Birmingham City is no longer a giant sleeping with the goal of taking the league by storm.
Now, the Bruce is back in an ultra-competitive championship. Desperate to prove they belong to the level, and after lifting the League 1 title with ease, they have ambitions in their veins to push further.
Mega-rich Birmingham Chairman Tom Wagner has hyped the prospect of Chris Davis’s men returning to the Premier League by 2026. That means the Blues must quickly resume the EFL elite league and take over the race.
It will be interesting to see if all this pressure on Birmingham’s back hurts progress, but as you follow the league it also gives an opportunity for people like Pike Seung-ho to show they can sprint through things in more difficult environments.
Pike’s performance in League 1
Davies and Co. brought in the proven EFL faces such as Alfie May and Jay Stansfield last summer, but Bruce had approved a left field move before the relegation was made, especially when Paik arrived at St. Andrews from the Korean side’s Jeonbuk hundai Motors in January 2024.
Thankfully, I would like to thank Birmingham, but it didn’t take long for Pike to speed up in his new environment. The midfield maestro scored a lonely goal in the championship before falling into the third tier.
The energetic 28-year-old has become an important part of the Birmingham side. Blues No. 13 gathered another strike in league action as his confident team focused on the champions in addition to registering three assists.
But once they returned to the championship, the ambitious Blues were able to land an upgrade on the stylish Koreans right away by signing this former Manchester United Youth product.
Search for Birmingham midfielders
Birmingham has had many successes in the past when he bought the former Red Devils genius. Tahis Chong and Jesse Lingard were briefly shining for St Andrew.
In fact, Chong registered 13 goals and assisted in 61 games for the Midlands. Lingard previously scored nine goal involvement on just 13 outings on loan at the club.
The name of Charlie Savage could soon be thrown into this mix, and an earlier report from Football Insider revealed that Birmingham is ready to fight it for the £2 million star service amid interest from Wixham, Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth.
Like Paik, Savage is fresh from a standout season in League One.
Looking at the table below, it can be argued that Royals’ No. 8 is even an upgrade to the Korean counterpart, and that Savage is gathering more goals and support from last season for the Noel Hunt man next to Pike’s lower output.
Savage vs Pike – L1 number (24/25) | ||
|---|---|---|
Statistics – per 90 minutes* | Barbarian | Pike |
The game has been played | 45 | 41 |
The goal scored | 5 | 1 |
assist | 9 | 3 |
touch* | 47.8 | 66.2 |
Accurate path* | 27.0 (80%) | 45.2 (88%) |
Key Pass* | 1.3 | 1.0 |
A big opportunity has been created | 5 | 8 |
I missed a big opportunity | 3 | 3 |
Ball recovery* | 3.7 | 4.0 |
The duel won* | 2.3 | 4.4 |
Statistics based on sofa score | ||
Surprisingly, despite not averaging touches per game in League One last season, Savage made Paik’s goals and assists tally better with a whopping 10.
He overwhelms each ball’s recovery and flattens when the duel scores the numbers, which allowed Iwata to come to rescue with a potential duo. Iwata is about beating Pike with an average recovery of 4.5 balls per collision in the third tier.
When he was called “first class” by former Wales manager Rob Page and was first thrown into the Red Dragons senior side, Savage could in theory quickly slot Davis’s team and take over to championship pressure, resulting in Pike having to win a spot in the background.
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