A 2024 review for Birmingham City as Blues look likely to have fantastic 2025

National World - LocalTV

Birmingham City have had an up and down last 12 months, so what’s the story of their 2024 and can they be positive for the future as they sit at the peak of League One and are chasing promotion back to the Championship, at the first time of asking.

Transcript

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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