Birmingham City told to sign number 10 who can "unlock defences" as transfer claim is made | OneFootball

Football League World's Blues Fan Pundit has weighed in on his side's dream transfer window.

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...

With the League One title in the bag for Birmingham City, these last couple of weeks of the 2024/25 campaign may be seen as little more than a formality for the Championship-bound club.

However, there will be a desire for Blues to end their time in the third tier as record breakers. Despite not being able to lift the Vertu Trophy at Wembley due to two stunning Peterborough United goals, this has been an incredibly successful term for a team on the rise.

Chris Davies' first season in management has gone as well as he could have hoped for, but this summer is an important one for the West Midlands outfit, with improvements needed to help push the squad towards the top half of the Championship in 2025/26.

This may just be an extremely busy transfer window for Birmingham, but it is one that owner Tom Wagner will not back down from as he looks to make great strides in the coming years.

Birmingham predicted to have a huge transfer window

Blues were busy in the summer of 2024 following their relegation from the second tier, with Jay Stansfield's late arrival becoming the biggest news in the EFL as the club smashed the League One transfer record by securing a reported £15m deal for the striker.

Wagner has stated that he is willing to go even higher than that when the window opens once again, and this will strike some fear into their opponents for next season.

Football League World has asked their Birmingham Fan Pundit, Mike Gibbs, what his dream summer looks like for his team.

He told FLW: "I think the dream summer transfer window for me would be a new striker. Someone who brings maybe a little bit of a physical presence but absolutely brings goals to the team as well.

"I think for me the other one would be a significant number of additions across the forward line. So the wide players and the number 10. I think we've just lacked a bit of quality to unlock teams at times.

"For me, we would probably need some pace and some directness on the wing. Someone who's not afraid to take people on, run at players and then in that 10 position it's someone who can really unlock defences."

Mike continued: "I think a big part of it's going to depend on what we do with Kieran Dowell, and making his loan permanent. But a number of the wide players have probably failed to deceive a little bit.

"I think the other one would maybe be a left-back dependent on how Lee Buchanan recovers from injury and obviously at right-back in terms of whether Alfons Sampstead’s loan is made permanent or not.

"So it’s quite a big ask, but I think that will be the focus."

Birmingham will have targets already for the summer

Achieving promotion early does hand Birmingham an advantage ahead of the transfer window, as they already know which division they will be in for next season, whereas a lot of their soon-to-be competitors are still fighting it out.

Blues have just three players out of contract at the end of the campaign, and therefore, it may take a little bit of time before more new faces can come through the door at St. Andrew's.

Nevertheless, Davies will be backed well by one of the EFL's most ambitious owners, and the Championship will be aware of what is coming in the next few months as Birmingham look to end their League One journey strongly.