Sport Writer Dan Hunt looks back on a turbulent period at Birmingham City both on and off the pitch
Cast your mind back to December 2016. Trump had just won the US election (no, really that time), Rockabye by Clean Bandit was UK Number 1, and Gary Rowett was flying high with Birmingham City. The day before Rowett was sacked, the Blues had won 2-1 against Ipswich, leaving them a point off the play-offs in 8th place.
Fast-forward just over four years later, and Birmingham are on their sixth permanent manager, and find themselves engulfed in a Championship relegation dogfight. The club have come from flirting with promotion to the Premier League to staring down the barrel of relegation to the third division for the first time in almost 30 years.
How has such a drastic change in fortunes occurred? To start with, Rowett was a victim of his own success. He was replaced by Gianfranco Zola in an attempt to prepare for Premier League football. In the owners’ defence, they probably felt a legendary player would bring experience and be a big enough name to attract high quality players to the club.
The Italian had won just two of his 24 games in charge
However, it did not work out. Zola resigned the next April, with the club languishing in 20th after the Italian had won just two of his 24 games in charge. The Chelsea legend was replaced by Harry Redknapp, who led them to safety but was also sacked just five months later.
Cotterill was next and left before the season was out. Only Garry Monk has come close to resuscitating the club’s play-off hopes, but his 18 months in charge ended with a nine-point deduction for breaking Financial Fair Play rules that left them in 17th place. Monk was sacked after reports suggested he had fallen out with club CEO, Xuandong Ren.
Monk’s assistant, Pep Clotet, was initially appointed caretaker manager, but was offered the job on a permanent basis with the promise of implementing an attacking style of play. This came at the expense of results, and the Spaniard was replaced by his steady-handed compatriot, Aitor Karanka, after just one season at the helm.
The financial instability of the club has meant investment in players has been limited
Karanka inherited a depleted squad following the high-profile departures of top scorer Che Adams and wonderkid Jude Bellingham in the summers of 2019 and 2020 respectively. Although these sales brought in decent fees, the financial instability of the club has meant investment in players has been limited, with the recruitment team forced to favour free transfers of older players with Championship experience instead of hot prospects for the future. These players are short-term fixes and have failed this season to find consistent form.
Birmingham City are now 21st in the Championship, winning just seven of their 31 games so far and picking up 31 points. Prior to their latest fixture against Sheffield Wednesday, City endured six games without a win, and their two new signings, Sam Cosgrove and Keyendrah Simmonds have struggled to make an impact.
Despite the apparent doom and gloom, Birmingham still have 15 games to save their season, and undoubtedly have the quality and experience to stay up – if only they can find some form over the next few weeks.
Off the field, though, things remain bleak
Off the field though, things remain bleak. Between 2016 and 2019, Keiran Maguire reported the club paid wages of £109m against an income of just £74m. There also appears to be disagreements around the true financial state of the club, with the board releasing a statement disputing claims made by CEO Xuandong Ren on BBC Radio West Midlands that the club are ‘only forecasting [a] £6.7m loss.’ The board describes the financial predicament to be ‘OK’, saying the CEO’s comments ‘represent the personal views of Mr Ren.’ With even the club’s hierarchy disagreeing on where it stands financially, it gives outsiders looking in even less chance of understanding what is truly happening at St Andrew’s Trillion Trophy Stadium.
In the latest reported financial year (2018/19) the club announced an £8.4m pre-tax loss. This certainly will not have been rectified by the pandemic, as fans have not been able to attend fixtures since March last year, eradicating the club’s matchday income.
Perhaps it is Birmingham’s ambition that has led to financial losses. The owners are well aware that promotion will go a long way in boosting finances at the club, considering the TV money jackpot of the top tier. Even relegated clubs receive unparalleled payment for competing, with last-season’s bottom-placed club, Norwich, raking in £94.4m.
This means that even a single season in the Premier League would be worth it in the long run. As a consequence, the team’s apparent high-spending in recent years that has led to this point, although fruitless, is justifiable.
Blues fans are beginning to lose patience with their team and manager
Evidently Birmingham need promotion to the Premier League more than ever before. But their present relegation battle has almost certainly ruled them out for yet another season, and Blues fans are beginning to lose patience with their team and manager.
Following the 2-0 defeat against Millwall, fans called for Karanka to be removed from his post. However, as previous managerial changes have proved, the fault cannot lie solely at the manager’s door. A 1-0 win at 10-man Sheffield Wednesday lifts the Blues out of the relegation zone, but with Rotherham just two points behind them and having two games in hand, the next few games are vital for Birmingham’s survival.
It is impossible to tell what the future holds for Birmingham City. A string of self-inflicted misfortunes and poor decisions have left the club in a mess, the extent of which cannot even be agreed on by those in charge. The club are at real risk of dropping to the third tier for the first time in almost 30 years and desperately need to use their latest win as a springboard for the rest of their season – both to keep them in the division and to keep the club afloat.
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