St Andrew’s looks like a very different place...
THE January transfer window closed on Tuesday night with Birmingham City doing far more business than Gianfranco Zola suggested they might when it opened.
Speaking in the days after he took over at St Andrew’s the manager outlined his commitment to the players bequeathed him by his predecessor.
“We need a couple of players that are really good players,” Zola said as 2016 drew to a close.
What materialised was not a couple but half-a-dozen and an admission from Birmingham’s manager that the troops he thought he could work with needed supplementing.
There has been a big turnover. Established names who were key to Gary Rowett’s Blues, Paul Caddis, David Cotterill and Jonathan Spector – and his keynote signing Diego Fabbrini - have moved on.
And to be fair to Trillion Trophy Asia, whatever you think of their decision to sack Rowett, which is looking worse and worse as the games go by, they have put their chequebook where their mouths are. More than £4 million has been invested in Kerim Frei and Cheick Keita, upwards of £2 million on Lukas Jutkiewicz and Emilio Nsue, there have been loans for Jerome Sinclair and Kristian Bielik and, of course, a permanent deal set up for the influential Craig Gardner.
Zola came to the conclusion he needed ready-made recruits – and as the winless run extended he didn’t have time to coach his current crop into a team comfortable of applying his possession-based philosophy.
With results going against Birmingham at present it is difficult to accurately judge what the new men will bring.
We can safely conclude that Frei looks a massive upgrade on Fabbrini and Gardner is going to be Blues’ best midfielder for some time to come.
It is far too early to cast a verdict on Nsue and Keita but for the money that has been spent they simply have to make an impact.
Certainly there is considerable delight at tempting Keita from Entella.
Sinclair and Bielik arrive as young men ready to take the next step in their careers, hopefully they can carry their temporary employers with them.
There has been impressive investment at St Andrew’s over the last month – more than Zola thought was necessary. Now is the time for a return on that investment.