A look ahead for Blues fans.
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00:00Charlie, looking at Birmingham City and obviously we've mentioned the priority is League One
00:06promotion. They are looking like the top outfit really in the division, you know, spending
00:11would say so as well and the transfer business so far would say so. The ambition under these
00:17owners would also sort of compete with the best, the likes of Wrexham's fantastic owners
00:22as well. I mean, the backing is clearly there, the fans are all on song with what's going
00:27on at the pitch at the moment. Chris Davis has got them ticking and they've got some
00:31clear players who are in that squad who are certainly better than League One quality.
00:38What's the sort of situation? I mean, it seems like it's a real good positive energy coming
00:43from St Andrews, which wasn't obviously evident if you look maybe 12 months ago from where
00:48we are now.
00:49Yeah, I think it's the division is weirdly irrelevant because Birmingham are going to
00:53be promoted without a shadow of a doubt. I mean, things could go wrong. It's still
00:58fairly tight at the top with Wickham and Wrexham and Huddersfield as well. But just the squad
01:03quality and the depth that Birmingham have got when other clubs have got injuries. Birmingham
01:07have had injuries of their own, don't get me wrong, but they've been able to use that
01:10depth to push on through and their form to start to end 2024 and to start 2025 has been
01:16exceptional under Chris Davis and only expected to improve further in the January transfer
01:21window as well. I think they're building for the future, building for life back in
01:25the championship. As you alluded to, they've already got players of championship quality.
01:29Christian Bielik, the captain, has been exceptional playing at centre-back or at right-back. Tomoki
01:34Iwata and Peik Seng-ho as the two central midfielders probably will be up there with
01:39the best partnerships in the championship, let alone in League One. Jay Stansfield leading
01:44the line, of course, we all know about him and his £13 million fee from Fulham smashing
01:49the League One transfer record. Villemsen, Keshi Anderson at times as well has shown
01:53good form. Alfie May won the top scorers in League One this year as well as last. So they
01:57have got such quality, but they do want to improve further. I think the notable difference
02:03now is they're looking at players potentially on a free transfer before obviously able to
02:07spend as much money as they wanted. They didn't have many financial kind of hurdles there.
02:13Now they've got to look a little bit more at keeping things as level as possible in
02:17terms of the championship's rules. Phil Newman is one player expected to join. He's a centre-back
02:21from Hanover. Blues had a bid rejected for him in the summer for around £3 million and
02:27he's going to come in for free at the end of the season, which is a huge boost. Lots
02:31of Bundesliga clubs wanted to sign him. So the fact that he's swapping a German top tier
02:37for the English second is pretty impressive from Blues. Harry Darling, who's at Swansea
02:41City at the moment, gunning for championship play-offs. His contract expires in the summer.
02:46Those talks have stalled and Blues are interested in signing him. And then Lennon Maloney, who's
02:51a defensive midfielder in the Bundesliga for Heidenheim. He's a US men's national team
02:57player already, got a couple of appearances there and he is also going to be available
03:01for free. Once again, Bundesliga clubs want him, but Birmingham with their financial power,
03:05especially in the wage department, might be able to seal his signature.