Birmingham City is a club with some sort of a special image. They do have the charm, with their blue jerseys, white shorts and white and blue stockings. They have a bit of traditon and among clubs that should be up there knocking on the door for Premier League action.
They left the best party in 2011 and since been looking for answers to bring that success back, trying all sorts of different approaches. The last massive change was to bring in Wayne Rooney as manager when the club actually had a good momentum and few did see the need of such a change happen.
Wayne Rooney was a great footballer, but as a manager he is still learning the trade, despite being in charge of Derby and DC United in the past. No one believe they will manage to get back up this season, but instead struggle to stay away from the relegation zone.
What Birmingham City supporters should be happy about, is the solidity brought into the club with the new American owners in place, and if it do not work with Wayne Rooney, they will be pragmatic about the situation and bring in someone else.
The Blues are 18th in the table, 16 games played, 19 points in the bag. They have slipped a bit since Wayne Rooney took charge, but still just 7 points behind Sunderland in that last place of the play-off zone.
Four players are currently out on international duty. Goalkeeper Neil Etheridge is representing Philippines, currently on 76 caps for his country. Juninho Bacuna will join up with Caracao, Jordan James is in the Wales squad and great also to see Jay Stansfield being part of the England u.21 set up.
Jay Stansfield is still only 20 years of age, on loan from Fulham this season, building on last season, being at Exeter City. One to watch as his presence is exciting.
Birmingham City left the best party after the 2010/11 season. Alex McLeish was in charge, and they ended 18th, one point behind Wolves on that 17th position. Stephen Carr was the captain, and ever present on 38 league games, shared that with goalkeeper Ben Foster and central defender Roger Johnson, who both played all the games.
We all remember the great years of this club, the atmosphere at St. Andrews and all those great players that have weared the blue and white. Going into the memories, you find a grand list of heroes as Bob Latchford and Trevor Francis might be the top men.
Joe Gallagher also stands as a name to remember well from those great years, being part of their team almost for a decade, together with Latchford and Francis, building his career on an opening at St. Andrews.
Intersting to see how the future will look like and how Wayne Rooney will build his new empire, with a dream of one day return to Man Utd and become their main man. First the priority must be Birmingham City and survival, but hopefully getting the ghost away early on as you can consentrate on bringing the team back in contention for a play-off position.
LATEST UPDATES
Leave a Reply