Quote Originally Posted by Heisenberg View Post
I don't know about that, Jon. He's only ever scored 2 goals at Championship level (obviously that was 1 before he joined us). He's never actually played in League One. The rest of his goals include 10 in 42 games in League 2 (1 in 4 would be a decent return for a midfielder, not a striker) and the rest come at non-league level (and not all of his goals were scored in league games).

Taking into account his lack of experience of playing at this level, his goalscoring record in the football league (in general) and his poor injury record... Nothing about this signing seemed to be good business at the time.
Fair enough - the evidence of games played in the Championship is very slim.

However, he was signed for Birmingham on a 4 year contract for a fee reported as over £1m, and got a 3 year contract with us for an undisclosed fee. He was liked and selected by Harry Rednapp, Lee Carsley, Steve Cotterill and Neil Warnock - all of whom know a player and saw him in training and in cup games as well as the few league outings.

Rednapp's press comment on him soon after he joined Birmingham was:

"He's got the ability to be a real player, there's no doubt about that. I've been really excited by what I've seen of him. He's powerful, he's strong and that pace is just electric. This kid is on the shoulder and away he goes. He's got this terrible habit, when he loses the ball he chases and tries to get it back – It's terrible isn't it? They normally stand around and watch like 'I've lost the ball', but this kid chases after it. I said to him: 'Whatever you do, don't ever stop doing that'. That's a big part of his game."

If he didn't have the constant injuries I think he would have done well at our level. But he had the injuries.