Relegation to League One a ‘blessing in disguise’ for Birmingham City
An amazing start to life in League One.
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00:00Here on to Birmingham City, obviously we mentioned, you know, League One can be a bit of a slippery
00:06slope for a few sides over the years, you know, Sunderland struggled for multiple years,
00:12you know, the likes of Huddersfield have gone down there now, Wigan, Reading, Bolton, you
00:17know, it can be a league where you do actually struggle to get out if you don't have the
00:20financial backing. Blues have made numbers of records this year in terms of the expenses
00:27put into a League One side. Wrexham are obviously flying as well, but they have lost the game,
00:32Blues haven't. How impressed with Birmingham City have you been so far?
00:38So impressed. I mean, they should be performing at this level with the amount of money they've
00:42spent, but they've still had a tough job to integrate so many new faces and changing the
00:47culture at the football club, the winning mentality. It's easier said than done, especially
00:51when you've got such a new group of players who don't have to be committed to the course
00:55straight away. And in modern football, especially, you get people carried away with the money
01:00aspect of it, social media expectations, individual expectations as well, but they've got a real
01:06togetherness that's formed and Chris Davies, the new manager has played a big part in that.
01:11Never had any senior management experience before. He's always been an assistant to the
01:15likes of Brendan Rogers and Andrew Bosticoglou, but he's used that experience well to take
01:20into management himself and a great leader, very clever tactician as well. Not afraid
01:25to change things up depending on the game, not afraid to make substitutions, which is
01:29something that I think Blues fans will be quite refreshed with. Last year, maybe a little
01:33bit too stubborn late in games to not make changes. This year, they are making those
01:37changes when they need them and they're stepping up under the pressure as well. That Wrexham
01:40game at St Andrews, packed out on a Monday night. The world is watching quite literally.
01:46David Beckham was there, Tom Brady, Rob McElhenney. Blues, they went behind early, but they stayed
01:51focused and they got that 3-1 win. They look like they should run away with the league.
01:56If they can be unbeaten as well, that would be amazing. But of course, it's still early
01:59doors. They've got to keep their focus and carry on their form.
02:02You mentioned about the culture shift and how dark things were over the last few seasons.
02:10We ourselves mentioned and said maybe relegation is something they needed. Is that coming to
02:15light now that maybe this is just a bit of a blessing in disguise, a breath of fresh
02:19air and they can really reset and go again in terms of having a real good go at this
02:24league, maybe get a trophy, get up, get some positive morale going through and then maybe
02:29even go straight for the Championship play-offs, for example, in the future?
02:33It sounds crazy, but relegation is the best thing that could have happened to Birmingham
02:37City Football Club. And also maybe apart from the ownership situation, that really needs
02:40to change. But everything was just so repetitive every year, just about staying up, just about
02:46being average enough, not even good enough to stay in the Championship. They're relegated.
02:50It feels like the world's crumbling around them, but really it's being rebuilt. And obviously
02:55the money brought in and there's a record spending. A lot of clubs don't like it, but
03:00they have sold well as well, due to Bellingham a few years ago. They had an extra fee coming
03:05when he went to Real Madrid. Jordan James being moved on, the fee for that was actually
03:09a lot higher than what's been reported. So they have had that financial income. It's
03:13not just been thrown out of clean air and they've done their business cleverly. They
03:18have spent a lot of money on individuals, but you've got to, if you want to future-proof
03:23yourself, they're not just throwing money at it just to get promoted. They've got many
03:26years in mind and I think it's a really strong approach.