Birmingham City have so far had a strong season in League One, where their aims are to bounce back to the championship at the first time of asking. We’re looking at their young players and what impact they could go onto have with the St Andrew’s faithful, in the future.
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00:00Charlie, looking at Birmingham City, obviously, you know, massive summer window with a lot
00:06of signings to come in. In terms of youngsters throughout their side, you know, there are
00:10still a fair few who are yet to hit their peak and yet to be given their full chance
00:15at Birmingham City. And obviously, with the future looking bright, going hopefully promoted
00:20back to the Championship, they could get their chance in years to come as well. So who sort
00:24of stands out as the standout youngsters when it comes to Birmingham City?
00:29I think there are a few in the ranks at Blues. They've just not quite had the opportunity
00:33just yet to break through because Chris Davies is focused on the here and now and understandably
00:37so the target is to go back up to the Championship at the first time of asking. You do want to
00:42test out these young players, especially in the cup competitions and the EFL Trophy has
00:47given that opportunity, but you don't want to rush them in under too much pressure. So
00:51it will make sense if it maybe takes a little bit longer at Birmingham than it would at
00:55other clubs, especially those in League One in and around that don't have the funds to
00:59spend. So they're kind of forced to call upon their youngsters. That is a good approach,
01:03but it's not anywhere near as successful as the one that Blues are employing. But the
01:07one player that I'm very excited to see a little bit more of is Ayomo Yokoyama. We've
01:12seen the odd appearance here and there in the EFL Trophy, as I mentioned, in League
01:17One as well, but typically off the bench. He's a young Japanese international, plays
01:21off the left-hand side and he's very small. So he's not got much physical presence, but
01:26he's just so quick and agile that whenever he goes up against a defender, they don't
01:30seem to know what to do with him. He can get in behind and as soon as he gets to that byline
01:34and cuts the ball back and you've got someone like Alfie May or Jay Stansfield or Lyndon
01:38Dykes at the end of it, it can quite often end up in the goal. We've seen that already
01:42on a few occasions. And Romel Donovan is another player who can really bring fans off of their
01:47feet. He's currently on loan at Burton Albion, just 18 years of age. Probably the only good
01:53thing to come out of Wayne Rooney's tenure at the club was the fact that he brought Donovan
01:57into the first team. He recognised that talent when Donovan was still just 17 and he's a
02:03really bright spark and he's a raw talent who can take on defenders, pick out a pass
02:07and you might have seen some social media clips as well, dribbling past three, four,
02:12five defenders before putting the ball on the back of the net. He's one of those that
02:16is kind of a street football kind of star. You normally see that in Brazil, but we're
02:20seeing more and more of those coming out from England and Birmingham are no exception. And
02:24then Brandon Koehler as well, the first British South Asian to play for Birmingham City or
02:29at least born in Britain as a South Asian and he's very versatile. He's played in a
02:33variety of positions for Blues so far this season. He's someone that Chris Davies can
02:38call upon when we have injury problems down at St Andrews and his goal at Charlton Athletic
02:45was very promising. Shooting from outside the area, about 25 yards out, picking out
02:49the top corner. Not seeing as much of him as we might have hoped so far, but he's certainly
02:54one that's got a lot of promise and can help Blues for years to come.