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Make Way for a New Benitez | 
If there is one team that is secretly thriving in a summer of high-profile transfers, it is Birmingham City. As mentioned by my fellow Premiership Talk writer, Brian Lofrumento, the newly promoted outfit is reportedly pursuing former Arsenal captain Patrick Viera, which is in addition to a handful of other acquisitions made recently. One of these acquisitions is the club’s record signing, Ecuador international Christian Benitez.
Compared to Liverpool’s famous manager Rafa Benitez, this Benitez still needs to be formally introduced to a majority of Premier League fans around the world. While I am sure Christian’s talent will be doing the talking sooner than later, I would like to spend some time highlighting some of this youngster’s accomplishments thus far.
In just a span of two years, Christian went from being a local star in the Ecuadorian league to becoming one of the finest strikers in the history of Mexican Clausura. In his very first year in the Mexican top flight, Benitez was awarded the league’s best player for his brilliant contribution in Santos Laguna’s march to the title. Winning the Clausura title in his very first season made him only the fourth Ecuadorian to ever lift the most prestigious piece of silverware on the CONCACAF club circuit.
The Brummies had spotted their man as early as the beginning of June, when a fee of around 12 million Euros was agreed between the two clubs. However, due to bizarre new issues discovered during his medical examinations, the player had to wait until yesterday to officially be announced as Birmingham City’s record signing.
Based on Christian’s past record, it is only logical to forecast that all he needs to do is to stay healthy and focused as his talent can take care of the rest. The Premier League obviously has its unique challenges, which even world-class strikers like Andriy Shevchenko and Hernan Crespo could not brave. But with age on his side, Christian should be able to make the transition far more, which his new employers would want happening as soon as possible.
Nicknamed “Chucho”, Christian Benitez will be joined at St. Andrews by a host of other names, including his compatriot Giovanny Espinoza as well as the experienced Premier League duo of Stephen Carr and Lee Bowyer. While it is clear that Birmingham City has done a great job of sneakily capturing some great talent, only time will tell if that will be enough for Alex McLeish’s men to survive another season in the English top flight.
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Just to clarify, the issues revealed during his examinations related to mysterious knee problems. All seems fine now…but after all, the other signings of Birmingham City (except for Joe Hart) are low-key in nature, which means a lot of work needs to be done for the Brummies to prove a point!