This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Birmingham City have been extremely active in the summer transfer window following their relegation to League One, however, more may still be needed up front.

Blues started the league season with a 1-1 draw at home to Reading, before making their way past Charlton Athletic in the Carabao Cup with a 1-0 win.

Despite the addition of Alfie May, the top goalscorer in the third tier in 2023/24, the Blues lack quality depth in the forward department.

Lukas Jutkiewicz is the current back-up to the 30-year-old May, but he also lacks youth, and Blues could turn to a former loanee to bring goals to St. Andrew’s.

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Jay Stansfield returning could be the perfect tonic for Birmingham

Jay Stansfield spent last season with Birmingham, on loan from Premier League side Fulham. The 21-year-old scored 12 goals in the Championship from 43 games, and the West Midlands club are said to be interested in bringing the striker back.

That’s according to Football Insider, who have said that Blues had previously started conversations with the Cottagers over Stansfield in July, however, the deal has not progressed further since.

FLW’s Birmingham Fan Pundit, Mike Gibbs, would love to see the striker brought back to St. Andrew’s, and avoid any fears of a repeat of last year’s disappointment following the club’s failure to bring in a solid second choice: “We should push for Jay Stansfield, but at the same time, I don’t think we should put all our eggs in one basket. I think we need to look at alternative strikers as well and then see where we get to at the end of the window.

“If we try and just go after him and fall short, we could be in trouble. It happened last year. We couldn’t add a striker, we ended up with Oliver Burke, he was useless, and we went down.

“I’m not saying that was the sole reason we went down, but it was a massive contributing factor. I think we should go all out for him but pursue other options at the same time and, hopefully, one of them comes off by the end of the window.”

Bringing in another striker allows for more tactical changes

If Stansfield does return to Birmingham, he will give Chris Davies the opportunity to chop and change the system, and not just the players.

Blues could choose to play both May and Stansfield in League One, a partnership that would strike fear into opposition defenders. However, it also allows for the option to switch from match-to-match and alter the team’s set-up for whoever they are playing.

Both players are proven in League One and with the season playing through for nine months, depth will be required, according to Mike: “I think a new striker is essential, personally. We’ve obviously got Alfie May, who’s hit the ground running, and I think all Blues fans are really, really happy with him. But it’s a long season, and there’s a lot of competitions that we’re going to play in.

“I think Jutkiewicz is someone we can rely on coming off the bench. He started on Tuesday, but was withdrawn midway into the second-half.

“I do feel we’re a striker light to challenge Alfie May but also to give us that coverage across all of those competitions and really give us an option to play two up top as.

“I think we’re going to need; plan A, plan B, plan C and plan D. Having two forwards certainly enables us to do that.”