Why Birmingham City were left red-faced after £1m West Brom transfer mishap | OneFootball

Birmingham City made a fairly poor error with the £1 million signing of Jonathan Leko from West Bromwich Albion.

Jonathan Leko emerged as a potential gem of the future when he was at West Bromwich Albion, and Birmingham City took the gamble on him, but it is not one that paid off.

Having come through the academy at West Brom, Leko made his debut in the Premier League when the Baggies were a bit of a top-flight stalwart under the management of former Stoke City boss Tony Pulis.

He made five appearances for Pulis during the 2015/16 season and then a further nine in the 2016/17 campaign, emerging as one of the more exciting young talents to come through a strong Albion academy, even being listed as one of the 98 nominations for the 2017 Golden Boy award.

After a couple of loan stints at both Bristol City and Charlton Athletic, netting five in 21 Championship appearances from out-wide for the latter, West Brom’s midland rivals Birmingham opted to swoop in for a hefty fee, but it was a miscalculated gamble in the end.

Jonathan Leko was a poor investment from Birmingham

In the summer of 2020, Birmingham City, who had eventually steered themselves clear of the bottom three and the relegation places under Aitor Karanka, brought in several new signings from across both England and Spain, as well as Alen Halilovic from AC Milan, to try and mount a promotion push with the former Middlesbrough boss.

Amongst the ambitious signings of the likes of Andres Prieto, Mikel San Jose and Scott Hogan; Birmingham made the signing of Jonathan Leko for a fee believed to be in the region of £1 million from West Brom.

Leko had been unavailable since December 2020 due to an ACL injury, and he wouldn’t make his Birmingham debut until October, and the difficult start to his time at St Andrew’s didn’t bode well.

He eventually made 34 Championship appearances but failed to score, and didn’t even really begin to hit the ground running following the appointment of Lee Bowyer in March 2021, replacing Aitor Karanka.

Leko’s best and perhaps most effective performances in the EFL, even to this day, came in that half a season or so with the Addicks when Bowyer was his boss, but that didn’t even manage to reignite his second-tier career.

He would return to Charlton on loan during the 2021/22 season before eventually leaving the second city on a permanent basis in the 2022/23 campaign, having scored just one goal in 50 matches across all competitions for the Blues.

It was a deal that appeared to be a risk, given his injury at the time, and the fairly regular chopping and changing between projects didn’t help him rediscover his form and fluency, despite the reunion with Bowyer.

A career in decline that could be helped by Paul Warne at MK Dons

Leko began to show signs of life again at Milton Keynes Dons, notching four goals in 18 appearances, but his 2023/24 season, following relegation to League Two, was another underwhelming one which involved several injuries and an ill-fated loan stint at Burton Albion.

Leko managed just nine appearances due to injury as the Dons once again majorly underperformed in League Two, but the appointment of former Derby County boss Paul Warne could be a catalyst for some kind of rejuvenation for the forward.

He has begun to be reintegrated back into what is an extremely strong first-team squad for the fourth-tier, having come off the bench in six of the Dons’ seven matches so far in the league.

The 26-year-old has a lot of work to do and it has been a steep decline in the last decade, but there is still the semblance of an opportunity at Stadium: MK.

As for Birmingham, though, Leko signed whilst recovering from an ACL injury and he never managed to get off the back foot, proving to be a real waste of a seven-figure transfer sum by a club that were often wasteful during that period.