Chris Davies facing big Birmingham City dilemma now Jay Stansfield is here: View | OneFootball

The Blues are certainly not short on options to lead the line

It is probably fair to say that this has been a remarkable summer for Birmingham City.

Despite the Blues' relegation from the Championship at the end of last season, they were incredibly active in the transfer market.

In total, they completed 17 new signings, to join the first-team squad available to Chris Davies, who was also appointed at St Andrew's early in the summer.

On the pitch, things have also got off to a positive start, with the Midlands club claiming ten points from their opening four league games of the campaign.

Perhaps the most eye-catching moment of the summer for the club so far though, came right at the end of the transfer window.

Jay Stansfield is back at St Andrew's

After a summer of speculation, Birmingham confirmed in the final moments of the window on Friday night, that Jay Stansfield had completed a permanent move back to the club.

The striker had spent last season on loan with the Blues from Fulham, where he had impressed despite their relegation from the Championship.

As a result, they did not hold back in the lengths they went to in order to sign Stansfield permanently.

According to reports, Birmingham paid an initial £15million to sign the striker, smashing the League One transfer record in the process.

With Stansfield returning to the club for such a fee, and having enjoyed individual success in a tough period last season, this deal will generate a huge amount of excitement at the club.

It will however, arguably present something of a dilemma for Chris Davies, over the course of the campaign.

Birmingham City have plenty of centre-forward options

Stansfield was of course, far from the only centre-forward to make the move to the Blues over the course of the summer window.

Earlier in the window, Alfie May would join from Charlton Athletic, while Lyndon Dykes would also join from QPR last month.

Along with Stansfield, all three of those will no doubt be desperate to play a part a season that already holds a great deal of promise for Birmingham.

May was of course, a League One Golden Boot winner with the Addicks last season, and already has four goals in as many league games at the start of the campaign.

Dykes meanwhile, has been a goalscorer in the Championship for QPR in the four years, and also has senior international pedigree under his belt with Scotland.

As a result, there are plenty of options that give Davies a rather significant selection headache when it comes to the centre-forward position.

So far this season though, the Blues have been playing in a 4-2-3-1, meaning if he continues with that, he may struggle to fit more than one of those three in his starting XI in each game.

While Stansfield is surely going to be first choice as Birmingham look to get their return on a huge investment in him, that will leave Davies with the challenge of keeping May and Dykes happy too.

Indeed, May's impact at the start of this season, means it is going to be hard to justify dropping him right now, even with the money that has been put into the signing of Stansfield.

Add in the competition from someone proven at a higher level in Dykes as well, and Davies has a choice of three strikers who may all be expected consistently at any other League One club.

The trio will no doubt be aware of that themselves, and so there will be some pressure on the Blues boss to keep all three happy in terms of the game time they are getting.

With that in mind, while that attacking firepower is a major asset for Birmingham, how he uses that in his current system while keeping all of his options happy, could be one of the big tests for Davies over the course of this season.