The last week or so has been incredibly busy for Blues; a new manager has been appointed, season ticket prices have been confirmed and the new first team kit has been launched. While all of this noise is going on in the foreground, the new financial reality of League One continues to govern just what Knighthead and Blues need to do to remain in the black and on the right side of the rules.
On Thursday afternoon Birmingham City announced that they had appointed Chris Davies as First Team Manager on a four-year contract. The announcement ended what felt like an extraordinarily long recruitment process to replace Tony Mowbray, who was forced to step down due to his continuing ill health.
With the football season now over for Birmingham City, the focus has turned to the summer ahead and the challenges to come in the transfer window. Relegation means that Blues have a whole new set of financial rules to comply with which focus on a different methodology of levelling the financial playing field.
After multiple years of circling the plughole, on Saturday afternoon it finally came. Despite winning against Norwich, Blues found themselves relegated after every one of their rivals also pulled a last day win out of the bag. What should have been a summer of excitement for the future ahead has for now become one of suffering brickbats in the media.
Once again, it’s a last day of the season relegation battle for Blues only this time it’s hard mode; starting from the bottom three. A draw with Huddersfield all but condemned the Terriers to relegation but also means that even a win might not be enough for Blues next weekend if the results don’t go right.
One of the most exciting things to emerge from the Open House event at Birmingham City last week was all the talk surrounding the Wheels project. With the club able to confirm ahead of the event that the Wheels project land was secured, it enabled Tom Wagner and co to go into greater detail about what is ahead.
There are times when I wonder to myself why I put myself through the pain of being a Blues fan. Wednesday night in particular had me scratching my head as to why I let the results of a football team affect my mood so much and why I invest so much emotion in them.
Tuesday night saw Birmingham City hold their second Open House event which carried the theme of “Ambition”. The event was an opportunity for Chairman Tom Wagner and CEO Garry Cook to share plans for the club over the next five or six seasons including the outline of the move to the Birmingham Wheels Site.
The worst kept secret in football was confirmed at midnight last night when Birmingham City made the announcement on their official website that owners Knighthead have acquired the 48-acre former Birmingham Wheels site.
After having threatened to do so for a few weeks, Birmingham City finally fell into the bottom three of the Championship following a 2-1 defeat away to Leicester. A late Leicester winner coupled with an injury time winner for Huddersfield conspired to ensure Blues now lie in 22nd place, one point from safety.
