Jay Stansfield reveals Birmingham City factor he got a lot of "stick" for | OneFootball

The young forward received a lot of abuse from opposition supporters this season.

Jay Stansfield has revealed that he sought help to deal with the "stick" that he got from opposition supporters throughout the 2024/25 campaign over the money that Birmingham City paid for him last summer.

Despite all of the big movement in the Premier League, the deal that saw Stansfield leave Fulham and sign for Blues was arguably the biggest story of the summer window.

Birmingham had already broken the League One transfer record before they acquired the forward on Deadline Day, but they absolutely shattered it when they agreed a deal with the Cottagers for the then-21-year-old.

Birmingham Live report that City agreed to pay £12 million for Stansfield, while The Athletic believe the figure to be between £12-15 million plus some heavy add-ons on top of that.

The report that really started all the fuss, though, came from The Daily Telegraph's Sam Dean, who said Stansfield was bought for £15 million guaranteed and that £5 million of potential add-ons were also included in the deal.

Jay Stansfield reveals he sought help to deal with price tag "stick"

His 19 goals in the third tier, nine of which came from the penalty spot, weren't enough to quiet the hecklers who felt City had paid way over the mark for him, and Stansfield has now revealed that he eventually resorted to consulting people who could help him deal with the pressure of his situation.

"I wouldn’t say it weighed heavily on me, but I got to a point in the season where I thought this is getting difficult so I’m going to have to find a way to manage it," revealed the striker on the abuse he faced, via Birmingham Live. "I spoke to specialists around the club because they know how to deal with big pressure moments.

"Getting that help from a football psychologist, learning how to deal with different things, has been a big help for this season. It has been tough getting absolutely hammered every game for no reason."

He added: "They’re the only ones that are on my side at the moment. When I first came there was a lot of noise around it and I’ve taken some stick for it, that’s just part of the game and I think I’ve dealt with it quite well this season and done my talking on the pitch."

Jay Stansfield's price tag abuse was inevitable, unfortunately

It was always going to be hard for the former Exeter City loanee to ever live up to his price tag in the eyes of some non-Blues supporters. There has rarely been such an easy stick to beat a player with than that of the money paid for Stansfield last summer and, as fans often do, it was fully used against him.

This should have been, and probably was, seen a mile off by the player and his camp. It's just a bit of a surprise that the support that he needed wasn't there from the moment his move to Birmingham was made permanent.