Ged Scott and Richard Wilford
BBC Sport England
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Birmingham City have long since been installed as pre-season favourites for promotion from League One - even before this summer's comparatively lavish spending spree at St Andrew's@Knighthead Park.
It certainly helps fuel the early August optimism that one of those nine signings - 31-year-old Alfie May - is a striker with such a proven track record at third-tier level.
May will go into Saturday teatime's 29,000 sold-out St Andrew's opener against Reading - new boss Chris Davies's first competitive game in charge - on the back of a pre-season run of five goals in six matches.
May was League One's top scorer last season, with 23 for Charlton Athletic, hit 20 the season before for Cheltenham Town in a relegation-bound team - and also hit 23 for the Robins in 2021-22, as well as scoring 13 times in their League Two promotion-winning campaign the year before.
It all adds up to a career haul of 119 goals for a player who did not kick a ball in the English Football League until he was 23 - he was involved in framing windows rather than transfer windows.
“The first goal is always the important one," said May, like any true goal poacher. "You chip off and people say it’s only pre-season, but I like to score. It’s a good feeling.
“I still think I’m 26 or 27. It’s my game. It’s what I like to do . . . running around harassing defenders and keepers and seeing if they’ve got a mistake in them.
"It’s my job and that’s what’s probably got me a lot of goals. Otherwise I’d have carried on being a timber framer."
Gravesend-born May's main job in his late teens and early 20s, when most young hopefuls are trying to make their way in the game, was being part of the family timber-framing business in Kent, whilst he supplemented his earnings scoring goals in non-league with the likes of Bromley and Farnborough.
But Darren Ferguson took a chance with him at Doncaster Rovers in January 2017 - and, although his goal tally of 23 goals in 115 games was comparatively meagre to what he has done since, it got the ball rolling.
"I loved my job working with my brother and my family," he said. "It’s a family-run business.
Image source, Rex Features
"I went for a couple of trials when I was 21 and I didn’t get them. But, when I was 23 I got a trial at Doncaster and my brother just sat me down and told me I needed to start making a decision and that I couldn’t just keep going for trials and not succeeding.
"He was supporting me all the way, don’t get me wrong. Luckily enough, Darren Ferguson was the man who gave me that chance and opportunity.
"Now I’m sat here going into the new season with ambitions of promotion and going to the next level. But it’s not going to be easy. As a group we know that.
“Everybody fights. They want to stay in this league. You can go to a bottom-of-the-league team, they get an early goal and then they’re hard to break down.
"It’s down to us to turn up every single day in training, and in every single game for the next 10 months, and make sure we get that end goal.
"The project the gaffer and Craig Gardner spoke to me about is incredible.
"The ambition and where they want to go this year, the next year and the year after.
"They really want to put a marker down and I want to be involved in that.
"Before I finish football and retire I want a chance in the Championship and see if I can do it there.”
Alfie May was talking to BBC Radio WM sports editor Richard Wilford
Chris Davies: The Blues boss's summer business
"We need energy up there," Blues boss Davies told BBC Radio WM. "It's critical. And Alfie gives us that. He enjoys that side of the game but you also need the intelligence of knowing when to press and when to block and he's been doing that well.
"Some 31-year-olds play like it. But he's full of energy, a real popular character about the place. He wants to win. I'd really like him to achieve that next level and I hope he can do it with us."
But May is just one of nine potential debutants when Davies pins up his first team sheet, plus substitutes on Saturday.
The arrival of Icelandic midfielder Willum Thor Willumsson on a four-year deal from Dutch side Go Ahead Eagles was the first of two weighty seven-figure transfers inside 24 hours for big-spending Blues, who then signed Austrian centre-back Christoph Klarer from German Bundesliga 2 side Darmstadt.
American-owned Birmingham also paid a seven-figure sum for Hearts full-back Alex Cochrane, as well as undisclosed fees for May and winger Emil Hansson.
They offset the loss of veteran John Ruddy to Newcastle United by signing two keepers, Ryan Allsop from Hull City and Bailey Peaco*ck-Farrell from Burnley.
And they rounded off their pre-season activity with moves for two midfield players from Premier League clubs, Brighton's Marc Leonard, also for an undisclosed fee, and Fulham teenager Luke Harris on loan.
Related Topics
- Birmingham City
- League One
- Football
