay Stansfield as the two players to watch out for at Birmingham City this season.

The Blues have once again been busy in the transfer window this summer, bringing in players that no other side promoted out of League One could ever dream of doing.

The loans of highly-rated talents such as Doyle from Wolves and Brighton and Hove Albion duo James Beadle and Eiran Cashin, combined with the statement arrivals of the likes of Kyogo Furuhashi and Demarai Gray have Chris Davies' side once again dreaming of promotion.

Tom Wagner said he wants his side in the Premier League this time next season, and his club aren't messing about in trying to do so.

Therefore, it's extremely difficult to pick out just two potential standouts in the side this season, but current EFL pundit Hendrie feels that both Stansfield and Doyle have a little more to prove than the rest of the current Blues squad.

Lee Hendrie outlines two potential standouts for Birmingham City this season

Speaking exclusively with Football League World, Sky Sports pundit Lee Hendrie praised yet another exceptional transfer window so far for Birmingham.

"I think they've done really well in the transfer window [so far], and they've had to, really, having come up from League One into the Championship," he said.

On the two players he feels will stand out in this stacked side next season, he stated: "I think Tommy Doyle is a really good signing for them.

"He has a point to prove coming in from Wolves, and he still has bags of potential, too."

Doyle arrives on loan, having made 50 Premier League appearances over the last two seasons at Molineux. He also knows what it takes to get promoted out of the Championship, having done so the last time he was on loan in the division with Sheffield United.

"I think Jay Stansfield as well," Hendrie added. "The big transfer fee they paid for him [last summer], he delivered in League One, and I think he will deliver in the Championship too.

"He'll have good players around him and a point to prove, too."

Stansfield will always have that chip on his shoulder after Birmingham smashed the League One transfer record to secure his services from Fulham last summer, and he'll be looking to better the 12-goal return he managed for the Blues whilst on loan at St Andrew's two seasons ago in the Championship.

Jay Stansfield and Tommy Doyle are just two names in a large pool of talent at Birmingham City this season

Picking just two players to have big years at Birmingham this season is incredibly difficult, as a lot of the players who joined the club in League One last summer were brought in with the Championship in mind.

Therefore, a year of anticipation has built up to see how the likes of Tomoki Iwata, Paik Seung-ho, and Christoph Klarer, three names who coasted through last season at times, perform in the division they were brought in to play in.

Additionally, the likes of James Beadle and Eiran Cashin, two loanees from Brighton who have great potential, will be tested this season at the top end of the Championship for the first time in their careers, you'd expect, before returning to the Seagulls to see if they have a future in a side challenging for European competitions.

So, whilst Stansfield and Doyle are the standouts for Hendrie, there are a whole host of others looking to make a name for themselves at Birmingham this season.

A lot of eyes will be on them to see how they perform, and it'll be seen whether they can live up to the expectations placed on the Blues this season.