When Birmingham City opted to sign Cheick Keita from Italian side Virtus Entella in January 2017, they would have been hoping that he would help them reach new heights in the Championship.

However, despite initially making a positive start to his Blues career, it is fair to say that the 23-year-old has ultimately failed to live up expectations at St Andrew's.

After featuring on 10 occasions during the second-half of the 2016/17 campaign, Keita was loaned out by Birmingham to Serie A outfit Bologna.

Instead of being given the opportunity to play regular first-team football, the defender's temporary spell with the Rossoblu was hampered by injury as he made just three league appearances before returning to St Andrew's in 2018.

Following the arrival of Kristian Pedersen, Keita fell further down the pecking order at Birmingham and thus was allowed to leave the club once again before the start of the 2018/19 campaign.

During his spell with Belgian side Eupen last season, he managed to illustrate some fleeting signs of promise as helped the club achieve a 12th place finish in the Jupiler Pro League.

However, despite this relatively successful stint, Keita has been forced to watch on from the sidelines for the entirety of the current campaign.

With his contract set to expire this summer, it will be intriguing to see if Birmingham opt to extend his stay.

Here, in our latest spotlight article, we assess whether Keita's time with the Blues may be coming to an end by taking a look at his overall statistics for the club.

Utilised primarily as a full-back by the Blues during his time at the club, Keita has struggled to cope with the competitiveness on show in the Championship over the past few years.

During the 11 appearances that he has made in the second-tier for Birmingham, the former Virtus Entella man has only managed to win 53.3% of his defensive duels.

Whilst team-mate Pedersen has illustrated that he is more than capable of thriving at this level, Keita's inability to deliver the goods on a consistent basis has led to him registering this aforementioned statistic.

As well as only being able to record 18 interceptions, the defender has triumphed in just 32.3% of his aerial duels.

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Whereas Keita has shown that he is relatively comfortable whilst in possession of the ball by completing 80.4% of his passes, he has offered a minimal threat when it comes to taking the game the opposition.

Despite being fielded on several occasions as a winger, he has only been able to win 45.5% of his attacking duels which is simply not good enough.

Taking Keita's overall statistics into consideration, it could be argued that it may best for both parties if he is allowed to leave this summer.

Whilst Birmingham will free up some of their wage bill to be used elsewhere, Keita could be given the chance to start afresh at a club who can guarantee him regular playing time.