An accomplished performance away at Wrexham brought us home three points – and more importantly, a lot of the bitterness I felt post-Brentford faded away. Sure we got tanked by a Premier League team, but were things really as bad as I thought?

I can remember thinking that we might pick up at least a couple of points against Southampton and Wolves and I could maybe write a happy piece on a potential for a redemption arc.

If Friday was great, transfer deadline day declined rapidly by the afternoon.

Even though it looked unlikely we’d get Ibrahim Osman I was cheered by who I thought we might get instead and thought it possible we could bring in two – maybe even three new faces.

Instead to quote the Spice Girls two became one as the club decided they didn’t need both of Mohammed Fuseini and Liam Millar and the Ghanaian was informed that we were no longer pursuing his transfer.

I’ll admit it, I was fuming. People I know who try to be voices of reason within the Blues sphere were fuming. I spent the whole car ride from the office to St Andrews messaging with other upset Blues fans and composing angry diatribes to the powers that be. I might have even sent one.

And yet as I write this watching the transfer window close, I’m back to a place of balance. A good 1-1 draw against a decent looking Southampton side, some good player performances and most of all time to think have left me in a more contemplative mood.

I can’t tell you what happened on transfer deadline day at Blues cos I don’t know for sure. However, I’ve come up with three potential ideas to explain the strategy that unfolded over the window and I leave it up to you as to which you choose to believe, if any.

Hanlon’s Razor

Back in 1980, an American man by the name of Robert J. Hanlon sent in a phrase to be included in a joke and wisdom book called “Murphy’s Law Book Two”.

And while authors like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Robert Heinlein came up with similar ideas much longer ago, it’s Hanlon whose name is most linked to the following adage.

Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence.

What that means in simple terms is that people are more likely to act in the way that they do because they’re stupid than they’re evil.

What has this got to do with Blues?

To be blunt – it’s the idea that the reason Blues have ended up not making the signings many wanted isn’t down to someone trying to fuck things up; but more because of people just not being very good at their job.

It’s not hard to understand why people might think that.

I mean, why would Blues leave it until the last day to sign players? Surely the right methodology would be to sew them up all early, so they all get to gel in pre-season and we’re ready to go from matchday one.

Did we spend so long chasing primary targets like Osman and Joe Gelhardt that by the time we looked at alternative options they were all gone?

Likewise, if the club have known since April that Craig Gardner was going to leave, why was a new Director of Football (DoF) not sought after immediately and hired to give Blues some more experience in negotiations etc?

There are many similar questions that can be and are asked by people online searching for reasons to explain why the window worked out the way it did for Blues.

Many can be answered reasonably. For example, the World Cup delaying transfers at the top and thus delaying the trickle down of available players to our level; or the difficulties in hiring top executives.

And yet, I can’t help but wonder if we really have done everything we can.

Despite the implied rhetoric that the club had saved money to be able to bring in the best for forward positions, it feels like we’ve struggled to nail down who we wanted.

Could we have done better with more experienced people? Is Craig Gardner smiling into his chicken nuggets tonight knowing that people might finally realise how much they underestimated his worth?

Make do and Mend

Do you ever remember going out with your parents and asking them to buy you something only to be told you’ve got some at home that are good enough?

You don’t need a new number 10 Chris, you’ve got a perfectly good one at home you never play with…#bcfc

— Daniel Ivery (@almajir) September 1, 2026

I posted this tweet with those parental scoldings in my mind as I thought about Kanya Fujimoto and Marvin Ducksch being on the bench against Southampton.

It’s all well and good wanting a new number 10 for the season – but I could understand why Tom Wagner and co might decide we don’t need to buy one after all.

For all his faults on and off the pitch, Ducksch was top scorer for Blues last season with 11 goals – ten of those coming in the Championship. And while he’s never ever going to be a number 10 in the classic sense, there was a feeling that he could do okay behind a main central striker.

