Birmingham City has found the player they have been waiting for for many years

Birmingham City has been waiting for a player like Jay Stansfield for a long time. An instinctive finisher who can seemingly find the net from any angle.

It didn’t take long for Stansfield – who was an unknown at Championship level until recently – to announce himself. When he lobbed the ball around Plymouth Argyle defender Lewis Gibson before scoring the winner in the 95th minute on his debut, it was clear the Blues had landed on a gem.

Stansfield followed with strikes against Millwall and Preston North End – both excellent finishes in their own right. Could another Blues player have converted one of these three chances?

According to FBREF, the fact that Stansfield has scored three times against an xG (expected goals) rating of 1.2, shows how clinical the 20-year-old has been. The point of this article is not whether Stansfield should play center forward for the Blues, which everyone is debating at the moment.

This is simply to highlight the Blues’ most ruthless finisher in many years. Stansfield may not be able to match Che Adams’ 22-goal tally in the 2018/19 season, but there’s no doubt that finishing comes more naturally to him than his predecessor. Although Stansfield’s career at St Andrew is still in its early stages, he is showing finishing qualities that few have seen at Royal Blue since Kevin Phillips took on the number 9 shirt.

Praising Stansfield after one of two games in which he failed to score for the Blues against QPR on Friday night, John Eustace said:
“He is an excellent young player. His attitude is different from the class, his working speed is different from the class and he can also finish. We’re lucky he’s here and he’s only going to get better.

It’s worth recalling the level of competition the Blues had to beat to land Stansfield on loan from Fulham. BirminghamLive has learned that Leicester City and West Bromwich Albion were among the “12 or 13” Championship clubs Eustace spoke about when the Blues were knocked out at Stansfield. With its current trajectory, Stansfield will only play one year in the Second Division before moving on to Premier League duty with parent club Fulham. Players like Stansfield don’t come to St Andrew’s often, so let’s enjoy him while we can.

FIND OUT MORE

Former Birmingham City midfielder Jesse Lingard is training in Saudi Arabia with Al-Ettifaq FC as he bids to sign for them.

The 30-year-old is a free agent after his one-year contract at Nottingham Forest expired, making him a free agent.

Lingard, who has been capped 32 times by England, started training with Ettifaq on Wednesday and has been allowed to train with the squad for a whole month, enough time for Liverpool legend Gerrard to reign him in. He has been training with former club West Ham, where he was on loan during the 2020/21 season, and was in talks to join the Hammers before joining Forest, but now looks set to spurn David Moyes for the second time. .

When asked if he was disappointed when Lingard went to Saudi Arabia after training with the team, West Ham coach Moyes said:
“No, not at all. “I’m quite comfortable and more than comfortable with that.

“I think I told you (the media) that we have to see what he will do and what he will be like. We like Jesse a lot but I don’t know if we need another player in a position where he can play for us.

Lingard had a short but successful loan spell at St Andrew’s and collected 6 goals and 3 assists in the 2012/13 season. He was recalled and then for Brighton