Birmingham City rivalling Stoke to sign the Championship’s new Jordan Rhodes

Birmingham City and Stoke City are two of the clubs who will be hoping to push much further up the table in the next Championship season after they fell way short of the play-offs.

The Blues, after coming up from League One, finished tenth in the division and nine points adrift of Hull City in sixth, whilst the Potters finished 17th and 18 points behind the Tigers.

Chris Davies and Mark Robins will both be looking to use the upcoming summer transfer windows to build squads that can compete for promotion next term.

Adding more goals to their respective teams will surely be a priority, as no player for Stoke or Birmingham scored more than ten goals in the Championship this season.

Sorba Thomas, a winger, scored ten goals for the Potters, whilst Marvin Ducksch and Jay Stansfield both hit ten goals for the Blues as Davies’ front two.

Stoke and Birmingham battling for Premier League striker

Stansfield scored 20 goals in all competitions in the 2024/25 campaign for Birmingham, but he was unable to bring that level of goalscoring form over to the Championship.

Now, both clubs are reportedly looking at a Premier League number nine who could eventually become the EFL’s new version of Jordan Rhodes, who has scored 123 goals in 381 second tier games in his career.

According to TEAMtalk, Birmingham City and Stoke City are two of the teams eyeing up a possible swoop for Leeds United centre-forward Joel Piroe in the upcoming summer transfer window.

The report claims that Rangers, Middlesbrough, Birmingham, and Stoke have all shown varying degrees of interest in the Suriname international, who will be allowed to leave Elland Road.

It states that the Whites, who have secured survival in the Premier League, would be willing to cash in on him for a fee of at least £8m, as long as they get a replacement in the door first.

However, it remains to be seen whether or not any of the four interested parties are prepared to pay that much money for the left-footed attacker, or if an initial loan would be something that Leeds would agree to.

What Joel Piroe would offer to Stoke or Birmingham

Both Stoke and Birmingham must push to beat each other to the signing of Piroe because he is the exact profile of player they are both lacking: a prolific goalscorer.

In years gone by, teams wanting to get promoted looked to sign players like Ross McCormack, Chris Martin, Cameron Jerome, and the aforementioned Rhodes.

The Scotland international scored goals in the Championship for Huddersfield, Blackburn, Middlesbrough, Sheffield Wednesday, and Norwich, earning promotion to the Premier League with both Norwich and Boro.

Piroe, who is ten years younger than Rhodes, is well on his way to becoming the Championship’s new version of him with his goal return for Swansea and Leeds in recent years.

The Suriname international has not had many opportunities in the Premier League, starting twice this season, but he was the top scorer in the second tier with 19 goals in the 2024/25 campaign.

Piroe has scored 19 or more goals in three of his four seasons in the Championship and never scored fewer than 13 in a campaign at that level, which shows that he is the reliable goalscorer that Birmingham and Stoke lack.

None of Davies’ or Robins’ players showed this season that they can be as prolific in front of goal as Piroe, which is why he would be a big upgrade for either of them this summer.

Like Rhodes, Piroe looks like he can become the go-to call for any Championship club looking for a prolific and clinical goalscorer to propel them to promotion to the Premier League.

His failure to score a single goal in the top-flight for Leeds suggests that he may not quite be at the right level to make an impact in the top-flight, but Birmingham or Stoke would not complain if his goals get them to the Premier League next season.

That is why spending £8m on Piroe would be money well spent for either team because Leeds spent £10m to sign him from Swansea and he led them to the Championship title as the league’s top goalscorer in his second season at Elland Road.

Birmingham and Stoke both need a reliable number nine to push them into contention for promotion next season, and the Leeds star could be just the man they need to sign, as the striker looks set to become the division’s new Jordan Rhodes.