"Heavily reliant" - Claim made on Birmingham City star Alfie May | OneFootball

Hopes are high of Alfie May at Birmingham City after his summer arrival from Charlton Athletic

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...

Alfie May has been touted as Birmingham City's most important player ahead of their 2024/25 League One campaign, where they'll be looking to secure an immediate return to the Championship.

A strong sense of hope and expectation is currently humming among the blue quarters of the Second City, with Birmingham conducting incredibly ambitious transfer business in a clear bid to win promotion and escape from English football's third-tier as quickly as possible.

Emil Hansson and Willum Thor Willumson have been signed following impressive respective seasons in the Eredivisie, Christoph Klarer joins from Darmstadt, Alex Cochrane has made the move from Hearts and the likes of Luke Harris, Marc Leonard and May, of course, all represent outstanding domestic captures.

Alfie May could be Birmingham City's key player

Despite the flurry of exciting arrivals to St Andrew's as of late, May could prove to be the pick of the bunch. The 31-year-old has joined the club off the back of three consecutive 20+ goal seasons in League One, scoring 27 across all competitions for Charlton Athletic last time out.

With Birmingham somewhat short in the striker stable, Football League World's Blues fan pundit Mike Gibbs has decided to outline May as the club's single most important player ahead of the new season.

"I think the key player for me would probably be Alfie May, just because he's our only true goalscorer in the team," Mike told Football League World.

"I think we're going to be heavily, heavily reliant on him. There's obviously a lot of rumours about Stansfield and other forwards as well, but after May we've got Tyler Roberts and Lukas Jutkiewicz who aren't exactly goal machines, they haven't got the best records in terms of [scoring] 20+ goals.

"Alfie May is the key player, if he stays fit I think he scores a bucketload for us. If he gets injured and we don't bring in reinforcements before the end of the window, I think that is an area of concern."

Birmingham City must add another striker

There would be a reliance on the ex-Cheltenham Town and Charlton frontman either way given his imperious goalscoring record at this level, but such dependency is only heightened given the dearth of options behind him - and Mike is justified in highlighting exactly that.

Blues could well find themselves in a worrying predicament if they fail to supplement strength in depth up top.

After all, it's a gruelling old 46-game marathon where injuries, dips in form and fatigue - both physically and mentally, for that matter - all come into play. Although May brings remarkable availability to the table having missed just three League One contests last season, it would be reckless to not install additional depth.

Of course, Jay Stansfield remains a target following his impressive 23/24 loan campaign with the club and Jamie Donley, who can operate as either a number nine or in attacking midfield and was coached by Head Coach Chris Davies at Tottenham Hotspur, is also reportedly on their radar, so it's not as if they're simply neglecting to address the issue - but it's something they must rectify to give themselves striker security and ease the burden upon May's shoulders.