In my head, it feels a bit wrong to write this piece.
After all, in many ways today is the first day of the new pre-season. Players are returning to for testing ahead of the pre-season workouts.
There’s already two new recruits in Tyler Roberts and Koji Miyoshi, with the proimise of more to come.
In B9 the repairs to St Andrew’s Stadium are continuing, while behind the scenes the staff are readying the kit reveal for the new season.
We’ve already had a clue that the new sponsors are going to be American clothing brand Undefeated – itself a decent coup and in my eyes a far better shirt sponsor than our brethren across the expressway who are making one last dash for that Asian bookmaker money.
Yet while all this goes on, there is that elephant in the room.
I probably don’t have to take a screenshot of my various social media and email inboxes to convince you of the sheer number of readers of this website asking me about the status of the takeover process.
As it stands, we’re seven days away from the target deadline for the circular of June 30.
As per previous announcements, Birmingham Sports Holdings aims to produce a circular for shareholders informing them of the full details of the proposed deal with Shelby Companies Limited.
If they cannot do that they will have to make an announcement extending the deadline further.
Everyone out there seems to want to know the same thing.
Do I know when the Circular is coming out? Or are the HKSE going to throw a spanner in the works and delay things further?
It’s a question I cannot answer in any satisfactory manner.
To blithely say everything is fine and that we’ll definitely get the Circular in the next seven days would be disingenuous of me.
I have a strongly held belief that I don’t want to ever make a promise I don’t know for sure I can keep and to make a statement that everything will be fine for definite flies in the face of that.
On the flip side, I don’t want people to panic needlessly. I don’t want people to be pessimistic and think “what if”, because I do hope and believe that there won’t be a delay.
Being negative in the face of all the good stuff that is happening isn’t going to help anyone right now.
The opacity of the way things work is annoying but necessary.
I’ve said it all the way through this transaction since the end of last season that this is a complex legal process.
Maybe some fans have been spoiled by promises of others, but there was never ever going to be a quick takeover – especially bearing in mind the nature of how the shares will be split and what levels of control the EFL and the HKSE require.
The only thing I can offer is that we are seeing the effects of a continuing procedure happening in front of us.
Documents shared on social media on Wednesday regarding a General Meeting of Birmingham City plc shareholders are indicative of this.
While that meeting was in essence one to help tidy up some of the details surrounding the way the club is administered, one has to hope it also helps to iron out further any ambiguities the HKSE might be concerned about.
We must also draw comfort that some of the things we were concerned about are being addressed.
I will freely admit I had a worry in the back of my mind that the stadium repairs wouldn’t go ahead as planned, but the pictures from the club confirm that is very much happening.
Likewise, I think some of the worries about the state of the squad in the new season will lessen with Blues making moves in the transfer market.
The signing of Koji Miyoshi on a Bosman free transfer from Royal Antwerp raises hopes that maybe Blues will have been able to cast their net further in the hunt for new players – and that the chances of picking up some unpolished gems are raised.
So, while I don’t have definitive answers, I have hope.
I hope that fellow Blues fans can find the faith to believe in the same way I am.
With a bit of luck, this time next week we’ll be talking about the formalities that are to come – and all the worry of the past few months will be over.