Birmingham City take a risk on Benitez

Jun 4 2009 By Andy Walker

“It’s not actually that much money in terms of Premier League standards, you’ve got to bring a player in from abroad to attract anybody,” said Sullivan.

“We’ve been quoted £5million and £10million for very modest players in England. Tottenham brought three pretty good players but not absolute stars in January, they bid £14million for each of them and we can’t compete with that. So we’ve got to sign players who we think have potential.”

Benitez will arrive at St Andrew’s with an impressive goalscoring record, both for Ecuador (10 goals in 17 appearances) and Santos Laguna in Mexico’s Primera Division (31 goals in 58 games).

However, English football history is littered with South American imports who have turned out to be flops, Benitez’s compatriot Agustin Delgado being one such example.

Sullivan admits it’s a gamble but he’s hopeful Benitez can have the same impact that Argentinian Mauro Zarate had during his short loan spell at St Andrew’s last year.

“This is a 23-year-old player who has a strike rate of better than 50 per cent at international level, he’s got a strike rate of 60 or 70 per cent this season at league level but he is a gamble,” added Sullivan.

“He’s a very short player, he’s only 5ft 6in but he’s built like Mike Tyson, he’s called ‘El Chunky’.

“We had a player (Zarate) last year who set the fans alight and we think this player will do the same.”