Birmingham City’s Scott Allan has built an admirable reputation in his short time in the professional game.
The 22-year-old, on loan from West Bromwich Albion, has impressed many with his abilities in the middle of the park since rising through the youth ranks at Dundee United.
Originally intended to fill the midfield void that was left by Ravel Morrison’s return to West Ham, Allan entered the Birmingham set-up in July with high hopes of getting a solid season of Championship football under his belt in preparation for a crack at the Premier League with the Baggies. Unfortunately, in somewhat bizarre circumstances, this has failed to materialise.
The first six weeks of the campaign was fruitful for the Scotland U21’s international, with four appearances and two goals in a scintillating League Cup tie with Plymouth Argyle being amongst the highlights. Then, following the triumph over Swansea at St. Andrews in September, Allan was suddenly dropped from the match-day 18.
He has not featured for the team since.
Information on Allan’s exile is scarce. With no reported injuries, or any evidence of poor form (Allan is still playing – and scoring – regularly for the Birmingham U21’s), there appears to be, on the surface at least, little reasoning behind Allan’s stint in the dark.
Things took an interesting turn for both Allan and the Blues in the January transfer window, when it was reported that the player himself and manager Lee Clark were keen to terminate the season-long loan early, but a refusal by West Brom stunted that plan in its infancy. Clark also added further competition to what would have been Allan’s spot in the team with the loan signings of Manchester City duo Albert Rusnak and Emyr Huws, a move that further implies that Allan has a limited future at the club at best.
So what could be the issue that has kept Allan out in the cold?
Interestingly, the famously honest Clark has remained surprisingly equivocate regarding the status of Allen within his team. Stopping short of naming specific reasons, Clark recently noted in an interview with the Birmingham Mail that the Scotsman ;has to be prepared to do what every other player at the football club is doing and giving everything for the jersey.’
Clark’s comments, ambiguous as they are, almost suggest a lack of interest and/or application on Allan’s part, although this obviously cannot be confirmed. If this is indeed true, it appears that Birmingham have inherited the same unhelpful attributes in Allan that, ironically, were an issue with the aforementioned Ravel Morrison last term.
Happily, Clark is an effective man-manager when it comes to younger talent and, promisingly, he recently claimed that he ‘never shuts the door on anybody.’
With nine games left to save Birmingham’s season, perhaps leaving the door ajar for Scott Allan could be instrumental in staving off the threat of relegation to League One.