BCFC: Cook and Dale

A shock announcement on Thursday afternoon confirmed that Garry Cook has stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of Birmingham City. The 62-year-old from Acocks Green had been CEO since the Knighthead takeover in July 2023 and remains as both a member of the Club’s Advisory Committee and as trustee of the Birmingham City Foundation.

We are Birmingham

In the interim Jeremy Dale will serve as CEO while the search for the next permanent CEO of the club is undertaken.

To read the official announcement made by the club, one can do so at this link.

I’ll be honest, like everyone else I was caught unawares by this announcement.

I’d heard brief mention in the past day or two that Tom Wagner would be in Birmingham on Thursday but I had no idea that it would be in connection with Cook stepping down.

And like everyone else, the sudden nature of the announcement left me scratching my head as to what is going on in B9.

It made what was a busy day in my regular job just a little bit busier due to the volume of messages I received from other people trying to figure out what was happening.


Why has Cook stepped down?

The big question from most people was just why Cook had chosen right now to walk away from the club.

The team is at the halfway point of both the January transfer window and the league season, and I can understand that there is a feeling in some quarters that this is a strange time for Cook to want to leave.

While in honesty I did believe that Cook’s tenure at Blues wouldn’t necessarily be a prolonged one, I’d assumed that the former Man City and Nike man would at least have stayed until the club was promoted back to the Championship.

With this in mind, I can understand that there is some speculation as to the cause of his departure.

One theory I’d seen advanced from some fans that it might be connected to the resolution of the charges brought against his former club Manchester City with relation to financial fair play; something that is due to be announced in the near future.

Another worry was that Cook was facing a health issue that was leading him to walk away from his job like Tony Mowbray did last year.

From speaking to various contacts on Thursday, I’m confident in saying that neither of those themes of speculation had any truth to them.

Although I don’t know why Cook walked away, the consensus opinion I got was that it was something that was personal to Cook, unconnected to the club and thus none of our business.

And while the decision appears to come out of the blue, I think one of the main reasons that Cook has been allowed to walk away with immediate effect is that there is a natural interim replacement available immediately.

Not only is Jeremy Dale a Blues fan who has been working at the club since the Knighthead takeover, he was implicitly involved in that takeover and thus we can assume has the total confidence of Tom Wagner and Knighthead.

Appointing Dale to an interim role should hopefully allow things to be a smooth transition going forwards.


Is there any cause to worry?

In the past when an officer at CEO / Chairman level has stepped down it’s often been connected with a sea change at the club or it’s owners.

Since I started writing Often Partisan the club has seen six departures of staff at that level, and with at least two it’s caused ripples that have affected the club from top to bottom.

Back in December 2014 Peter Pannu quit his positions at Birmingham City before being fired from his positions as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Birmingham International Holdings (as it was then) three days later.

Things were very different then; Pannu’s indiscreet comments on my website ensured that his position with the club and the holding company became untenable.

Within two months or so the animosity between the warring factions of the HK company board were so bad the whole company was forced into Receivership, paving the way for the eventual sale of the club to Paul Suen Cho Hung.

In May 2021, Ren Xuandong stepped down from his role as CEO at Blues having been under a huge amount of pressure following the sacking of Aitor Karanka.

That departure brought about a lot of relief for fans but also caused ripples within the club.

There had been feelings in some quarters that some of the staff appointed by Ren had achieved their position more through being amenable than through real merit, and I can imagine that there might have been some nervousness from some of those staff that they would retain their roles.

The good news is that this time I don’t think that there should be any cause to worry.

While it’s undeniable that there are staff in roles at the club with connections to Cook in his previous roles, I believe that these staff have integrated themselves into the club in such a manner that Cook’s departure will have no effect on them whatsoever.

Indeed, I think the fact that Blues are able to bring in Dale in an interim role should help make the transition from the Cook era as smooth as possible.

And in honesty, this is imperative. Blues face a busy few months as the season comes to a conclusion and it’s imperative that everyone continues as they have been.


The future

While Saturday’s game against Exeter City is the only league game Blues will play at home in January, from February things get hectic in B9.

In a space of 39 days between February 1 and March 11 Blues play at home eight times.

Throw in the possibility of home ties in the Quarter Finals and the Semi Finals of the Vertu Trophy in February and the fixture calendar at St Andrew’s looks insanely crowded.

On the pitch the run of games is going to be pressure on Chris Davies and the squad, but off it the pressure is going to land squarely on the shoulders of Jeremy Dale.

Blues are going to have to find a way to ensure that as many match tickets as possible are sold for those games, as well as maximising revenue from hospitality and commercial partners.

That is not going to be easy, particularly as the financial climate still isn’t great at the moment for many.

Likewise while all that is going on, Dale is going to have to work hard to make sure that commercial plans are in place for our potential return to the second tier next season.

Profit and Sustainability Regulations mean that should Blues go up, they will need to continue pushing up revenues to allow the club to continue to invest on the pitch.

On that front I think Cook has big shoes to fill and I’m interested to see the approach Dale takes as I believe he’s a very different kind of person.


Although it came as a surprise to everyone, with staff at the club being unaware until the news dropped, I think this is one of those things that Blues can quickly move on from.

It’s nice that unlike previous eras, Cook leaves us with the club in a better place than he found it – at least on a commercial level.

For too long we’ve had to put up with incompetence at the top levels at St Andrew’s and while I’m no fan of buzzwords like “world class” and “no fear”, I really believe we owe Cook a debt of gratitude.

I hope you’ll join me with wishing him well in whatever he does next.