"All come a little bit late" - Exclusive: Birmingham City claim issued on Alfie May's future | OneFootball

Despite not being Birmingham's first-choice striker, May has still made his impact felt in League One this season

Birmingham City already have one foot in the Championship for the 2025-26 season, and in the coming weeks and months, head coach Chris Davies will need to decide which players are coming along for the journey.

Blues have been pretty imperious this season, and so they should have been with the cash that was spent during the summer months, but the second tier of English football is set to be a bigger test, and with how ambitious owner Tom Wagner is, further squad turnover can't be ruled out so that they have a squad fit to push for the top six.

Several players will no doubt be questioning their position as next season rolls around, and one of those may be Alfie May.

Don Goodman issues Alfie May claim as potential Championship impact assessed

Beating Huddersfield Town to his signature for a fee of around £775,000, Birmingham took one of League One's most prolific goalscorers in recent times away from Charlton Athletic in the form of May, who had plundered not only 23 league goals in his one and only season at The Valley, but 43 for Cheltenham Town over the course of 85 third tier matches in the previous two campaigns.

Prior to 2021-22 for Cheltenham, May's only double-figure league goalscoring records had come in the depths of non-league, so it was clear to see that the pint-sized attacker was a late developer, and with Birmingham he's continued to score goals - albeit perhaps not quite as many as people expected.

Before his brace against Shrewsbury Town last weekend, May hadn't found the back of the net in League One action in the previous 12 fixtures he'd appeared in, and that has been raising questions in recent weeks as to whether he's going to be able to step up with the club into the Championship.

And whilst speaking exclusively to Football League World, Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman has claimed that May has something to offer to Davies and Blues in the Championship next season, despite age not being on his side and the fact he's never played at that level before.

"Alfie May is having a really good season, he's playing at the highest level that he's played at, he's playing in the best team he's ever played in, he's playing in the team that should really be breaking League One records," Goodman told FLW.

"12 goals and six assists is pretty decent, but he's 31 years old, so it's all come a little bit late for Alfie May.

"Having said that, why wouldn't you want to keep a proven goalscorer, a predator, in your ranks? Birmingham will be signing players for every single position, you just look at the ambition they've got.

"Whether he'd be a regular starter in the Championship next season, I can't answer that question, but certainly in terms of being useful within Birmingham City's squad in the Championship, of course he would be."

Alfie May may have to accept bit-part Birmingham City role next season if he wants a crack at Championship

There's no doubting that for several years now, May has been one of, if not the top League One striker over a period of time, and you have to wonder if he stepped up to the second tier a couple of years ago how he would have fared.

With £15 million man Jay Stansfield being Davies' undisputed first-choice striker at St. Andrew's, it has left May for the most part to play a supporting role, although there has been periods where Stansfield has played behind May or out wide to accommodate the 31-year-old as the leading man.

You'd have to think now though that no other Championship club is going to take a punt on a player the wrong side of 30 to lead their line, as it would take a decent-sized transfer fee to take him away from Birmingham, so the only chance May is going to get of Championship football is to continue trying to provide from the bench next season.