Birmingham City-Jay Stansfield- news should strike fear into League One: View …

Birmingham City are determined to have a squad that is capable of competing for promotion back to the Championship.

The Blues are preparing for their 2024/25 season in League One, and to do so, the club has been very active in the transfer market.

Chris Davies’ side have already made seven new additions in this transfer window, and it appears as though they are not stopping there, with Jay Stansfield now seemingly their next target.              Birmingham City open talks to sign Jay Stansfield.
According to Football Insider, Birmingham City have opened talks with Premier League side Fulham over the permanent signing of Stansfield.

The report states that the Blues are preparing to offer Fulham a package that could be worth as much as £6 million.

Stansfield is still under contract at Craven Cottage until the summer of 2027, but the report states that the Premier League side is open to letting the player leave.

However, the Blues may not have a clear run at the player, as it has been reported by BBC Sport that Cardiff City have a tentative interest in the Fulham forward.

The report states that Cardiff could look to sign two new strikers this summer as they look to improve their forward line.

Stansfield really impressed with Birmingham City last season in what was his first full campaign playing in the Championship.

The forward first emerged on the radar of several EFL clubs after impressing in his loan spell with Exeter City in the 2022/23 season.

The 21-year-old started his career with the Grecians but was soon picked up by the Cottagers in 2019, and before returning to Exeter in 2022, he spent most of his time at Fulham playing in their academy.

The 2022/23 season at Exeter was a chance for the player to show his parent club what he can bring to the table, and he did just that, as he scored nine goals and recorded seven assists in 36 League One games.

Stansfield averaged 1.4 shots per game that season, finishing with a goal conversion rate of 18%, with him possibly having the chance to add more goals to his name, as he missed seven big chances, as per Sofascore.com.

It was a very productive loan for the forward and one that earned him his chance to play in the Championship in the 2023/24 campaign.

Stansfield joining Birmingham City should strike fear into League One teams

It would be expected that Stansfield would ideally like to continue playing in the Championship if he were to leave Fulham this summer.

However, it appears as though Birmingham City are doing all they can to bring the forward back to the club, even though they are a League One side.

This is a very ambitious pursuit from the Blues, but one that, if they are able to pull it off, surely makes them favourites for the League One title, and it strikes a sense of fear in these other clubs looking to compete at the top end of the division.

As previously stated, Stansfield already has a decent record playing in League One, and that was for a side that didn’t have the attacking power that Birmingham has now.

Furthermore, the Fulham man took his game to the next level last season, as while Birmingham struggled at the foot of the table, Stansfield was still able to produce in front of goal.

The striker scored 12 goals in 43 league games, outperforming his xG, which stood at 9.28, as well as averaging a goal every 279 minutes of football.

Stansfield could have easily had more goals to his name last season, as while he scored 12 goals, he also was averaging 2.3 shots per game, and he missed eight big chances throughout the campaign, as per Sofascore.com.