He's on his way?
Super Kev for Blues?
Looks like it. The talisman of Albion's Championship-winning campaign, Kevin Phillips, has been earmarked to do more of the same.
Alex McLeish hopes that he will be replacing a goalscorer (Mikael Forssell) with a goalscorer par excellence.
There has been a lot of juggling done by McLeish the last couple of weeks in regard to recruiting a striker.
Some of his other choices had to be left on the shelf because of cost, albeit £3 million - £4 million shouldn't really be a problem let's be honest.
McLeish maintained a hovering, patient presence when it became clear Phillips and Albion were at loggerheads over a new contract.
In the end, Phillips decided he needed to make a decision and on Wednesday afternoon informed McLeish that he was ready to get serious with Blues and ice another crack at the Premier League (hopefully for one season only).
Naturally there have been grumblings about Phillips's age - he's 35 later this month - following on from 34-year-old Lee Carsley's signing.
Phillips made 42 appearances last season and bagged 24 goals. He was joint second top-scorer in the league. Check out what the Birmingham Mail Albion's correspondent Chris Lepkowski wrote about 'Super Kev' a few weeks back.
Albion manager Tony Mowbray used him shrewdly and didn't flog him into the ground. McLeish will have to do the same.
Albion was the right team for Phillips in that they are geared to attack and creating chances. At Championship level, with the ball in the right areas, he gorged himself.
Carsley's appearance record and fitness levels were carefully checked by Blues before they took the plunge. So was Phillips's.
As I wrote in my previous blog, imagine Blues signing Phillips as a 'bonus' to go with another forward, someone with presence and mobility like a Jason Roberts, a Dave Kitson.
Add them to James McFadden, Cameron Jerome and Garry O'Connor, with Gary McSheffrey doing his stuff from off the flank, then Blues would have a bit of everything at their disposal up front.
Two years ago when Blues won promotion they had Jerome, Forssell (although he was injured for the most part), Nicklas Bendtner, DJ Campbell and latterly Rowan Vine and Andy Cole to pick from.
Why stop at Phillips? Big sums were spent on Jerome and McSheffrey that summer transfer window, and £3 million was agreed with Fulham for Collins John only for him to reject Blues.
Nine players have left since relegation, Fabrice Muamba went in a £5.75 million deal, some big outlays on wages have been saved.
(6) comments so far add yours here
Share:
Older/Newer
« Striker light | Austria calling »
6 Comments
Leave a comment
Keep up to date
Technorati
Authors
Colin Tattum
Mail man Colin Tattum’s view of what’s going on at Birmingham City FC.
excellent blog tatts - do i detect some frustration from yourself or Alex that even £3/4 million pound strikers are out of our financial range!
you didnt mention seb ? d you know something we dont tatts ?
Tatts, i totally agree. I would apply the same principle to the 'creative midfielder' we are after. Surely we need to buy 2 of these? (as cover for each other) As lord knows we have enough defensive midfielders in Nafti, Carsley and Johnson. Unless Big Eck sees Jordan Mutch figuring this season.
Tatts,keep up the good work.It`s great to have a real fan on the inside.Now,are we really going to start the season with the same centre backs as last year or will Krystan Pearce be in the frame?
Would value your opinion. KRO
Des, have had a long chat with Pearce that's going to make a feature in the next few days. The centre backs will be the same, as it stands now. A centre forward and creative central midfielder are also what the manager is after. Seb Larsson, the club continually insist to me, will not be sold. As for Dave Kitson, in an ideal world the manager would love to have him and Kevin Phillips on board.
Mr Tattum,
Super Kev would make a great addition whilst personally i rate Dave Kitson highly and is definately one for the Premier as well. How would you see the line up though especially away from home where McLeish seemed to have major problems last season?