Auston Trusty has been named Birmingham City’s player of the season following a supporter vote.
Signed from Colorado Rapids in January 2022, Trusty remained on loan at the MLS outfit before moving to St Andrew’s on loan in the summer.
Given the Championship’s reputation for being one of the most physically demanding leagues in world football, nobody really knew how the 24-year-old centre-back would cope.
As it turns out, he has thrived.
In total, Trusty has made 47 appearances in all competitions, racking up a whopping 4,255 minutes of playing time. Due to a 30-minute spell of extra time in the FA Cup, it actually averages out at more than 90 minutes per game. Along the way, he’s scored four goals and made two assists.
While Birmingham’s form fell off a cliff between December and the end of February, Trusty’s performances on the domestic front led to a first cap for the USA in March where he played alongside Matt Turner in a Concacaf Nations League victory over Grenada.
It remains to be seen whether Arsenal see Trusty as a future first team squad member.
By the looks of things, the £2 million fee paid by Birmingham has covered our initial outlay and his value will have increased considerably. Given he’s left-footed and we only recently recruited Jakub Kiwior, the temptation will likely be to cash in this summer.
That said, we may give him a run out during the Stateside pre-season tour and make a decision closer to deadline day.
For his part, Trusty is open about his ambitions to play at the top, telling the Birmingham Mail: “A lot is to come in the future but as a footballer those are problems you want. It’s all a good thing.
“As a player you want to play with the best, wherever that is. Right now the Premier League is probably the best league in the world so that is obviously the goal for myself and my future.”
Congratulations, great news
Lot of positive stories coming from our loan players. Great to see that side of things also working well, because this was an area definitely in need for some improvement.
As someone who’s seen him play maybe 15 MLS games for the rapids, I wasn’t shocked he could handle the physicality of the league, but to amass so many minutes and win the supporters vote was something I didn’t see coming.
Forgot about this lad, but also thought, wrongly evidently, that he was a full-back. Could he be a useful squad player next season? Maybe not if he favours left centre-back I guess.
He’s been playing at left back for most of the second half of the season. Done quite well in both positions. He deserves a chance in Pre season. We’ll need depth for CL plus of Tierney leaves
This is so impressive. This man was written off from the start. Even if he doesn’t break into the Arsenal team it so satisfying to see the progress he has made.
Have to admit I wondered the motivations of the club in this move. But I didn’t realise he would be loaned out so easily and we would recoup our fee. I have been so burnt by all those squad filler signings on the cheap that killed off the Wenger and Emery like Kolasinac and Perez I was worried we had gone back to that system, where obviously the manager had no part in wanting them. But by all accounts the outcome has worked out very well and he didn’t just sit in our squad to make up numbers, but to… Read more »
Thank goodness our loan operation seems to have improved, the nadir being Gnabry and then losing him.
I can’t see Trusty making it with us, but good luck to him and we should make a few quid out of it.
Loaning Gnabry to Tony Pulis was always going to be a mistake.
I do, however, think he was always going to end up at Bayern one way or another. Look at Leroy Sane too. He was adored at City but as soon as Bayern came calling he jumped ship. That club has huge appeal to the best German players and their sense of entitlement about getting what they want is akin to Barcelona’s.
I trust the board to make a good decision about trusty
Trusty the process