00:00On to Birmingham City, now obviously we've discussed, it's been a massive year of change
00:07at the club, a sort of new era has come in, you know it's a strange relegation situation
00:12for them because all the fans seemed the most positive I've ever seen a fan base after going
00:17down, which means they are sort of buying into this new project from the American owners
00:21and the sort of consortium that have taken them into this new era, they've changed the
00:26stadium name, they've made upgrades all around the place, they've had a few managers come
00:31in this year, Wayne Rooney's spell as we said before doesn't really seem real like it actually
00:38happened, it was quite a crazy time for Blues, but they've gone down and they are looking
00:43like they're going to go straight back up, how do you sort of review 2024 because it's
00:47been a bit of a mixed bag at Birmingham City?
00:50It's been absolutely bonkers to be honest, Wayne Rooney lasting just a couple of days
00:53at the start of the year of 2024, of course a couple of months before that as well, a
00:57disaster management spell from them and John Eustace going a few months earlier, you see
01:02how well he's doing at Blackburn now with limited resources in the playoff positions
01:06that Blues wish they held onto him, but that's not how it turned out, Tony Mowbray started
01:10well but unfortunately illness stopped him from carrying on, Gary Rowett coming in as
01:14well towards the end of the season, wasn't quite enough, Blues go down and as you mentioned
01:18a really strange atmosphere because it was almost relief that finally these years of
01:23championship football, battling relegation and hardly breaking or never breaking into
01:28the top half and just the relentlessness of it all has come to an end and this season
01:34the investment in the summer has really boosted the football club, a complete overhaul of
01:38the squad, Chris Davies has come in, his first proper management job after being an assistant
01:42at a host of clubs under Brendan Rodgers, he's really impressed and just the unity at
01:47the football club, the excitement, the atmosphere at St Andrews at Nighthead Park as well and
01:52sell out crowds for the first time in such a long while, title as well, that'd be great
01:57to get some silverware at the club and push on and hopefully be in a better position in
02:01the championship, but I genuinely think that if they stayed in the championship their progress
02:07and their potential journey to the Premier League would have taken longer than it would
02:10by going down, which is a strange statement to make but they're on track to get promoted
02:14at the first time of asking and the squad is capable of great things, so very impressed
02:18by Birmingham this year.
02:19Yeah, there have obviously been some fantastic additions, Tomoki Iwata has been fantastic,
02:26you know obviously coming in the summer, as you look back at over 2024 who's been the
02:30best player in the blue shirt do you think?
02:33I think Jay Stansfield sticks out winning all the individual awards last season and
02:38starting this campaign as well, but Christian Bielek actually, maybe towards the end of
02:42last year could have been a little bit better but it wasn't just his fault, it was the fault
02:46of the football club and the disarray, this season he's proven to be one of the best players
02:51in League One, if not the best and I think he's definitely top of championship quality,
02:55a great leader, playing in a variety of positions, what a player Bielek has become for Birmingham.
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