The clock was ticking towards the end of a taxing summer transfer window but Birmingham City were still pushing hard.
Sixteen players had already left and 17 more had come in, but the most expensive signing — and the one that would send shockwaves through football in the UK — was still pending and time was running out.
Inside the club’s training ground — or Elite Performance and Innovation Centre, as it’s more formally known — there was confidence that Jay Stansfield would join on a permanent deal from Fulham. The 21-year-old had indicated he would be up for the challenge of returning to the club where he spent last season on loan.
The difficulty, though, was pushing Fulham to sell. Multiple offers over the summer had been knocked back as manager Marco Silva prepared to use Stansfield as one of three forward options in the Premier League this season. Rival interest from the Championship added another layer of complexity yet still Birmingham pushed, testing Fulham’s resolve with an increased bid of £10million ($13.2m) on the final day of trading that was again rejected.
Then came the breakthrough with the deadline approaching. A deal was agreed at a figure between £12m and £15m with a substantial amount of add-ons, although Birmingham say the total package is not as high as £20m.
Jay Stansfield is introduced to Birmingham City fans (Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)
Since relegation from the Championship in May, Birmingham have started to rebuild a squad that was ageing, overpaid and associated with decline. Out went Scott Hogan, Gary Gardner, Ivan Sunjic, Marc Roberts, Alex Pritchard, John Ruddy and Neil Etheridge on free transfers, releasing a significant amount from the wage bill.
Fees were also received for Junior Bacuna, Siriki Dembele, Koji Miyoshi and the prized asset, Jordan James, who joined Rennes for £4million, potentially rising to nearly double that amount. That is important because bringing funds into the club has been essential and selling academy graduates represents pure profit on the books.
For all that, this has still been an unprecedented summer in English football’s third tier. The Athletic has spoken to multiple sources with knowledge of the clubs’ transfer dealings in an effort to understand how and why they have been so aggressive in the marketplace. Birmingham declined to comment formally but the club dispute some of the figures that have appeared in the media around specific deals.
The Athletic understands Birmingham’s total transfer outlay this summer to be between £20m-£25m, a record spend in a single window at this level, and the club’s wage bill now stands at over £16m as they try and emulate Ipswich Town by going from League One to Premier League in successive seasons.
The U.S. investment firm Knighthead, fronted by co-owner Tom Wagner and supported by minority investor and seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, has big plans for the club and decided to “accelerate everything” through £15m of investment in stadium and training ground upgrades and then the huge additional spend on the first team.
Brady doesn’t get involved directly with transfers but does help increase the global appeal through his support. His name is regularly mentioned in the player care department, as Birmingham recently started working with the NFL legend’s body coach Alex Guerrero in an attempt to give their players the world-class recovery service Brady previously used.
Tom Brady sits with Birmingham City director Matt Alvarez at a game in August 2023 (Cameron Smith/Getty Images)
Profit and Sustainability rules (PSR) no longer apply to Birmingham since they were relegated. Instead, a new set of regulations, know as the Salary Cost Management Protocol (SMCP) are in place. They state that a club can only spend 60 per cent of its revenue on player wages, plus what the EFL calls 100 per cent of the “football fortune” which includes prize money from winning cup competitions, facility fees from broadcasters and net profits from transfers.
The SMCP also allows cash injections from owners in the form of equity, which essentially gives ambitious owners like Knighthood the opportunity to buy their way out of the lower leagues.
It is a controversial loophole and a hot topic of discussion as some EFL club owners have been trying to end, or at least put a limit on, the allowed spend. So far they have failed to get a majority to agree with them.
Birmingham’s plan is to be in and out of League One at lightning speed, so they are pushing on aggressively while still remaining within the rules. For 12 months, they have focused on increasing revenue streams through lucrative commercial deals, as well as partnering with global sports and entertainment company Oak View Group (OVG) Europe.
The club feel they are well positioned but will still need to be mindful of the years ahead if promotion is secured, because under PSR, profits and losses made over a rolling three-year period are judged against a cap set by the EFL. There is always the risk of problems down the line if spending becomes too extravagant.
The EFL is satisfied that Birmingham’s dealings this summer fit into the parameters set out, so there is no additional scrutiny on the business. This is, however, a very unique case. Birmingham have thrown everything at an immediate return to the Championship and have told many of the new signings that the Premier League is also in their sight.
