"Really interesting" - 17-goal prediction made involving Birmingham City ace Jay Stansfield | OneFootball

Our Birmingham City fan pundit believes Jay Stansfield will offer a regular source of goals due to teams leaving more space compared to League One.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Birmingham City are preparing for life back in the Championship, and are expected to undergo another exciting summer transfer window to help push them into promotion contention.

Blues, under Chris Davies, smashed the League One points tally, setting a new record of 111 points after securing 34 victories from their 46 league outings.

Despite being heavy favourites to bounce back to the second tier immediately, the Birmingham players thrived on the pressure and expectation, with the investment from owner Tom Wagner helping the club to get back on its feet after an unexpected stumble in their project.

Nevertheless, Birmingham are back on track to attack the Championship and possess the financial resources to have a realistic chance of being involved in the promotion mix, along with fellow Championship-bound Wrexham.

Such ambitious clubs coming up from League One is sure to shake the Championship up, and make it such an exciting and enthralling league, as more clubs are hungrier than ever to leapfrog into England’s elite.

A lot of expectation was placed onto the shoulders of Jay Stansfield at the beginning of the campaign, particularly because of the price tag Blues paid for the former Fulham man.

Returning to St Andrew’s for a League One record of more than £15 million, Stansfield only returned an underwhelming 19 strikes in the third tier, but our Birmingham City fan pundit believes the goals will flow much more in the Championship – for one key reason.

Jay Stansfield backed to score regularly in the Championship

We spoke to FLW's Birmingham City fan pundit Aaron Bastable, who believes Jay Stansfield struggled to light up League One due to the defensive approach of opposition teams, whereas more open games in the second tier should bring the best out of the 22-year-old.

Aaron said: “With Stansfield it’s a really interesting one, because, from the outside looking in, everybody looks at his penalty goals and thinks ‘he’s really underperforming’, but what people don’t realise is that every single team we’ve played this season has sat in a low block.

“With xG, which you have to take with a pinch of salt, Stansfield, up until the last two or three games of the season, outscored his xG by a goal, which shows he isn’t missing many chances, but he just isn’t getting them. You could say it’s because of his movement, but to me, it’s not, because every team has sat on the edge of their box, so he hasn’t been able to get at them one-on-one.

“Now in the Championship, teams will go at us, and in the Championship last season he scored 13, so I think he’ll score 17 to 18, because he scored 13 in a much worse side, and we’ll have a lot more space in the Championship.

“He’ll have more opportunities than in League One because everybody marked him because he’s a high-calibre player and (League One’s) highest-ever transfer, whereas in the Championship he’s just another striker and I think he’ll get so many more opportunities because he’s not playing against low blocks.

“If we’re playing a team like Sunderland or Sheffield United away, they’re not going to give us any credit, they’re just going to go at us, and we’ll have a lot more chances to counter and pick teams open, so I’m going 17 goals.”

Jay Stansfield has the chance to make his mark in a Birmingham City shirt

It’s safe to say Jay Stansfield is yet to repay the faith shown by Tom Wagner and co to bring him back to St Andrews for such a sizeable transfer fee.

However, the defensive approach of teams in League One made it very difficult for him to generate much momentum across the campaign.

Aaron is correct that games will be a lot more open in the Championship, and that could suit Birmingham down to the ground where they have a lot of attacking talent that can break away at pace and be threatening in open spaces.

This, in turn, could up the service levels to someone like Stansfield, who will have to be clinical to give Blues the goals they need to push towards the upper end of the table.