Coming into the new year, the internet is awash with retrospectives about the year just gone. Best of and worst of lists abound along with listicles of desires for the upcoming 12 months.
Rather than recap things in that manner, I want to give you my personal thoughts about the journey Blues have been on so far as well as the long distance to go until we get to the end of the road.
This time two years ago I was sat in a hotel in Hong Kong anxiously waiting for my suitcase to be returned to me after a little detour via Sao Paulo, Brazil. I’d just had all clear that I was free of the ‘rona and all I needed now was for my luggage to arrive before I could worry about the main event.
At that time, I’d gone to HK on a fairly lowkey trip for one singular reason – to attend the Annual General Meeting being held by what was then Birmingham Sports Holdings.
Sadly, due to the fact I had to hold my shares in that company via a local proxy my element of surprise was non-existent – although it did mean that they had a translator for the Cantonese portion of the meeting available for me.
I already knew that when I asked the question they were going to tell me the club wasn’t for sale. The previous few months had been somewhat traumatic thanks to the failure of bids by Laurence Bassini and Maxco Capital, and I knew it was important that I put it directly to the people in charge in HK that something had to change.
What they didn’t know was that I had already caught wind of another consortium making moves to buy the club, this time headed by Jeremy Dale. And while I was sceptical at that time it would go anywhere due to the pain of what had gone before, we all know what happened.
Fast forward to now.
At the time of writing, I’m once again waiting – this time for a coach to the airport to take me away for a much-needed New Year’s Eve break which has nothing to do with Blues.
Things couldn’t be any more different at St Andrew’s. I got to the Tilton Road Fan Zone at 12:30 on Boxing Day – 2.5 hours before kick-off – and it was heaving.
There was literally nowhere to sit and already getting close to the point where people were deciding against queuing.
And despite the crowds, I managed to grab a chat with one of my current favourite people at Blues, Head of Infrastructure Nick Smith. How nice is it to be able to connect with senior people at the club and just chat pleasantly about how things are going?
I even got a pint with Santa, who promised me three points as I’ve been a (mostly) good boy this year.
And yeah, okay the match wasn’t much to write home about – but it was three more points and a clean sheet against a team that has been a banana skin for us in recent seasons.
I get that despite Blues being on for a record points total there is still room for improvement.
I understand people want to see us play to the full extent of our capability and truly, horribly spank a side – but I’m not sure it’s going to happen.
Right now the whole club is on a journey.
On the pitch we’ve played 28 games already.
In those games we’ve lost three times – four if you count the penalties defeat to Walsall in the Vertu Trophy (which I don’t) – and we’ve failed to score only twice.
We’ve definitely got at least another 28 games to go; a number which could increase further depending on our progress in the FA Cup and Vertu Trophy.
The last season I can remember where we had this sheer quantity of games was the 2011/2 season under Chris Hughton, when we played 62 in total due to our runs in the Europa League and FA Cup.
While we were unbeaten in our last nine league games that season, we drew five of them and by the time the playoffs rolled around I think the squad had properly burned out.
We can’t afford that this year.
It’s important for us to wrap up promotion back to the Championship as quickly as possible and in my eyes if that means winning games as efficiently as possible it’s something I’m going to suck up for now.
Likewise, off the pitch the club is still relatively at the start of a journey to where we could be.
Tom Wagner and Knighthead have done some wonderful stuff to take St Andrew’s from a broken and unloved stadium to a place where I’m inclined to spend more and more time.
That being said, the returns to be gained from further improvements at the club are now diminishing and attention is turning to the Wheels project.
I know that there are some grumbles we’ve not heard much but I think it’s important to understand we’re at a part of the process where a lot of action is taking place behind closed doors.
I’ve been in this situation before and it’s hard – but I believe that it’s worth waiting for.
Back in 2022/3 I was involved in a few projects that I still cannot talk about openly but that I would say helped to build the momentum to a point when Knighthead could complete the deal with the former owners.
I honestly think 2025 is going to be a year of patient building on and off the pitch.
I’m not sure if we’ll make the same splashes in the transfer market we did last summer but I am sure the background work done last year in recruitment will give us a better and better chance of making transfers successful.
And as much as I want the 100 points / 100 goals combo, you better believe I’ll be happy if we bore our way to the title winning every game from hereon in 2-0.
Off the pitch is going to be similar.
I hope people can see not only the work that has been done, but the response to issues and problems from the club. It’s clear to me that when they receive feedback they’re taking it on board and wherever needed, making changes to improve things.
We might not see what is happening with the Wheels project for some time yet, but I think we can trust in the process.
While I won’t be at the game today, you’d better believe I’ll be hoisting a pint to the Blues; not just to the club and the owners but to the Blues fans I have met along the way who have wished me well and have helped given me the strength to keep going.
The truth is that while people give me praise for writing stuff and trying to keep people informed – if no one had read this blog or Often Partisan it wouldn’t have ever worked.
Keep right on, and I wish you all the wealthiest, healthiest and above all happiest 2025 possible.
ps if you want to contribute to my holiday beer fund you can do so at this link: https://ko-fi.com/almajir 😉