Birmingham City‘s big spending habits have been well documented now, with the Blues acquiring a whopping 17 new faces this summer.
Jay Stansfield rejoining the Blues permanently after a bright loan spell in the Championship was the purchase that stole the headlines, and for good reason, with the ex-Fulham striker leaving behind Craven Cottage for good for an eye-watering £20m fee.
He has already proven himself to be a deadly striker at League One level, with Wrexham and Rotherham United already feeling the 21-year-old’s goalscoring wrath in league action.
Stansfield’s form this season
Stansfield already has three strikes next to his name playing in the third tier, with a double coming his way on his League One debut back with the Blues against Phil Parkinson’s Red Dragons.
The much-talked-about youngster then backed up that excellent showing at St. Andrew’s with another standout display away at the Millers, as the electric Blues number 28 looped an effort over the Rotherham goalkeeper’s head in the first half to set his team on their way to a confident 2-0 win.
The expensive summer buy will aim to keep up this top form across the season to come, as Birmingham also strive to make their stay in League One as short as possible, by instantly winning promotion back up to the Championship.
Whilst the ambitious Blues look to have got the purchase of Stansfield spot on, they haven’t always reaped the rewards of every deal that has got off the ground, with this striker joining with a big reputation in 2021 who unfortunately underwhelmed.
Scott Hogan’s transfer to Birmingham
Scott Hogan once cost Birmingham’s arch rivals Aston Villa a hefty £12m to get into the building in 2017, after he had garnered a reputation for being an ice-cold goal machine in the EFL at Brentford.
Firing home 21 goals from 36 games for the Bees before this switch to Villa Park, Hogan would then struggle in his new pressurised surroundings, with a lacklustre goal return of ten strikes from 61 games, before making the controversial move across enemy lines to St. Andrew’s official.
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Hogan’s goal record at Birmingham |
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|---|---|---|---|
|
Season |
Games |
Goals |
Assists |
|
23/24 |
28 |
1 |
2 |
|
22/23 |
40 |
10 |
2 |
|
21/22 |
37 |
10 |
1 |
|
20/21 |
34 |
7 |
0 |
|
19/20 |
18 |
7 |
1 |
|
Sourced by Transfermarkt |
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Hogan was never quite able to recapture his Brentford best at Birmingham, with another move not exactly going to plan for the now 32-year-old striker, who very much struggled last campaign as the Blues fell down to League One.
He only managed three goal contributions the entire second tier season, as Stansfield upstaged the ageing attacker with 12 league strikes from 43 clashes.
In the end, Hogan would only manage to register a disappointing 36 strikes from 158 games in total, with the former Bees man never quite living up his billing as a statement signing in the form of Stansfield.
With Birmingham going in a different direction this summer with lavish buy after lavish buy, Hogan would end up seeing his contract be ripped up in the West Midlands, as the veteran EFL presence now finds himself unemployed and on the search for a new club to call home.
He did also have many moments of magic donning a Birmingham strip, but there was no place for sentimentality on the end of Davies’ men this summer, as the Blues aim to make promotion back up to the second tier look like a breeze with Stansfield now up top.
