00:00Charlie, looking at Birmingham City, obviously, you know, massive summer window with a lot
00:06of signings to come in. In terms of youngsters throughout their side, you know, there are
00:10still a fair few who are yet to hit their peak and yet to be given their full chance
00:15at Birmingham City. And obviously, with the future looking bright, going hopefully promoted
00:20back to the Championship, they could get their chance in years to come as well. So who sort
00:24of stands out as the standout youngsters when it comes to Birmingham City?
00:29I think there are a few in the ranks at Blues. They've just not quite had the opportunity
00:33just yet to break through because Chris Davies is focused on the here and now and understandably
00:37so the target is to go back up to the Championship at the first time of asking. You do want to
00:42test out these young players, especially in the cup competitions and the EFL Trophy has
00:47given that opportunity, but you don't want to rush them in under too much pressure. So
00:51it will make sense if it maybe takes a little bit longer at Birmingham than it would at
00:55other clubs, especially those in League One in and around that don't have the funds to
00:59spend. So they're kind of forced to call upon their youngsters. That is a good approach,
01:03but it's not anywhere near as successful as the one that Blues are employing. But the
01:07one player that I'm very excited to see a little bit more of is Ayomo Yokoyama. We've
01:12seen the odd appearance here and there in the EFL Trophy, as I mentioned, in League
01:17One as well, but typically off the bench. He's a young Japanese international, plays
01:21off the left-hand side and he's very small. So he's not got much physical presence, but
01:26he's just so quick and agile that whenever he goes up against a defender, they don't
01:30seem to know what to do with him. He can get in behind and as soon as he gets to that byline
01:34and cuts the ball back and you've got someone like Alfie May or Jay Stansfield or Lyndon
01:38Dykes at the end of it, it can quite often end up in the goal. We've seen that already
01:42on a few occasions. And Romel Donovan is another player who can really bring fans off of their
01:47feet. He's currently on loan at Burton Albion, just 18 years of age. Probably the only good
01:53thing to come out of Wayne Rooney's tenure at the club was the fact that he brought Donovan
01:57into the first team. He recognised that talent when Donovan was still just 17 and he's a
02:03really bright spark and he's a raw talent who can take on defenders, pick out a pass
02:07and you might have seen some social media clips as well, dribbling past three, four,
02:12five defenders before putting the ball on the back of the net. He's one of those that
02:16is kind of a street football kind of star. You normally see that in Brazil, but we're
02:20seeing more and more of those coming out from England and Birmingham are no exception. And
02:24then Brandon Koehler as well, the first British South Asian to play for Birmingham City or
02:29at least born in Britain as a South Asian and he's very versatile. He's played in a
02:33variety of positions for Blues so far this season. He's someone that Chris Davies can
02:38call upon when we have injury problems down at St Andrews and his goal at Charlton Athletic
02:45was very promising. Shooting from outside the area, about 25 yards out, picking out
02:49the top corner. Not seeing as much of him as we might have hoped so far, but he's certainly
02:54one that's got a lot of promise and can help Blues for years to come.
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