£8.5m star Birmingham wanted scores against Atletico and Sevilla while Kyogo struggles

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Despite boasting financial muscle most Championship clubs can only dream of, let alone at teams at League One level, it may be a stretch to say Chris Davies’ Birmingham City have ever really been ‘prolific’.

Yes, the Blues dominated the third-tier last season while scoring a league high 84 goals en route to the title. However, they only netted three or more goals in a game on nine occasions.

Jay Stansfield was their top scorer with 23, but 39 per cent of those came from the penalty spot.

Only Charlton Athletic, Portsmouth and bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United have found the net on fewer occasions than Birmingham City so far in the new Championship campaign too. And for all the excitement surrounding a strikeforce of Stansfield, Kyogo Furuhashi and Marvin Ducksch, Lyndon Dykes snaffled a stoppage-time winner against Swansea on Saturday.

The second time Dykes, one of the less glamorous members of Davies’ attack, has popped up at the perfect moment this season already.

And looking back at those summer links with one Carlos Vicente – EFL Analysis can confirm that Birmingham showed interest in the La Liga ace – hearing that he has found the net against both Atletico Madrid and Sevilla in 2025/26 may have some at St Andrews wondering if they spent their money in the wrong places.

Birmingham City target Carlos Vicente scores against Atletico Madrid and Sevilla

A potential £10 million arrival from Rennes, former Celtic talisman Kyogo Furuhashi has looked ‘lost’ in Davies’ team so far. Yet to score a single goal in 339 Championship minutes, Kyogo was again a shadow of his old green-and-white-hooped self against Swansea.

And while fellow summer signing Marvin Ducksch topped the Bundesliga charts when it came to creating and taking shots on goal, the Birmingham faithful are yet to see the best of him either, though that should change soon now he is fit enough to start games again.

But while goals against Spanish giants Atletico Madrid and Sevilla add to Carlos Vicente’s reputation as something of a ‘big-game player’, the Deportivo Alaves hero is yet to open his own account from open play.

Both of those La Liga strikes, the second coming in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat by an Alexis Sanchez-inspired Sevilla, came from 12 yards. Then again, if Kyogo is often accused of disappearing from play when the ball is anywhere other than the penalty area, the same could not be said of the man Alaves always turn to when in need of some inspiration.

Not only did he score that penalty against Sevilla, he won it too with a trademark darting run down the right, before drawing a foul from a clumsy Marcao.

Losing Vicente to Birmingham would have been a ‘bitter blow’ for Deportivo Alaves

La Liga expert Terry Gibson felt Alaves would suffer a ‘bitter blow’ if the £8.5 million-rated Vicente left Alaves having saved them from relegation last season. Whether or not he’d have fixed Birmingham’s scoring issues is up for debate, but what cannot be disputed is just how integral he remains to Alaves’ hopes of remaining in La Liga.

“Oh I love watching Carlos Vicente. I think he’s fantastic,” Gibson said on El Tel and Jon’s La Liga Weekly podcast when Birmingham’s interest emerged. “It would be a bitter blow to Alaves if they lose him.

“Would he leave Alaves to go to Birmingham? My guess is he probably earns more money at Birmingham than he would at Alaves. I think, if the deal is right [it could happen]…

“Hard-working, a great attitude, necessary skill needed… Over the last couple of years, he has become a bit of a favourite of mine. So good news [for Birmingham fans] if they get him.”

Birmingham face Midland rivals – and the Championship’s top scorers – Coventry City on Saturday. How Davies could do with Stansfield, Kyogo or Ducksch grabbing a game by the scruff of the neck like Carlos Vicente tends to do.

“Carlos isn’t [just] important to us,” head coach Eduardo Coudet told Cope after Sevilla. “He’s extremely important.”