Kanya is a much more difficult player to justify due to his lack of minutes on the pitch, but I can understand that one of the Knighthead stats nerds might have pointed to some AI-dredged data to show that Kanya can offer something.

A friend remarked to me that his poor performance against Brentford might be in part because no one seemed to pass to him and I’m intrigued to learn from one of the resident Blues analytics geeks if that has any basis in fact.

Another frequently made point I see online is that the depth Blues have isn’t great – and that we needed to bring in someone to help ensure we had good players to call on throughout the team.

After all, are we a recurrence of a shoulder injury for Paik Seung-Ho or a calf injury for Max Bird away from being very light in midfield?

And while I can see that point, it made me think of how other teams deal with injuries.

We know all Championship clubs can only have 25 players over the age of 21 (loanees included regardless of age) – and Blues currently have 27. Sure, we will leave out Taylor Gardner-Hickman and Marc Leonard due to the nature of their long-term injuries but we still have a full squad.

That to me means that teams need young players who can step in and fill gaps if necessary – and I guess is the crux of our issue.

For whatever reason, Chris Davies has been loath to play any player from the u21 squad which means we have to make sure our 25 overage players cover EVERY eventuality.

There is probably truth in the argument that many of our u21 players would struggle with the rigours of the Championship – but if we never play them how will we know for sure?

Furthermore, would it not have made more sense to try to recruit a few more u21 players who are a bit better than we have, who would grow with our young Blues and help to step up when needed?

For what it’s worth, I was impressed with summer u21 signing Finn McGreevy when I saw him play for the u21s against Alvechurch in pre-season.

Could we not afford any more punts like that?

As someone who wants to see growth from within, I do hope we can improve with what we have and I hope that Chris Davies is the manager who makes that happen.

Keeping the powder dry

Since Knighthead have taken over Blues, they’ve been pretty ballsy in the way they’ve thrown money around. Spending eight figures on Jay Stansfield on transfer deadline day two years ago was a huge statement of intent and has helped to shove expectations up to massive levels.

Earlier in the window, I thought they might do it again.

A large fee was agreed for Joe Gelhardt only for him to get cold feet when Hull City came calling and as such I think we have to accept that there was money there to be spent. It wasn’t empty rhetoric.

If I’m really being honest, there was a tiny part of me that expected Tom Wagner to come over in his private jet, pop on down to Brighton and drop a huge metaphorical wad of cash to secure Ibrahim Osman from the Seagulls.

The figures I’ve heard mentioned as a valuation were more than we paid for Stansfield and would have represented potentially a ballsier investment.

When it came out that we were to take Mohammed Fuseini on a loan-to-buy arrangement, I was pretty happy with the sensibility of that proposal.

I didn’t know enough about Fuseini to know he’d be a success, but the hope would be there and it could be another situation like Jhon Solis where we find an unpolished gem that we can bring to a shine ourselves.

And while I was initially mad that we decided we didn’t need both Fuesini and Millar, as I thought about it I wondered if this was just another incidence of Blues being more careful.

Think about it.

Think about the players we’ve bought in recently, only to move on six to twelve months later because they weren’t good enough / didn’t fit in / were too expensive for what they were.

Think about how much money we’ve spent on those players that maybe we didn’t need to spend.

Is it not a good idea that Blues were a bit more rigid in deciding not to overpay for players, or to hold to wage structures?

Looking at some of the mental amounts paid for players in the summer window I can’t help but think maybe holding our powder a bit longer wasn’t too stupid an idea.

And while the dopamine hit of a huge deadline signing is an amazing thing, I hate it when it gets toxic against players cos they don’t immediately settle or perform.

Of course, the tricky bit is maintaining a position there or thereabouts so an assault can be made if the right players become available in the winter window.

There is also the fact that the winter window is notoriously harder to find the best value players in.

Only time would tell if that was a gamble worth taking.

Regardless of what you believe happened in the window there is one fact that is unaltering – that the world will keep spinning, time will keep moving forward and things will go on.

