On Friday Birmingham City filed details of two charges with Companies House, outlining forward financing of payments relating to the Che Adams transfer to Southampton and the Jude Bellingham transfer to Borussia Dortmund. A total of £18M has been used as security for the charges, which show Macquarie Bank’s London branch as the lender.
Plans to allow limited numbers of fans back into stadiums were put on hold on Tuesday as the Government tightened restrictions to prevent the transmission of coronavirus in England. This has dealt a hammer blow to clubs already suffering financially from the lack of gate revenue and adds more worry to fans concerned with how their clubs will cope.
Scott Hogan became the eighth signing of the summer for Birmingham City on Wednesday, arriving on a four year deal from the wrong side of the expressway. Hogan played 18 games on loan at Blues last season, scoring seven goals. With a month or so left of the transfer window, the question now is if Blues need to bring any more players in.
Blues started the 2020/21 Championship season the same way they began the previous one; leaving Brentford manager Thomas Frank angry after beating his side 1-0 with a well-worked header. While there was almost certainly an element of luck in the victory at Griffin Park under Pep Clotet, this season’s curtain-raiser was much more deserved.
A 1-0 defeat to Cambridge United in the Carabao Cup on Saturday meant Aitor Karanka got off to a losing start as Blues Head Coach. With a week until the Championship campaign starts, Karanka has to pick his charges back up and encourage them to believe that they can win.
What started off tentatively with a gif in response to a question from grime star Jaykae seems to have morphed into a semblance of communication from the powers that be. Although it’s still not much more than gifs right now, Blues CEO Ren Xuandong took the time out of his day on Bank Holiday Monday to get new signing George Friend to pass on a nice message to a Blues fan stuck in hospital.
Birmingham City kicked off their pre-season friendlies with a 1-1 draw against Charlton Athletic at Wast Hills. The Blues team was a mix of first team and youthful inexperience with only young keeper Zach Jeacock featured for the full 90 minutes as Blues rotated through their squad at half-time. With less than two weeks until the EFL Cup curtain-raiser against Cambridge United, can people be forgiven for worrying about the thin squad?
It’s taken a few months, but the written reasons for the decisions of the Independent Disciplinary Commission and League Arbitration Panel regarding Birmingham City’s second breach of the P&S rules were finally released on Monday. Blues were initially acquitted of the charge before being found guilty on appeal without any sanction imposed.
Aitor Karanka’s first press conference as Birmingham City head coach was an ode to “sensible, reasonable things” as both the Spaniard and Blues CEO Ren Xuandong spoke of learning from mistakes and long-term futures. Is this the start of something beautiful at St Andrew’s?
Do Not Want. Three words encapsulated in GIF format in reply to Brummie grime musician Jaykae’s plea to “splash the cash” made up the first non-official website communication from Blues CEO Ren Xuandong in six months. Is this a beginning of a social media rapprochement between Ren and Blues fans?
