Jordan James is set to walk back into St Andrew’s as a Wolves player for the first time on Sunday, and he is not hiding the size of the occasion. The midfielder wants Wolves to leave with three points, even if the trip carries the weight of returning to the club where he spent his early years.
The reason the match is drawing attention now is simple: James has already started to settle at Wolves, and he arrives in Birmingham City with a goal behind him. He scored in Wolves’ win over Stoke City at Molineux last Saturday, a finish he called class and one that came after a spell he described as two weeks of getting used to the lads and the coaching staff.
That form matters because James said he was probably not match-fit when he first arrived, after a long six weeks out in France for pre-season. He has since said he feels really good over the past few games and is ready to keep building, which gives Sunday’s match a sharper edge than a routine return to a former club.
James also knows exactly what St Andrew’s means to him. He was at Birmingham City since he was eight years old and spent his early 12 years there, so this is not just another away fixture. He said it will feel weird at first, and that it was probably the first one he looked for in the calendar because the club gave him the platform to perform at such a young age.
There is a personal layer to that history, too. James said he moved into Wolverhampton because it was probably too far to keep going back home to Hereford, though he goes back as often as possible and calls himself a home boy who likes being near family. He also said scoring his first home goal on his home debut was right in front of his family, a detail that explains why the move and the return carry more than footballing meaning for him.
He has tried to keep the emotion in check, at least in public. James said he hopes for a good reception and is looking forward to seeing familiar faces, including his parents, but he is fully focused on taking all three points from Birmingham City. That is the friction in this fixture: the return is personal, yet the result is what matters to him most.
For Wolves, that makes Sunday less about sentiment than momentum. James has already shown what he can offer in the box and in deeper areas, and if he carries on the way he has started, the first return to St Andrew’s could end with the same kind of statement he made at Molineux last weekend.