And while some might think about opportunities missed or mistakes made, there will always be time in the future for people to do things to put them right.

With apologies to Oasis, don’t look back in anger.

Look forwards in hope for better things.

I managed 84 minutes on Saturday before Dom Ballard’s audacious lob to put the Robins ahead convinced me that I was better off leaving early rather than running for the train; while on Tuesday I only managed until Igor Thiago’s 73rd minute goal made it 5-1 to Brentford.

Both games left me wondering why I had spent money on tickets. It’s not great that the first home game of the season already has me questioning why I had renewed my season ticket and maybe speaks more to my descent into grumpy old age than anything else.

As one can imagine, social media has been toxic as hell. Among the calls to sack Davies, there have been attacks on any and all people at Blues who could possibly be to blame. Every potential misstep made by the club is up for debate and dissection as fans have vented their frustration and bile.

I can’t speak for what’s gone wrong tactically or with players because that’s not my forte – for those I’d recommend reading the excellent work done by Ryan Deeney or Elliott Griffiths.

However, what I think I can do is try to talk about the things internally that people are worrying about, and try to bring some more nuance and balance to the arguments.

The Data Revolution

On July 6, 2025 Blues signed former Japan u20 international Kanya Fujimoto on a Bosman free transfer from Portuguese outfit Gil Vicente. While I don’t remember much about how fans reacted to the signing of Kanya, I can remember being told by people within the club how his capture was one of the most exciting we were to make that summer.

It’s well known that Blues use AI analytics as part of their recruitment process – anyone remember the “million pounds a year in electricity” line from Tom Wagner at the November 2025 Open House?

Kanya was very much the poster boy for what “the data” could unearth. I heard from a few sources within the club how he was the most exciting prospect we’d signed.

And yet, for all this excitement, he just did not play. In his first season with the club he managed just 45 minutes of Championship action in five sub appearances.

As with any player who doesn’t get minutes while the team is struggling, there were questions as to why he didn’t get played. It seemed clear that Davies just didn’t fancy the Japanese attacking midfielder at all.

Fast forward to this summer, and again I hear from people within the club that Kanya has worked hard, got stronger and fitter and that he will be a part of the squad this year.

Now I’m going to once again admit I don’t know shit really when it comes to judging the abilities of footballers but it felt like Tuesday was conclusive proof as to why Kanya does not get starts or even minutes.

Whether Kanya remains a Blues player after the window next week remains to be seen but I don’t think I’m the only one wondering what the heck the data is saying about him.

Now, while I am very biased against the usage of AI on both ethical and sustainability grounds, the nerd in me does like the idea of using data in football. As a fan of baseball which invented its own branch of mathematics (sabermetrics) to judge baseball players, I like the idea of the “moneyball” approach.

It’s not hard to identify teams that have done well with this approach either.

For example. our opponents on Tuesday night Brentford have a long history of using data in their recruitment approach.

The real leaders right now are Brighton and Hove Albion, who seem to have an ungodly knack of buying players which then get snapped up by “bigger teams” like Chelsea for huge profits.

What sets teams like Brighton and Brentford apart from other clubs is the quality of the data they are using.

Most clubs these days use data to some degree and will have software like Wyscout to help build their recruitment lists. If many clubs have access to the same data, then the only way to try to be better than others has to come from the human element – the people analysing data and the people giving players the eyeball test before signing them.

To stand out, it’s imperative to have access to the best data.

Brighton use Jamestown Analytics, who are recognised leaders in their field and currently one of only two teams (possibly three) in the English league system with publicly known access to their data.

I think seeing how clubs like Brighton have operated were part of the reason Knighthead incorporated their own AI company (the imaginatively named Shelby Artificial Intelligence Limited (SAIL)).

Like any financial company, Knighthead use analysis to judge investments and it doesn’t seem coincidental that Blues director and Knighthead senior analyst Kyle Kniesly is also a director of SAIL. With Knighthead head of research Andrew Shannahan also a director of Blues it would make sense that those two were on board to push the data side of things forward.

