Birmingham City can show their Premier League ambition by sealing summer swoop for Portsmouth FC player | OneFootball

Birmingham City should target Portsmouth's Josh Murphy this summer as they look to make it back-to-back promotions next season.

Birmingham City enjoyed a record-breaking League One season as they comfortably won the title, and they will aim to be celebrating another promotion in 12 months' time.

The ambitions of Blues are clear - they want to reach the top, and it was reinforced earlier this month when technical director Craig Gardner spoke about reaching the Champions League and winning multiple Premier League titles.

That will seem a way off, but their remarkable spending spree last summer, combined with a new stadium on the horizon and a Category One academy, shows the US owners are very serious about their plans.

Birmingham City must target quality this summer

Yet, talk counts for little, and we know that money doesn’t guarantee success, so Birmingham must be smart when it comes to recruitment this summer.

Given the quality of Chris Davies’ squad, an overhaul isn’t required, as many are up to Championship standard, but it’s also clear that the team is lacking star quality in certain areas.

Arguably, that’s in attack, and you would expect a few wide players to be brought in, as they’re crucial to the way that the manager wants to play.

Josh Murphy would be a huge signing for Birmingham City

And, one player who would represent a major upgrade on what Blues have right now is Portsmouth’s Josh Murphy.

Firstly, it should be said that Pompey won’t want to sell their star man - Murphy himself has said he is happy on the south coast and intends on staying put - and some could even debate whether it’s a step-up given Blues are newly-promoted, so there’s no guarantee he would want to go.

But we know that money talks, and if Birmingham could pull it off, it would be the sort of signing that makes rivals take notice. Birmingham's project, after all, is incredibly ambitious and alluring, and despite their status as a newly-promoted second-tier club, they will be toppling many divisional peers for targets this summer.

Murphy scored seven times and registered 14 assists for Pompey this season, which is a fantastic return for a team that were battling in the bottom third.

It wasn’t just the productivity though, as Murphy was a constant threat with his pace and direct style that made him so hard to stop.

Those physical attributes are needed in the second tier, and his ability to run with the ball and stretch the opposition would give Birmingham another threat in the final third.

At 30, some will argue that this could be a risky move for the Midlands outfit. Realistically, they aren’t going to sell him on for a profit further down the line, and he may only have a year or two at his peak. From a business sense, there are valid points about whether Murphy would be a worthwhile investment.

However, if you are as ambitious as Blues are, some signings have to be made with the here and now as the focus, and Murphy would fall into that category.

He would represent a major coup for the club, instantly becoming a key player in Davies’ XI, and the chance to move to St. Andrew’s may appeal as Birmingham try to make it back-to-back promotions.

If there was one real sticking point in Davies' record-breaking side, it was perhaps the lack of creative threat from wide areas. The ex-Cardiff City winger, however, would fix that issue in abundance with his electric pace and pinpoint crossing ability, from which Jay Stansfield could profit greatly in 25/26 and potentially beyond.