It’s probably a little bit early to be talking about this, but I’d rather be early to the party than late to it.
Jacques Maghoma is in a bit of a sticky situation at St Andrew’s. He got injured during the first game of the season against Brentford and hasn’t been seen since. Luckily though he looks to be in contention for this weekend’s game against Charlton Athletic.
Speaking in his press conference today, Pep Clotet said that:
“Jacques had a few training sessions this week with us and got better and better and today he had a really good session. It’s about him stepping up a little bit slowly, we have to remember he played in Africa (in the summer for DR Congo) so he hasn’t had much chance to have a good rest in the summer like the others. Now he has had the chance to put that behind him and get back to his fitness level. We know Maghoma is a player who can help us to achieve big things.”
When Maghoma does come back, be it this weekend or somewhere in the future, he needs to seize every opportunity he gets because he’s at risk of falling down the pecking order. With Birmingham bringing in a couple of players this summer that can play his role out wide, like Jefferson Montero and Ivan Guzman (though he was later shipped out on loan) they’ve also brought in a few younger players into the attack department like Fran Villalba and Alvaro Gimenez.
He has been a fine servant for the club, racking up 160 appearances, however at the age of 31, he is at the stage of his career where clubs are a little bit more cautious about handing out contracts to players over the age of 30, and given that his contract expires at the end of the season, this could very well be the last season we see him in a Blues shirt.
What about you? Do you think that Maghoma still has a lot to offer the Blues? Or do you think that he’s going to be slowly edged out for some of the younger players in the squad?
