With the season now winding to an end many fans are already thinking about player recruitment this summer. Despite some of the larger player contracts coming to an end, budget constraints are going to make life interesting for John Eustace, Craig Gardner and the rest of recruitment team at St Andrew’s.
It’s been another tough weekend to be a Blues fan. While a 1-1 draw at Wigan arrested a run of defeats, it did nothing to ease relegation fears and Blues remain just seven points clear of the drop zone. Meanwhile, a fire at the training ground on Thursday night / Friday morning was just the latest episode in the shitshow that is Birmingham City FC right now.
The football season may have come to a close, but takeover season appears to have well and truly started. News broke on Saturday morning of an offer for the club brokered by Keith Harris, with journalist Neil Moxley claiming that the deal was close and could be done by the end of the month.
Despite the best efforts of Millwall fans to storm the Kop on Saturday, I think the biggest Birmingham City news over the last few days has been rumours of the club being sold. While rumours of buyers making bids are always out there, this bit of gossip seemed to gain life of its own online.
Saturday saw Birmingham City not only lose 2-0 to Huddersfield Town, but also two players to injury. Montserratian striker Lyle Taylor pulled up in the warm-up to leave Blues with one fit senior striker while Maxime Colin’s injury during the first half ensured Blues now have only one fit defender.
Tom Ross hosted a question-and-answer session with Blues Technical Director Craig Gardner and Club Captain Troy Deeney on Thursday night at the Meadway Sports and Social Club. Having been lucky enough to obtain a ticket in the ballot held a few weeks ago, I attended to listen to what was said and to try to ask some questions of my own about the team.
There are some things about Birmingham City you can take as absolutely nailed on to happen – because it’s Birmingham City. Face a team which has just been humbled by a non-league side in the FA Cup a few days ago? You can guarantee they’ll be on their game for when Blues come to town. Come out of the transfer window with only five senior defenders in the squad? You better believe you’ll lose more than half of them in less than two weeks.
Birmingham City blew a 2-0 lead on Saturday to draw 2-2 with Cardiff City at St Andrew’s. It was a bitter pill for Lee Bowyer to swallow, with the Blues Head Coach admitting that his side weren’t good enough in either box. With 22 games gone Blues lie in 15th place, eight points shy of the playoffs and the same number shy of the drop zone.
It doesn’t feel like that long since the last season came to an end but already the new one is upon us. Players have returned for pre-season testing, three new signings have already been made; and potentially most importantly, Blues have finalised their backroom structure that had been ripped apart by the sacking of Aitor Karanka and his staff and the subsequent departure of former CEO Ren Xuandong.
It looks like the transfer window is kicking into life at St Andrews with purported deals for Rene Krhin from Granada CF and Craig Gardner from West Bromwich Albion edging close to completion. While these transfers and more will be discussed ad nauseum on the internet, I wanted to look at the Krhin deal in particular as a change in focus at Blues.
