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With Blues down to the bare bones, time for young man to be given the chance to shine – Opinion

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It’s almost like we’ve been cursed with this latest spate of absences.

It probably came as a trade-off when Pep Clotet was announced as head coach. We get stability in one position, so we have to trade it off for instability at another one.

First club captain Harlee Dean was suspended for his role in the scuffle at the end of the Cardiff City game, then as soon as he comes back Marc Roberts suffers an injury, followed up shortly by another one to Chelsea loanee Jake Clarke-Salter.

Now heading in to tomorrow’s game with Queens Park Rangers, it looks as if we are down to the bare bones, with Dean set to partner Wes Harding at the back for Clotet’s side. However, I personally think that this is the perfect game for us to introduce a relatively new name into the fold, and that’s Geraldo Bajrami.

We’ve documented before on Vital Birmingham that he should be considered for more game time in the first-team, with Clotet revealing back in October that the 20-year-old has been training with the senior side on a regular basis. Now I believe is the time that he finally makes the step up into first-team football that he richly deserves.

When we did a little fact file on him back in September, we pointed out that he has the maturity to make the step up, as captain of the U23 side, so Championship football shouldn’t come across as too intimidating for him, and with the fans very much on his side he’ll be starting off with plenty of confidence that he can perform the role.

So instead of going with Harding, I hope that Clotet goes with the young Albanian to partner Dean in the middle of defence. Whilst it’s probably too early in the season to be talking about being in a ‘relegation battle’, the Blues do find themselves well clear of the bottom three, so can afford to experiment a little bit with personnel.

Should the Blues call up Bajrami straight into the starting eleven?

Yes

No

Get the experience under his belt as early as possible, and let’s see what he’s made of.

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