We’re now deep into our third transfer window since the club was promoted back to the Championship and I understand why there are fans worried that we’re not doing as well as we can from recruitment.

Taking into account the idea that getting 50% of transfers right is doing well for any club, I can’t disagree with people who think recruitment could be better.

With one week of this window left, I’ve personally gone from feeling that we’re two players away from a good window to wondering what the hell we’ve been doing. One of my friends mentioned last week that most captures we’d made this summer were “backups” which had given me food for thought, and Tuesday only seemed to reinforce that fact.

With the benefit of hindsight, last year’s recruitment looks like it was very poor with none of the permanent signings from last summer looking like they’ve offered value for the money paid out in fees and wages.

And yet, when I’ve asked about potential transfers, the responses have essentially been “trust the data”. I’m at a point I’m not sure I can any more.

The Vacuum

Back in April, the vultures were circling for Craig Gardner. While rumours gathered of his impending departure gathered pace on the grapevine, the calls for his dismissal grew louder online.

Although people can point to my confessed bias towards Gardner due to me liking him on a personal basis, I don’t think I was wrong when I was telling people on forums that his departure would not be a panacea. Back then, I opined that replacing Gardner would be difficult and once achieved would still take time for it to properly show an effect on the club.

As it turns out we’re now almost into September – nearly three months after his departure – and Blues have not managed to appoint anyone to a Director of Football / Sporting Director role.

Worse still, the rumours are rife that Academy Director Mike Rigg is either about to or already departed from his role at the club; rumours which have come to me from multiple credible sources and which I do believe despite no official confirmation from St Andrews.

The departure of these senior officials have left many online wondering just who is left to advise Knighthead on football matters – particularly as the calls for Chris Davies to lose his job grow louder.

Whether Davies goes or not, I think it’s reasonable to be concerned that as we head into the last week of the transfer window that the level of football knowledge at the top levels is lower than it has been for some time. After all, how many of us have PTSD from former CEO Ren Xuandong going through favoured agents telling him what to do at a rate of knots?

Thankfully I think we’re as likely to slip into those bad old days as I think Jeremy Dale is to put on a £230 Blues tracksuit and try to stick a penalty past James Beadle at EPIC during first team training.

Yes, there may be vacancies at senior level in the short-term but it does not mean Knighthead will all of a sudden operate in a void of silence when it comes to football matters.

For example, Scott Sellars who was brought in this summer as Senior Pathway to Professional and Under-21s Coach, has extensive experience at senior levels in his career. At Manchester City he rose to head of academy coaching in 2014, and at Wolves he served as head of academy player development, head of academy and finally as technical director before he left in 2022.

I have no doubt Sellars could step into Rigg’s former role on an interim basis, and I’m fairly sure he would be able to offer Knighthead advice and opinions to help their footballing decisions.

I also think Knighthead would make use of connections outside of the club to take soundings on potential incomings – whether it be on a player, coach or senior official level.

In the past Lee Carsley has often been asked for advice and I could see that happening again. There were also rumours that Blues had sought the advice of Dan Ashworth while looking for a DoF and I could quite easily see people of that ilk being asked off the record for their thoughts.

In other areas of the business Knighthead have looked to consultants to fill knowledge gaps when looking to make improvements and it wouldn’t surprise me if they utilised that pathway to help them hire senior staff.

I guess the difference in all this between Knighthead and previous regimes at the club is that Tom Wagner and co appear to have the humility to know when to seek advice along with the sense to get it from multiple places.

And while Knighthead may have lost the trust of some of the more shrill elements of the fanbase, I am still willing to put my faith in them to improve things.

The Future

At the April 2024 Open House, I remember Wagner telling fans that they realised that their mistake was one of timing and of momentum. Rather than allow the Eustace era to continue a bit longer after his last two home victories, they ended it abruptly to bring in Rooney, causing the former Derby and DC United head coach to have exactly zero honeymoon period as Blues boss.

