Opinion: Now or Never For Birmingham’s Reece Brown

One of the things that makes the club stand out amongst many in the Championsip is that until recently, we haven’t had the money to spend on players and therefore have relied on producing talents through the youth system. As an avid follower of youth football, we have one of the best set-ups of it’s kind under Rowett with consistent football being played throughout with the same mentality through all age groups. Hard work was always rewarded and this is why Harding and Viv were given chances in pre-season fixtures. Arthur and Brown were often left out of these plans or sent on loans just because they didn’t have the attitude to succeed. But has this changed with Brown?

If anyone is going to give Brown a call-up then it will be Zola. He likes to bring players into the first team almost immediately if he thinks they’re good enough as was the case with Sears at West Ham. However, this strategy does run the risk of players burning out or even not making it due to the increased expectations. Despite this, he will give players in the youth teams a chance and Brown will not have a better opportunity to prove himself.

Brown has been playing in the U21’s recently and in my opinion, he really does stand out. It was the same with Viv and Gray for me in that they look head and shoulders better than those playing around them. Youth football is very telling about who is going to make it and who isn’t. Raheem Sterling I watched at 16 and he looked a talent despite his small stature. You can just tell with certain players that they have all of the skills to become a first team player and Brown for me does have that. He also seems to be working hard for the team in terms of defensively which was an aspect that seemed to be missing from his game. As one of the older and more experienced players in the youth side now, Brown really has increased in maturity and is often seen being vocal on the pitch. All of these signs to me, mean that he should get a call-up under Zola. Whether he will or not remains to be seen.

The problem I have is, what if he doesn’t get the call-up? For me, if he is not going to feature in our first team plans in the coming season then he never will and should be sold. I understand players going out on loan at different ages because of various reasons, but Brown for me, wouldn’t benefit from this. He is one of those players that would lose confidence going out on loan as it shows that he is not good enough to be at Birmingham City. He is very much a form player and he is familiar with the set up at the Blues which has helped his development. He has all of the skills that he is ever going to have and going out on loan would only prolong his time at the Blues’ for no advantage for either the club or himself. Personally I would play him, but I hate to see players going out on loan only to end up in the graveyard waiting for the next transfer window.