Birmingham boss Alex McLeish has confirmed that Nigeria striker Obafemi Martins will go straight into the squad for the Blues’ English Premier League game against Manchester City tonight.
The on-loan striker, who on Monday signed for Blues until the end of the season, flew out to Nigeria to resolve some visa issues before he returned to the UK later Tuesday night.
“We’ll check how he (Martins) is in the morning (today), but he’s listed in the squad. We’ll await medical and fitness details,” said McLeish.
McLeish says he is not overly concerned with the 26-year-old’s overall level of fitness, as he has recently completed a pre-season campaign with his Russian parent club Rubin Kazan.
“He’s just done a pre-season training, so although his match sharpness may not quite be at the level of our players; it wasn’t that long ago that he was playing anyway, because they (Rubin Kazan) played Champions League football right up until December, so he’s still had plenty of match practice. He’s not way behind and we’re looking for him to come in and make an impact right away,” he said.
Meanwhile, Birmingham may only have done the one bit of business on Monday but it was a deal that was popular with the fans.
Most of the the Blues’ fans are delighted that the club got the calibre of Martins whom they have watched played in the Premier League before moving to Germany to join Wolfsburg.
Here’s a selection of what they have been saying…
Rumad: Zigic and Obafemi or Jerome and Obafemi is getting me excited! We may win a cup yet.
BlueDan: Fantastic to see players at St Andrew’s who have been subject to such huge transfer fees in the past, Bentley £15m, Martins £18m euros.
It is amazing how far the club has come from the days of Barry Fry running up and down the touchline like a mad man and buying every cheap rubbish player about. Long live the ECK reign.
Standrews: This is a good signing, potentially a very good signing. He has pedigree at club and international level. He has played in Serie A for Inter Milan, and has good Premier League experience with Newcastle United.