I’ll be honest, my gut feeling going into this year was that Knighthead had committed another error of timing and momentum, this time holding on too long to a coach in Chris Davies that was struggling to get the required performances out of his team.

I wanted to be wrong. I never ever would want Blues to fail just to prove my thinking correct because that goes against anything a fan should want from a club. The Swansea game looked like things could be better, and even though we didn’t lay a finger on Sheffield United we drew an away game we’d undoubtedly have lost last year.

My fear is now that Davies is at a point where he has lost what he wants to do with the team. As Matthew from WAB messaged in our groupchat, it’s as if the “sideways and backwards” chants have got into his head.

When a head coach changes up his style to try to survive in his job, it never ends well.

I can remember Gianfranco Zola switching up what he wanted to do as Blues just couldn’t win under him, and as a result the players looked more lost than ever. Aitor Karanka was left shrugging as to what was going wrong as his tenure ended in failure, while Lee Bowyer sat and moped in a dugout at halftime away at Blackpool as we got thumped 6-1.

With tough games to come against Wrexham at the STōK Cae Ras before home games against Southampton and Wolves at St Andrews in a nine day stretch, it feels like it’s only going to get more difficult for Davies.

I’m a big believer that these days it’s imperative to know who your new manager is going to be before firing the old one. We’ve seen for ourselves the mess it can make having an interim coach and with the Championship looking tougher than ever I don’t want to be in a position of seeing Ben Petty, Scott Sellars or Danny Barham trying to take charge of the team.

Regardless of whether Davies is to go or not, I think it’s imperative that Blues start succession planning and sounding out potential replacements. Even if by some miracle Davies turns things around and we look like world beaters it’s essential that we are prepared for the future.

Indeed, I’ll admit that I’d be disappointed if Blues didn’t have some sorts of ideas already – and not just for negative reasons.

Imagine if we’d torn up the division last year causing Davies to go on the radar of some Premier League team wanting a new young face in to turn around the fortunes; imagine the furore if he’d been picked off and we had to scramble for someone to continue our charge?

Tough times are the true test of leaders. It’s easier to be a good leader when everyone is happy and everything is going swimmingly; when things go to shit and tough decisions need to be made it’s much, much harder.

And while things have been good under Knighthead, at three years in we’re no further ahead of where we were on the pitch despite spending a fair amount of money on players and a million a year on electricity.

Yes, they are far better than the last owners were. That’s a low bar though and we need to be aiming higher.

They’re the ones who have told us about being world class, who have given us high expectations. Now it’s time to show that can be delivered.

While I accept that the summer close season is the peak season for transfer rumours, what has irked me is the number of messages I’ve received from people asking me if Knighthead are selling up and / or Tom Wagner is not coming back to Birmingham. There has even been an image of a WhatsApp chat doing the rounds which thankfully has been met by derision by many.

Before I go any further it’s important to immediately confirm that they’re not true – that neither Knighthead are selling up nor Wagner walking away. If that’s all you needed to hear, then by all means click away from reading this article.

However, if you’re willing to stick with me I’ll share how I know that rumour is unmitigated bullshit – and why I think we’ve got to be more careful in allowing this stuff to propagate.

The Share Allotment

On July 2, Shelby Companies Limited (SCL) filed an update with Companies House, which showed an update of their capital after an allotment of shares.

The five-page statement doesn’t give a massive amount of information, but what it does provide is pretty conclusive evidence that Knighthead are not likely to be considering sell up any time soon.

To help understand what the statement means, it’s important to know how limited companies work in the UK.

If a limited company wants to bring new money into a company, it has a few avenues to do so. The two chief avenues are debt finance and equity finance; ie borrowing money or attracting new investors.

The statement mentioned above confirms that SCL has sold a number of shares in itself to investors to increase working capital.

