Kerys Harrop and Rachel Williams announced their departure from Birmingham City Women this week, adding to a post season exodus which has seen no less than 10 players leave in the close season. With no permanent head coach and a poor season saved by curtailment, the future seems bleak for Blues Women.
Birmingham City crumbled to a 3-0 defeat to Huddersfield Town on Wednesday night at St Andrew’s. The defeat leaves Blues still only seven points above the relegation zone with Hull City to play Middlesbrough this evening. While it is likely that Blues are safe this season, bums around the second city are definitely starting to squeak.
Embattled Trillion Trophy Asia owner Paul Suen suffered another potential setback in Hong Kong last week. Suen, who is the largest shareholder in Birmingham Sports Holdings, quit his role as Non Executive Director at EPI Holdings (689:HK) after a shareholder revolt at the company’s AGM.
Blues limped to their sixth draw in eight league games at St Andrew’s on Saturday against Hull City. A woeful first half saw Blues 2-0 down in quick order, and even though Gary Gardner and Dan Crowley managed to pull Blues level within 15 minutes of the restart it took a late Gardner header for Blues to snatch a point.
June 29 sees Birmingham City midfielder Jude Bellingham turn 17 years old and become eligible to sign professional terms with the club. Ironically, while Bellingham will in theory be able to properly commit his future to the club, his signing of a professional deal will more than likely herald the end of his career at St Andrew’s as other clubs swoop for his services.
It’s only been a week since it was announced that Birmingham City Head Coach Pep Clotet is to step down at the end of the season and the rumour mill is in full flow. There have been a multitude of names already bounced around as potential successors to Clotet in the press and on social media.
Birmingham City confirmed on Monday morning that Head Coach Pep Clotet is to leave the club at the end of the 2019/20 season. The announcement on the official website confirmed that Clotet is to step down and that the club have agreed to allow the Catalonian coach to “pursue other coaching opportunities”.
Previously on this website I’ve written an occasional series of articles regarding Wang Yaohui or “Mr King”. In the last few months I’ve been looking at Wang’s business dealings in the UK to understand fully his modus operandi and wealth.
The EFL confirmed on Sunday that the Championship will restart on June 20 after a three month break due to the outbreak of coronavirus. The restart is provisional and is subject to the strict proviso that all safety requirements and government guidance is met.
Lockdown has entered its seventh week in the UK and the football authorities are still no nearer in working out how to complete the 2019/2020 season. As a consequence, football clubs are facing harder and harder decisions regarding how to sort out their finances, with some having to resort to using the government’s furlough scheme.
