Birmingham City issue dig at £12m Crystal Palace man - it hasn’t gone down well | OneFootball

City's media team appeared to take a swipe at Romain Esse playing at under-21 level - but many have pointed out some Jay Stansfield-related irony...

With the second international break of the 2025-26 season now in play, Birmingham City’s first-team are recharging and taking a back seat for now, with the under-21’s team taking centre stage on Monday evening when they played Crystal Palace in Premier League 2 action.

Sporting a category one academy system, Blues have brought plenty of talented youth prospects through into the first-team in years gone by, and they will be hoping that the current crop of youngsters can produce something special.

However, they got somewhat of a nasty shock when travelling to the capital to take on the Eagles, as they had to come up against eight-figure Palace signing Romain Esse.

Ex-Millwall attacker Romain Esse bags v Birmingham City under-21's - Blues issue thinly-veiled dig

Esse joined Palace in the January transfer window earlier this year from south London counterparts Millwall for an initial £12 million, but he has not had the greatest starts to life at Selhurst Park.

Criticised by Oliver Glasner last season following a match against Liverpool, where he was substituted onto the pitch and off within a 20-minute time-frame, and similarly last month after he played against his former club Millwall in the EFL Cup, Esse was dropped into Darren Powell's underage squad two weeks ago, and after featuring against Leeds United and Man United, he lined up against Birmingham on Monday.

Of course, being 20 years of age, Palace have done nothing wrong by selecting Esse for their under-21's, but it's clear that the media department did not see the funny side of such an expensive player dropping into the development squad setup to get game-time after the left-footed attacker stepped up outside the box on 18 minutes to curl home an absolute beauty beyond goalkeeper William O'Sullivan.

Many have taken the Birmingham media team's perceived dig at Palace utilising Esse in such a contest as bitter irony, especially as they spent the best part of £15 million when they were a League One team on Fulham forward Jay Stansfield and played him against clubs that had significantly inferior finances.

One rival Aston Villa fan suggested it was wrong to make such a comment when big money was spent bringing Stansfield to St. Andrew's.

A Nottingham Forest supporter also chimed in with similar thoughts in regards to Birmingham's recent splashing of the cash.

Meanwhile, a West Brom supporter had just one word to describe the mentioning of Esse's price-tag when it came to him playing under-21's football.

Even some Birmingham fans have not seen the humorous side of it from their media staff, perhaps with the irony of Stansfield's price-tag when he was playing third tier football last season.

And a supporter of Esse's former club Millwall also chimed in, claiming the irony is clear for all to see after the Stansfield saga of 2024.

Birmingham City's Romain Esse dig may have been tongue-in-cheek, but it's certainly rattled a few

In the end, Palace won the contest 3-1 on the night, with Esse contributing to all three first half goals for his side with two assists after his stunning opener - showing that he probably should be playing first-team football and not with the development side.

However, if they were being mocking of Esse and his price-tag, then Birmingham have been rightly called out for it on social media by other club's fans, and even some of their own, although it's more likely to be a bit of light-hearted banter when it's all said and done.

Esse though could do with kicking on soon though following his expensive switch from Millwall across to Crystal Palace in January, as he's not lived anywhere near up to the hype so far, and has been criticised in the process by his manager on multiple occasions.

It may not just be Birmingham though who feel the wrath of Esse's left boot at under-21 level though - Stoke City's underage squad will play Palace next month, and they may be next in line to come up against a player that is being used at a level far below his actual capabilities.