The project started by hiring an exciting young manager in Chris Davies, the former Tottenham Hotspur assistant, and then attracting high-quality top-flight players through the persistence of technical director Craig Gardner.
The significant backing of Knighthead was crucial and its vision quickly spread through the club. CEO Garry Cook said, when opening up a new hospitality facility within the stadium recently, that “we’re trying to fix 10 years in 10 weeks”, and it is certainly true that Birmingham — who won the League Cup 13 years ago and spent seven seasons in the Premier League between 2002 and 2011 — has been a shadow of its old self. Fan protests, points deductions, stadium problems and a relentless churn of managers have all created a sense of chaos at the club.
A renewed sense of optimism is palpable. The club has sold 17,000 season tickets for their first season in the third tier since 1995 and fans have travelled in vast numbers to away games.
The matchday experience is enjoyable again and even the academy — which counts Jude Bellingham as its most famous recent graduate — is in transition under the guidance of Mike Rigg, who worked with Cook at Manchester City. Birmingham are rebuilding in a push to regain Category 1 status in 2025 and made another savvy move by appointing Mike Scott from Wolverhampton Wanderers as head of coaching. Scott has a history of making academies significantly stronger from his work at West Bromwich Albion, Aston Villa and Derby County, and has already impressed some of the longer-serving staff at the club.
Jude Bellingham is Birmingham’s most famous recent academy graduate (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
The attention-grabbing news, though, is Birmingham’s spending and how they have been able to blow every other rival out the water by offering salaries that most Championship clubs could not contend with.
Convincing Stansfield to quit Fulham was the most eye-catching. His connection with Birmingham helped as he scooped the prizes at last season’s player of the year award ceremony. He was even applauded when he scored on his return to St Andrew’s with Fulham in the Carabao Cup last month.
Those moments played into his decision to join and when a hefty salary package was offered alongside the exciting sporting project, the drop down two divisions — albeit for the guarantee of regular football — wasn’t so much of a concern.
Still, this isn’t an ordinary move. This is a 21-year-old with a proven goalscoring record in the Championship and also the clear potential to increase significantly in value. Fulham recognised his talent and only agreed to sell after finding another forward in Reiss Nelson, signed on loan from Arsenal, and for an extraordinary fee alongside a 20 per cent sell-on clause.
But Stansfield is not only piece of the jigsaw. Birmingham flexed their muscles from the start of the summer, landing a number of six and seven-figure signings, the majority on “undisclosed” terms as the club added a degree of privacy to their business.
Even without the marquee arrival of Stansfield, the spend was over £12million, with Bailey Peacock-Farrell (Burnley) and Ryan Allsop (Hull City) both joining from the Championship to strengthen the goalkeeping department early on.
By mid-July, striker Alfie May had signed from Charlton Athletic for £800,000, with Birmingham edging out Huddersfield Town in the race to sign him. This move set the tone in League One and forced others, with far inferior budgets, to pay more than they expected for players.
Gassan Ahadme’s asking price at Ipswich went up to almost £1m but Charlton say they paid considerably less in what was also an undisclosed deal. Then Bristol Rovers spent £700,000 on Promise Omochere from the relegated Fleetwood Town, in what industry insiders describe as a knock-on effect from the May deal.
Little did the rest of the division know that Birmingham’s move for May, who more than trebled his previous £4,000-a-week wages, was just the start. Emil Hansson arrived from Heracles Almelo for around £1.2m and Alex Cochrane joined from Hearts for £800,000 with add-ons, with the latter citing Birmingham’s “ambition” in an interview with their official website shortly after joining.
New signings Scott Wright (left) and Paik Seung-Ho (Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)
The 24-year-old, who has recently become a father and received additional support from his new club, was targeted early on as a character who would help the dressing room.
They were just the appetisers for Birmingham’s bigger transfers, however. Soon, deals were signed off for a combined £6m on Willum Willumsson (Go Ahead Eagles) and Christoph Klarer (Darmstadt).
Willumsson, 25, long harboured ambitions to play in England but until the move — understood to be around £3.5m, although Birmingham say it is lower — had never even considered League One.
The Icelandic midfielder had been in demand last summer, but agreed to stay at Go Ahead Eagles for another year after receiving a new contract and a signing-on fee for his loyalty. He scored seven goals in 31 games and helped Go Ahead qualify for the Europa Conference League but made it clear he wanted a move in this window and was initially holding out for Ajax after hearing about their interest.
