Birmingham City must make a transfer exception for 'transformative' talent

Three of Birmingham City’s five January recruits were on the scoresheet on Saturday.

Juninho Bacuna, Lyle Taylor and Onel Hernandez all found the back of Luton Town’s net - a fact not lost on Lee Bowyer.

Speaking after the game the head coach explained why so many of Blues’ transfer window resources were targeted at offensive weapons, reasoning that he was comfortable with the number of clean sheets his side had kept but unhappy with the lack of goals.

So beyond replacing Dion Sanderson with Teden Mengi, even when Sanderson’s return became a possibility, Blues chose to spend their final loan on an attacking player.

Taylor came in and has hit the ground running with three in four and on Saturday as complete a display of the art of the centre forward as you’re likely to find in the Championship.

Taylor did exactly to Luton what Dominic Solanke had done to Blues three days earlier and his displays so far have left many of us wondering whether Blues should pursue a permanent deal in the summer.

At 31-years-old, the fee and contract length would need to be advantageous to Blues to pursue - and they would probably need to move on one of their existing thirtysomething strikers to accommodate another. It’ll be an interesting discussion.

What isn’t up for the debate, though, is the importance of bringing Onel Hernandez back to the club on a permanent basis.

Most Blues fans’ first experience of the flying Cuban will have been on opening day in 2018 when he ruined Kristian Pedersen’s debut and scored twice in a 2-2 draw with Norwich City.

Since then he has helped the Canaries to two promotions, although his was only a bit-part last season as a torn abductor laid waste to his campaign.

With Norwich back in the Premier League he