Birmingham City dropped a bombshell announcement on Monday evening, confirming that the club was looking to restructure the club’s Academy, replacing younger age groups with “B”and “C” teams in a model similar to that at Brentford. The club cited pressures such as Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic forcing them to revaluate the way the club recruited players.
Reports broke on Thursday that Birmingham City’s Academy Manager Kristjaan Speakman is in talks with League One outfit Sunderland to become their new Technical Director. Should Speakman leave it will end a 14 year association with Blues having joined the club as a coach from Derby County in 2006.
On Wednesday national coronavirus restrictions came to an end in England, with the country returning to a tiered system. With the government allowing limited numbers of spectators to attend PL and EFL matches at stadiums within Tier 1 and Tier 2, football clubs are now quickly working to get supporters back in the ground. While St Andrew’s remains in Tier 3, there is a question of how this will affect Blues when Birmingham moves into a lower state of alert.
Following accusations made by various Portuguese coaches against Blues CEO Ren Xuandong in October 2017 regarding financial negligence, it can be exclusively revealed by this website that there are 14 current court orders issued from various courts in China against Ren in connection with his failed venture Winning League.
Friday night saw Birmingham City play out a dull 0-0 draw with fellow St Andrew’s tenants, Coventry City. In a game of few chances, Lukas Jutkiewicz came closest to scoring for Blues, hitting the bar with the ball and the post with his head. While things are nowhere near as bad as the “Project Restart” shitshow in June and July, there is a suggestion that the honeymoon period is now well and truly over for Aitor Karanka.
Birmingham Sports Holdings confirmed in an announcement on Monday to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange the date of an Extraordinary General Meeting to approve the partial sale of BCFC to Oriental Rainbows Ltd. The sale would see Chinese-Cambodian businessman Vong Pech become the largest shareholder in the club.
The Birmingham Mail reported on Sunday morning the departures of various staff from the club in a new round of redundancies. The departures from the backroom staff include Head of Media Colin Tattum, First Team PA Rita Greenaway and PA to the Board Suzanne Smith. While things on the pitch have improved so much, are things so positive behind the scenes?
Birmingham Sports Holdings produced their annual report on Thursday, covering the year to June 30, 2020. The glossy 162-page brochure is published to give shareholders information on the company including the recent accounts published along with some further detail.
Defeat to Norwich City at Carrow Road on Tuesday evening extended Birmingham City’s winless run to five games. Chances were at a premium for Blues and the sending off of Adam Clayton for a second bookable offence turned out to be the prelude to the only goal of the game. Yet there are reasons that Blues fans should be patient.
The Market Misconduct Tribunal sanctioned Paul Suen Cho Hung along with five fellow former directors of CMBC Capital Holdings Ltd on Friday for insider trading. At the hearing held last week, Suen admitted negligent conduct that resulted in CMBC Capital’s breach of requirements of the corporate disclosure regime and was fined HK$900,000.
