Blues’ final match of 2018 finished in a dour draw yesterday to bring what has most things considered been a successful year for the club. The turn of a new year is a time for reflection on what has passed and thoughts for the future, and in that vein I thought I would share mine.
Birmingham City made it two wins in two over the Christmas period with a well fought victory over Stoke City. Jacques Maghoma and Omar Bogle both scored Christmas crackers of goals as the Potters succumbed to their first defeat since losing to Blues back in October.
Anyone monitoring Birmingham City’s social media feeds in the last few months can’t help but notice the amount of work the club is currently doing in the community. From delivering surprises to children and food to the homeless, to planting trees in remembrance of those that have fallen, Blues players and Garry Monk have been actively showing that they care about stuff off the pitch as much as on it.
Birmingham City finally ended their winless start to the season on Saturday with a 2-1 win over Leeds United at Elland Road. A brace from Che Adams was enough to secure victory for Garry Monk’s men against his former club and lift Birmingham City in the Championship standings to 17th.
Birmingham City let a two-goal lead slip to draw with Nottingham Forest 2-2 at the City Ground on Saturday. The performance of Lee Camp in goal – particularly for Forest’s second – has once again reignited calls from some fans to reintegrate either David Stockdale or Tomasz Kuszczak into the first team setup.
News broke this afternoon on Twitter that three members of the senior management team at Birmingham City have left the club. John Percy of the Telegraph reported in a tweet that chief financial officer Roger Lloyd, financial controller Gary Moore and club secretary Julia Shelton have all left St Andrew’s.
On Thursday evening the EFL and Birmingham City Football Club released a statement on their respective websites confirming that Kristian Pedersen was now registered as a player and that the transfer embargo was ended. After a fairly long summer of waiting, is this now happily ever after as far as the whole embargo thing is concerned?
Public statements appear to be like buses – we don’t see anything for ages and then boom two follow each other in a matter of minutes on Monday. Statements from an EFL spokesman and the club on their official website confirmed what we have known for some time – that Blues are embargoed and are at an impasse with respect to sorting it out.
The pressure on Birmingham City CEO Ren Xuandong has really ratcheted up in the last couple of days after Birmingham City boss Garry Monk finally broke his silence on the transfer embargo. Monk spoke to the press following the open training at St Andrew’s Trillion Trophy Stadium on Wednesday to confirm his hopes that the embargo would be lifted soon.
Another week rolls around and Birmingham City appear to be no closer to achieving a resolution in their current transfer embargo. With the season drawing near this has caused some fans to panic online – but are their fears founded?
