Birmingham City are a shadow of the club that spent a lot of the 2000's in the top flight, and this season they're fighting to stay in the second tier of English football.

Fans of the club haven't seen Birmingham in League One since 1995, and the club will be hoping to keep that run going but there will need to be a collective effort from the team and new manager Lee Bowyer to get them away from trouble in the run-in.

The Blues have done some bad business over the years, which is probably why they are now at the lower end of the Championship table and have been for the last few years.

But even when they were in the Premier League, some bad deals were made and players who looked good on paper turned out to be anything but for the Midlands club.

Let's take a look at nine players who flopped in a Blues shirt - do you agree?

An Ajax academy graduate, De Ridder arrived in England in 2007 from Spain, having been at Celta Vigo for two years.

De Ridder barely played in the previous season at Vigo so it looked like a strange signing on paper, and that's exactly what it proved to be.

He didn't make his full debut until October and his last appearance came in the FA Cup in January 2008 - he sat out the rest of the season on the sidelines until his contract was terminated by mutual consent.

De Ridder ended up moving on to Wigan Athletic but made no impact in the north west either - the only saving grace for Birmingham was that he didn't cost them a penny in transfer fees.

Howard's career is best-known for his days at Barnsley as their creative midfielder, especially during their 2008 FA Cup run where they beat both Liverpool and Chelsea - Howard scoring the winner at Anfield.

A very good second tier talent at his peak, Howard was past that when he arrived at Birmingham in January 2014, having been at Bulgarian side CSKA Sofia for a few months prior.

Howard did score early on in his Blues career in a 3-3 draw with Derby, but only ended up playing five games for the club as a series of injuries put him out of action.

He wasn't good enough for Blues at the time though and it spoke volumes when a year after he signed for the club, he was in non-league with Eastleigh.

Birmingham had success with one Danish striker in the mid-2000's on loan from Arsenal - his name was Nicklas Bendtner - and nine years later the Blues raided the country directly to sign Brock-Madsen from Randers.

The striker wasn't exactly prolific in his home nation but he had potential which led to the club spending £500,000 on him - it proved to be wasted cash.

Brock-Madsen made eight appearances in his first season and he just wasn't quite up to the level that was needed - he spent the next three seasons out on loan in Poland, Holland and Scotland before departing St Andrew's in 2019 for a return to Denmark without scoring a goal for the club and without appearing since 2015.

Gronkjaer is a cult hero at Chelsea FC with his goal on the final day of the 2002/03 season against Liverpool sealed them Champions League football for the following campaign, which led to the Roman Abramovich takeover - Birmingham fans though don't have as fond memories.

The Dane had featured regularly in his final season at Stamford Bridge but after an influx of new talent under Abramovich, Gronkjaer was pushed out and signed for Birmingham in 2004 for £2.2 million.

The winger lasted just five months in the Midlands, playing 16 times and struggling, with his only goal coming in a League Cup tie against lower league side Lincoln City.

For a player that promised so much, Gronkjaer delivered very little.

Maybe this one could be described as harsh to call a flop, but Jota definitely didn't deliver as much as he was expected to.

With Harry Redknapp calling the shots in the summer of 2017, Blues went on a transfer spree and in came Jota from Brentford for £6 million, an eye-watering fee at the time for a Championship club to pay but the Spaniard was prolific the season prior, scoring 12 goals in 21 outings.

Jota was in and out of the team under next manager Steve Cotterill before Garry Monk gave him a boost when he came in through the door, ending his first season on a high.

Jota did get nine assists in the 2018/19 season but his performances were still wildly inconsistent, and for £6 million Blues fans thought they were getting a lot more than they did.

In the end, a deal was done between Birmingham and rivals Aston Villa to swap Jota and Gary Gardner - which re-united the Spaniard with his former boss at Brentford Dean Smith.

As a young striker in his native Argentina for Rosario Central, Figueroa was prolific and it saw Birmingham purchase him in the summer of 2003 for £2.5 million.

A contract wrangle with Spanish side Osasuna meant that his signing wasn't officially done until October that year, and after scoring many times for Birmingham's reserve side, manager Steve Bruce refused to use him in the first team due to his physique.

Figueroa made just two first-team appearances in his one and only season at St Andrew's - his contract was cancelled in 2004 and must go down as one of the stranger purchases in Blues history.

A small but tricky forward player, Blake had played good football for both Bradford City and Burnley over the years, and it was at the Clarets where he impressed so much over the years prior that Birmingham made a mid-season move for him in 2005.

Then a Premier League club, Birmingham paid £1.25 million for the 29-year-old, ending a four-year personal absence from the top flight for the player after relegation with Bradford in 2001.

Blake never got the playing time he wanted though, making just 11 appearances in his half-season with the Blues and scoring twice, before he was sold in the summer to Championship side Leeds United as he wanted more game-time and he wasn't going to get it at Birmingham with the likes of Emile Heskey ahead of him.

Lee joined Birmingham in March 2013 at a time when Lee Clark was manager, and with Clark being former team-mates with Lee's father, Rob, it must have been a favour to bring him to the club.

Then a 21-year-old, Lee was at League Two side Barnet at the time and wasn't in the team much before Birmingham took him on trial, eventually loaning him in until the end of the season.

To the surprise of many, Lee then signed a permanent deal in the summer of 2013 and actually made 16 Championship appearances that season, but he wouldn't play again following the 13/14 campaign and after a loan spell at Plymouth, he departed the club on a free transfer.

A regular in La Liga for Sporting Gijon, Michel made the move to Birmingham in January 2010 for a fee of £3 million.

Guillem Balague compared him to Javier Mascherano but that proved to be very wide of the mark - the Spaniard never really made an impact at St Andrew's, appearing just nine times in his first half-season at the club.

The 2010/10 season wouldn't be any better as Michel remained rooted to the substitutes bench - manager Alex McLeish preferring to use the likes of Lee Bowyer and Barry Ferguson - and without making an appearance that season Michel departed in January 2011 to AEK Athens on loan and then signed for Getafe permanently - proving to be a waste of money.