Birmingham City must put Notts County ace top of shopping list: View | OneFootball

Birmingham City were relegated to the third tier of English football for the first time since 1995 despite beating Norwich City on the final day of the season, but will be hopeful of bouncing back up to the Championship at the first time of asking.

Under new ownership, the Blues have certainly shown ambition and the first shoots of a potential start of an exciting new dawn had begun to spring last year, but relegation has undone some of the good work in the summer, with managerial appointments a particular issue.

However, there's no doubting that Birmingham have plenty of money behind them to go and build a good squad in League One. That much is clear with the planned investment into the new Sports Quarter in the city, which will feature a brand new stadium and training facility for the team.

These state-of-the-art facilities, as they are planned to be, should have a team to use them that measures up to its standards. That may not be the case at the moment, but relegation is hoped to be just a small setback in the club's current situation. Those involved with the club will hope that this is just an early blip.

Rebuilding Birmingham City in 2024/25

Naturally, following relegation, a large number of their squad are set to leave, either as free agents or to return to their parent clubs from loan spells, meaning the rebuilding job will be a fairly sizeable one.

One such well-performing loanee who will leave St. Andrew's is Jay Stansfield. The young Fulham forward has been one of the few bright sparks in a dreary season, and his departure will leave a big gap in the team after he won the club's Player of the Year award as well.

With none of Birmingham's permanent strikers proving to be particularly reliable this season, they will need to bring in at least one striker this summer. One could be a League Two player as well, as, according to HITC, Birmingham, Sunderland, Peterborough United, Derby County, Wrexham, and Hearts were all keen on Macaulay Langstaff in January and while he remained at Meadow Lane, Notts could find it tough to keep hold of him this summer after missing out on the promotion.

The Magpies were said to be demanding £1.5 million for Langstaff in January and that could prove to be a stumbling block for most clubs in League One, but not a club with the resources available to them, such as Birmingham. If the club are to bring in a proven goalscorer this summer, then they will need to invest decent money into that position. At 27, he's at peak age and is surely ready to step up to League One already.

Langstaff is the perfect fit for Birmingham City

The club's interest in Langstaff should be reignited, with the striker having the potential to spearhead their attack and fire them to promotion from the third tier.

Much of his career has been spent outside the EFL, but it is there that most fans became aware of his qualities. He joined Notts County from Gateshead in the summer of 2022 and enjoyed an outstanding first year at the club last season, scoring 41 goals in 47 games in all competitions to help the Magpies to promotion from the National League via the play-offs.

He has then gone on to replicate his form in League Two, proving to once again be among the leading marksmen in English football this season and finished as the top scorer for a mid-table Notts side, and could be a player to make yet another step up to a new division.

Birmingham should be confident of winning promotion at the first attempt, but it's crucial that they aren't complacent, as we've seen in the past that bigger clubs don't always win promotion from the third tier immediately, and a star striker signing like Langstaff should be one of the first pieces of business this summer, in order to get the fans excited for a new year, in spite of relegation.

Sunderland were relegated to League One in 2018 and would have expected to make an immediate return, but it took them four seasons to win promotion to the Championship, and there have been plenty of other examples, too. Leeds United had three seasons in League One between 2007 and 2010, and Nottingham Forest also spent three seasons in the third tier between 2005 and 2008.

Other sides such as Ipswich Town, Bolton Wanderers, Portsmouth, and Derby County have all respectively spent multiple seasons in the lower leagues, so bouncing back at the first time of asking is no guarantee, but Langstaff would almost certainly provide the goals needed for a promotion push.

Langstaff can operate in a front two or three, or as a lone striker. He has enough pace to run off the shoulder and stretch the pitch, but all that is really required for him to score bags of goals - at any level - is to have creative players around him to find him in spaces around the box, where his ability to get quick shots away has seen him score for fun for the last three years.