How much each Jay Stansfield goal has cost Birmingham City this season | OneFootball

Blues broke the League One transfer record to sign Stansfield from Fulham last summer

Birmingham City have cruised to an immediate promotion back to the Championship this season, and club-record signing striker Jay Stansfield has been at the forefront of their success in the third-tier throughout the campaign.

Blues stopped at nothing to give themselves the best chance of bouncing straight back up last summer, following a turbulent Championship season and eventual relegation in May. Their total outlay was claimed to be a record spend in a single window at the level, and that strategy has paid off as they now prepare to return to the second-tier.

They broke their club and the League One transfer record to sign Fulham centre-forward Stansfield in a well-documented move after he had spent last campaign on loan in the Second City and won their Player of the Season award.

Sky Sports reported the deal to sign the 22-year-old as worth around £15 million, with that fee set to rise in the future based on numerous incentives. FLW have looked at how much each Stansfield goal has cost Blues this season, and whether they will feel like the substantial figure paid for him last August has been worth it so far.

How much each Jay Stansfield goal has cost Birmingham City this season

Stansfield has enjoyed a fruitful campaign in League One this term, which comes as no surprise, given that he bagged 12 goals in 43 Championship outings last season despite their eventual relegation in 22nd place.

He has scored 23 goals in 40 games in all competitions up to now in this campaign, with 19 of those coming in the league as Blues sealed the title on April 12, while four have been netted in EFL Trophy games as they fell short in the final at Wembley against Peterborough United last week.

His 23 strikes compared to his £15m transfer fee mean each goal scored so far this term has been worth around £652,174 to Birmingham this season.

While that is a high fee that would usually mean that a League One club has not got their money's worth from a transfer, Blues will no doubt feel as if this season is only the first of many for Stansfield as a permanent player at the club who is going to score regularly.

When you also consider that they have been promoted as champions, thanks in part to his goals as the club's top-scorer this term, the fee also becomes less of an issue.

Their promotion will earn them an increased Solidarity Payment and Basic Award, estimated at around £5m per second-tier club, compared to £780,000 in League One, while the EFL's domestic broadcast deal with Sky Sports sees Championship clubs pick up another estimated £4 to 5.5m each season, compared to around £1.1 to 1.3m in the third-tier.

Stansfield has been a hit at Birmingham this season - the £15m deal could be worth it in the long run

Stansfield always seemed set to return to Blues last summer, even though the deal was only completed in August, and he actually scored for Fulham at St. Andrews in the EFL Cup just three days before his big move went through.

His season could not have gotten off to a more perfect start, as he bagged a brace in a 3-1 win against promotion rivals Wrexham on his first league start of the campaign, but while he has continued to score regularly throughout the season, he has come in for some criticism from fans of other teams for his non-penalty goal record up to now.

Nine of Stansfield's 19 league strikes have been from the spot so far this term, and while penalties are, of course, a huge part of the game and mean no less than an open-play goal, it is fair to argue that his record of 10 non-penalty goals should well have been more, especially given the fee paid.

14 League One players have scored more goals from open-play up to now, but that has not stopped Stansfield from being a key part of a team that could well break Wolves' 103-point League One record this term if they take five points from their last four games of the season.

Another reason that many Birmingham supporters will argue for Stansfield's transfer fee being justified this season is his knack of netting game-changing and match-winning goals late on in games.

According to Playmaker Stats, only Stevenage's Jamie Reid has scored more match-winners in the EFL than him since the start of 2023/24. Those sorts of goals can be priceless to a team like Birmingham, who have been gunning for promotion.

All in all, while a lot has been made online of Stansfield's sizeable price-tag and his lack of goals from open-play this season, it is clear to see that Blues were not only focusing on this term when they forked out that £15m for his services last summer.

He is just 22-years-old, and if he can continue to be a regular scorer in the Championship at St. Andrews, then they will feel like he has more-than-vindicated their decision to pay that kind of money to sign him, especially if he is eventually sold on for a profit to a higher-placed side.