Could this Derby County man help Blues’ striker issue?

As it stands, Birmingham City have three first team strikers ready for the next Championship season, but with Nicolai Brock-Madsen heading for the Olympics and James Vaughan subject to interest from Rangers, we could be left with just Clayton Donaldson at the club.

It is believed that there are several questions being asked by the club about numerous strikers, including Walsall frontman Tom Bradshaw and former Brighton and Hove Albion loanee James Wilson, but I believe Derby County have a man who would fit in perfectly at Blues.

Despite paying £2.5 million for Nick Blackman in January, the former Reading forward hasn’t hit the ground running at all at the iPro stadium and I believe that the player may be best to cut his losses and move on because it is clear that things aren’t going to work out for him at Derby.

In 17 appearances for the Rams, Blackman has failed to hit the back of the net once, partly because they were playing him on the wing, but that takes nothing away from the fact that it just hasn’t happened for him at the club.

During his time with the Royals, he scored 13 goals in 28 games which tells you that he has the potential to do it at this level and at the age of 26, he should be just hitting his peak rather than having a goal slump.

New Derby boss Nigel Pearson may want to use Blackman more as a central striker next season but with Darren Bent and Chris Martin at his disposal, the former Blackburn Rovers striker may eventually end up becoming third choice at the East Midlands club and that is something that he definitely won’t settle for.

Blues boss Gary Rowett has made it very clear that the club are in the market for a striker and personally I think that Blackman would be the perfect candidate to help Donaldson up front. To me, the six feet two inch forward would be able to run the channels as Donaldson does so brilliantly because Derby have deployed him as a wide player, and he would also be a danger in the box because once he has found his shooting boots, he is unstoppable.

Ask any Reading fan if they think it was a mistake to let Blackman go and they will categorically say yes and that has to speak volumes of the man! Although Derby may want to try and scrape back whatever they can of the two and a half million that they spent on him, I think they may also be glad to get rid of him so they can look at other player who could potentially boost their chances of being promoted next season.

Blues fans, do you think Gary Rowett should look at the possibility of bringing Nick Blackman to the club? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!