Jesse Lingard, Jesse Lingard, Jesse Lingard is all everyone is talking about with Birmingham City at the moment. The fans are excited with the “buzz” surrounding the Manchester United loanee and the media have jumped on the bandwagon; but with all this enthusiasm, are we forgetting another midfielder who has started to impress in the last few matches?

Step forward Tom Adeyemi.

Following his release from Norwich City in the summer, the central midfielder joined Blues in a quest for first team football and has recently started to perform well in the royal blue shirt.

Not long after the arrival of the former Bradford, Oldham and Brentford loanee I asked former Blues’ right back and current Norwich first team scout Jerry Gill about the midfielder.

“He’s an athlete and he will be a good acquisition for the club.
“Once they get out of a system it can be a testing time for a player’s career, but this is the time when he needs to step up to the plate and because he has signed for two years, Tom has time to settle and will become a massive success for the club.”

At first I wasn’t really impressed in the first few league games with Adeyemi, but that may have something to do with it being the start of his first season playing in the second tier or above.

However, in recent weeks, during his great performances against Sheffield Wednesday and Swansea City the 21 year old showed a great willingness to go forward and the confidence of someone who was starting to settle in well at the club.

His current form has coincided with the new 5-4-1/3-4-3 formation used by Lee Clark and, in my opinion, is no coincidence. While playing in central midfield with Callum Reilly or Wade Elliott, Adeyemi has been able push forward more frequently and has flourished in a more attacking role, proved by the position he was in to pick up the ball before his goal against Swansea.

With games against Millwall, Bolton and Charlton at home over the next month, it is great to see the likes of Lingard, Burn and Murphy coming in to form before these “must win” fixtures. These are the sort of games where we need our top players to perform to gain vital wins and, at the moment, Tom Adeyemi could well be one of them.

By Oliver Osborn/ The Bluenose Bible