When Birmingham came calling with an offer to increase his wages, but more importantly to be a part of the new project, he deliberated for only two days and accepted the new challenge.
He was impressed by a presentation from Gardner and Davies which explained exactly where he would feature in a new-look team. Birmingham want to play through the middle of the pitch and regain possession quickly through high pressing, and they singled out Willumsson’s ability to win the ball back regularly in the opposition half as a key strength.
There was no concern about him moving to England, either, having experienced football in two different surroundings — first when he moved to Belarus where he played at BATE Borisov and then in the Netherlands.
It was a similar story for Klarer, who played in the Bundesliga last season. Birmingham felt his experience at Southampton’s academy between 2016-20 would help speed up the settling-in process and were aggressive in their pursuit.
The scouting process started last season and early considerations were made around bringing him in if the club avoided relegation. Like Willumsson, Klarer had no intention of moving to League One but again Gardner explained the long-term vision.
The 24-year-old had a good feeling about the project after hearing how much detail had gone into his pursuit and agreed a four-year deal for a transfer fee of around £2.5m. He also received a pay rise.
Birmingham’s business has left them with a squad that is the envy of the division. Up front, they have Stansfield, a threat with his speed, versatility, quick feet and finishing; May, the division’s top goalscorer last season and who has scored a goal in every game this term, and Lyndon Dykes, signed for a fee rising up to almost £1m from Queens Park Rangers and who can link up play well and use his physicality.
By comparison, Wigan Athletic, the team Birmingham squeezed past 2-1 at St Andrew’s last weekend, spent £70,000 on signing forward Maleace Asamoah from Fleetwood Town. Their budget ranks somewhere in the middle of League One: Crawley Town, who play Birmingham in December, have a total budget of around £2.5m.
There is no other club in the division who can compete financially — not even Wrexham, the Hollywood-backed side who are up next in a televised game on September 16. Birmingham’s wage bill alone is likely to be more than double their nearest rival, although this year’s accounts should start to show that to be proportionately in sync with what the club brings in.
Rivals such as Huddersfield, Charlton, Stockport County, Rotherham, Peterborough United and Bolton Wanderers rely more heavily on the income from the broadcast deal in comparison to Birmingham, which is why many people with connections to the EFL have said that “this is no ordinary League One story”.
There is both shock and surprise in the division that Birmingham have gone so big and, as one executive puts it “basically recruited as if they’re pushing to get out of the Championship, not League One.”
Part of the plan was to form a group capable of competing long through the season. The moves for Cochrane and Marc Leonard, who arrived from Brighton & Hove Albion after two seasons on loan at Northampton Town, were strategic in that both players had hardly missed a game in two years. Both are also able to fit into Davies’ preferred style of play, as is midfielder Tomoki Iwata, whose move from Celtic on deadline day might have been discussed more had it not been overshadowed by Stansfield.
Birmingham City manager Chris Davies has a squad which is the envy of League One (Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)
The loan market has been used well, too, but again was pitched through a position of power. Ben Davies, the Rangers centre-half, has joined with Birmingham covering his big wages. Luke Harris (Fulham), Taylor Gardner-Hickman (Bristol City) and Alfons Sampsted (Twente) are all considered capable of performing at a higher level.
Excitement also surrounds Ayumu Yokoyama, a speedy and direct forward, signed as a “project player” from J-League side Sagan Tosu, while winger Scott Wright has pace and trickery, and got off to a flying start with a last-minute winner on his debut against Wigan. Wright also knows how to handle big games from his time at Rangers: given Birmingham are expected to win promotion, that mindset was deemed crucial.
The expectation across the league is that Birmingham will walk away with the title but being so active in the market does bring its own issues. Ideally, Davies would have had his squad together much earlier to work on patterns of play. Instead, he is piecing the puzzle together as he goes. Every victory so far for Birmingham has been by a single goal.
This project is unique, even eclipsing Fulham’s ambitious model from 1998-99, when the London club were taken over by Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed and embarked on a similarly vast spending spree, with Kevin Keegan as manager.
Big spending brings big expectations. Stansfield found that out in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy defeat to Walsall this week when chants of “£20m, you’re having a laugh” echoed around the away end.
Birmingham hope that they will have the last laugh. Either way, this project is just getting started.
(Top photo: Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
