{"id":293700,"date":"2025-07-26T16:21:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T16:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/293700\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T16:21:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T16:21:18","slug":"championship-expert-picks-which-birmingham-city-star-will-be-pivotal-next-season-its-not-tommy-doyle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/293700\/","title":{"rendered":"Championship expert picks which Birmingham City star will be ‘pivotal’ next season, it’s not Tommy Doyle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Birmingham City have cemented themselves as Premier League promotion contenders after an outstanding summer transfer window.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Birmingham City<\/a> are preparing for life back in the Championship<\/a> after a record-breaking League One<\/a> title win.<\/p>\n

So far in the summer transfer window<\/a>, several high-profile additions have been recruited by Chris Davies<\/a>, signaling the Blues\u2019 intent on instant promotion back to the top flight.<\/p>\n

Birmingham signed Kyogo Furuhashi<\/a> in an impressive coup, which followed Tommy Doyle\u2019s Birmingham move and the reunion with Demarai Gray.<\/p>\n

Despite the Blues attracting a litany of supreme talent to St Andrews this summer, one Championship expert has picked out an already familiar face to be the key man for Birmingham next season.<\/p>\n

\"ChristophPhoto by James Baylis \u2013 AMA\/Getty ImagesChampionship expert backs Christoph Klarer as Birmingham City\u2019s key player<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Birmingham owner Tom Wagner wanted an \u201caggressive\u201d transfer window<\/a>, and his wish has certainly come to fruition.<\/p>\n

Birmingham have \u2018blown away\u2019 Championship rivals<\/a> this summer with their expenditure and attraction of top talent, and the signings have shown no signs of stopping.<\/p>\n

Eiran Cashin joined Birmingham from Brighton<\/a> this week, after Birmingham beat several Championship rivals to sign the defender.<\/p>\n

However, one second tier expert believes that a figure already in Davies\u2019 squad, Christoph Klarer, will be an \u201cabsolutely massive\u201d cog in the Birmingham machine next season.<\/p>\n

Ryan Dilks told the Second Tier podcast: \u201cBirmingham City are coming up to the Championship with one of the strongest squads we\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s even before all the signings they\u2019ve already made, like Tommy Doyle. One of the big reasons for them having a seriously strong squad, though, is Christoph Klarer.<\/p>\n

\"TommyTommy Doyle poses with the Birmingham City shirt after completing his loan move from Wolverhampton Wanderers<\/p>\n

Credit: Birmingham City FC\/YouTube<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is, with Birmingham, yes, they spent a lot of money, but the difference between them and let\u2019s say another team who had a lot of money in League One last season, they\u2019ve got a mix of a lot of money and top quality scouting, and Klarer is the best example of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my eyes, this guy has been a top-end Championship centre-back who was somehow signed by a League One team.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe played nearly every game for Darmstadt in the Bundesliga the season before, and this coming season he will be absolutely massive, literally and figuratively, to Birmingham\u2019s ambitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause he was Birmingham City\u2019s player of the season, not a bad thing to have on your CV considering it was a record-breaking side, and the guy is an absolute monster who will head bricks, <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s good on the ball and I\u2019m really looking forward to seeing his partnership with new signing Phil Newman because it\u2019s going to be absolutely pivotal to Birmingham\u2019s season and the potential for yet another promotion.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Christoph Klarer will be one of best centre-backs in Championship<\/p>\n

Klarer has continued his outstanding form from last season, which was pivotal to Birmingham\u2019s title win, into the Blues\u2019 pre-season preparations.<\/p>\n

The Austrian scored in the 3-1 win over Spanish giants Sevilla earlier this month, and the 25-year-old is poised to become one of the best central defenders in the Championship next season.<\/p>\n\nStatistic<\/strong><\/td>\nChristoph Klarer<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nGames<\/td>\n43<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nGoals + Assists<\/td>\n1 + 3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nDuels won<\/td>\n324<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAerial duels won<\/td>\n202<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nRecoveries<\/td>\n152<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Christoph Klarer\u2019s defensive statistics for Birmingham City last season, data from Fotmob<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Birmingham were last in the top flight<\/a> several seasons ago, and we at EFL Analysis have tipped the Blues to earn promotion in our early 2025\/26 Championship predictions.<\/p>\n

Klarer\u2019s resolute defensive displays will certainly be, in the words of Dilks, \u201cabsolutely pivotal\u201d to those aspirations next season.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Birmingham City have cemented themselves as Premier League promotion contenders after an outstanding summer transfer window. Birmingham City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,12905,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-293700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-city","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114920455299719901","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}