Continuity is key.
Blues made an immediate impact when the summer transfer window opened, activating the clause in Jhon Solis’ loan deal to make the transfer permanent from Girona, believed to be for around £6 million.
The Colombian midfielder was among the six January captures that Chris Davies utilised to remodel the way his team played.
Defender Jonathan Panzo, who was on a short-term contract, was never likely to be retained.
As for the other loanee, winger Ibrahim Osman, Davies has made no secret of the fact that he would like him back at St. Andrew’s, from Brighton & Hove Albion.
After four windows, Blues squad now has a settled feel about it. Initially it was built to get out of League One, then for the Championship with the aforementioned necessary tweaks along the way last winter.
The turnover of players has been huge.
Last summer Blues made 14 signings (19 players moved out), following on from 17 the previous close season.
Of those 17 players Blues signed before the League One campaign, only four now remain in the current squad: Ryan Allsop, Christoph Klarer, Tomoki Iwata and Jay Stansfield.
Heading into 2026/27, it is highly unlikely there will be such hectic activity.
Solis is a known quantity to bolster the physicality, running power and progressive ball-carrying in the middle of the park. Davies clearly wants a wideman with such searing pace that Osman possesses, to complement the hard-running and direct Carlos Vincente, who joined from Alaves in January.
I would wager that Davies is seeking at least another four additions on top of those two – goalkeeper (don’t rule out another loan of James Beadle from Brighton & Hove Albion), midfielder, someone to solve the number 10 issue and a defender.
And also, that would likely mean moving out those who haven’t quite hit the mark as hoped or expected. The likes of Kanya Fujimoto, Kyogo Furuhashi and Marvin Ducksch have question marks over their futures. Does Taylor Gardner-Hickman, who spent last season on loan to Blackburn Rovers, come back into the fold after Marc Leonard’s Achilles injury suffered on loan at Heart of Midlothian?
Ducksch, indeed, told a German podcast that he has interest from Bundesliga clubs.
Obviously Blues might get an unexpected and unwanted offer for one of their top performers; every club has to be flexible in the market.
But in the main, we shouldn’t expect to see a welter of activity this summer like we did previously.
Having a settled squad, and a squad that is more knowing about what the Championship entails, is a positive.
Phil Neumann will be all the better for the last 12 months. So will Iwata. Alex Cochrane. Even Paik Seung-ho has not played a full campaign in the second tier.
The players who came in January will also have a better handle on what to expect, after a five-month ‘taster’.
Teams that do well in the Championship are usually those who have Premier League quality and spending power, having come down from the top-flight, or bounced between the divisions.
Or they have been carefully constructed over a period of time, and have the Championship combat ribbons to show for it.
There are always going to be surprise outliers, like Hull City, who rode the wave and performed above expectation to win the play-offs (their Wembley hero Oli McBurnie has been round the Championship block, mind).
But a settled, established unit, who know their manager, his patterns of play – and a manager who understands the division, which Davies now does a lot better – and so forth, should be highly competitive.
Title-winners Coventry City got their act together over a steady period after escaping the third tier in 2020. The players they brought in from abroad had time to grow in a settled environment.
And perhaps it was telling that their squad have played a total of 3,172 matches in the Championship, which was more than any other club. Blues stood at 1,637 Championship matches, among the lowest ranked.
With continuity, there should be more cohesion in pre-season and a bond of togetherness among the players as they know they’re here for the duration.
Davies was quite ruthless in moving out players in January, don’t forget, partly with an eye on harmony. A dozen were sent on their way.
And Davies himself; he is the first manager to start and finish two successive seasons since Lee Clark 12 years ago. That matters.
All signs point to Solis’ capture being a good one. He has an upside, but he is also able to contribute in the here and now, adding traits that Blues required.
Central midfield is an area that is going to require bolstering considering that Paik is likely to have shoulder surgery after the World Cup, Leonard is a long-term absentee and Tommy Doyle returned to Wolverhampton Wanderers after a season loan.
Iwata was often used at right-back by Davies and you would imagine another central specialist will be sourced this summer, fitting the kind of profile Blues have moved towards since January.
