Relegation to League One a ‘blessing in disguise’ for Birmingham City

National World - LocalTV

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.

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