While there is no confirmation in this statement as to who has put in what, we can infer from previously filed statements that the £17,822,302 in A1 shares has come from Knighthead Master Fund LP, and the £44,661,513 put in A2 shares has come from Knighthead Annuity & Life Assurance Company.

It’s important to understand that SCL is an investment vehicle and that the money has been injected into SCL rather than the directly into the club itself.

However, I think the apparent fact that Knighthead have injected £62,483,815 into this investment vehicle suggests that they’re very much still involved with the whole Birmingham City / Sports Quarter project.

Interestingly, there is also another £9,286,585 that has been invested in C shares in SCL in addition to the money mentioned above. Sadly, we won’t have any idea who that money has come from until the next confirmation statement is filed by SCL on 11 April 2027.

I appreciate that many people have some form of PTSD from the decade of ownership that went before Knighthead but these are very different times – although it should be noted that at the time of writing SCL were nearly three weeks overdue filing their accounts which in my opinion is poor.

Tom Wagner

I’ve said this before, but I think one of the hardest things we’ve had to deal with in the last few months is the absence of Tom Wagner from Birmingham after his health issues.

Tom’s charisma and sheer love for the game are hard to replicate, and I think his return to Brum will help dispel a lot of fears people have. However, as previously discussed we cannot expect Wagner to come back until he’s in a position to deal with every project he is involved in.

Unlike data on SCL which is available on the internet, it’s impossible for me to cite information on Wagner’s recovery further than “trust me bro”.

I’ve always affirmed that it’s important for people to be sceptical and to make their own mind up about things I write that I can’t back up with links and this doesn’t change here.

That being said, I will offer the following statements as things I know and that should help ease some worry.

I know that Wagner is getting better.

I can’t say where Wagner is in the recovery process because I have no idea and frankly it’s none of our business. I do know however that he is improving.

I know that Wagner not only wants to come back but that he is itching to do so.

Most of all, I know that Wagner still cares very deeply about Birmingham City as a project.

Last Saturday was not only the third anniversary of Knighthead’s takeover of the club but also Tom’s birthday – and I know that the anniversary was more important to him.

I will admit to my concern that Wagner will see on social media the false speculation that he might leave; I can’t imagine it’s what he would need to see while working hard to be able to come back.

This is a part of the reason I think we as fans need to be better.

The Speculation

No matter what anyone says, I think we as humans thrive on things like gossip and speculation. Even when we know something cannot be true, we talk about bits of gossip because it’s interesting to think what might happen if they are actual fact.

Transfer gossip is a good example of this.

I’ve seen people complain in the past that potential moves have come out in the press too much and that it’s made things more stressful as some of the more shrill online constantly demand to know when moves are completed.

Yet the absence of transfer gossip doesn’t necessarily mean an end to people being hyperbolic online. Instead, we’re treated to wailing from people who are convinced nothing is happening because nothing is being spoken about.

I’ve opined on this site before that maybe the club should produce something with someone senior saying a few things that would reassure people that everything is okay.

I still don’t think it would be the worst thing to do but the last couple of weeks has made me wonder if people would overthink even that; reading into every possible nuance to come up with some batshit conspiracy theory.

Just today I had a friend message me to say that if a particular transfer rumour was true, then he “was done with football”.

Now, while I appreciate that is hyperbole from someone who I know is going through a tough time – it still blows my mind that people can come out with something so dramatic over something so minor.

There will always be players coming in and moving on. There will always be things behind the scenes that need to be fixed, that can be improved upon. There will always be people who feel that they need to complain about something – this is not just the nature of football but the nature of life.

Likewise, the need for people to achieve clout or notoriety online is never going to fade and as such I don’t for one minute think we’ll ever see an end to people putting bullshit rumours out there about anything.

As horrible as the last few years were until Knighthead came along, it’s important to remember that we got through it all to the other side. If we can survive that level of bullshit from the people owning and running the club, then there is no need to be angsty cos of a social media rumour.

I get that there is a deep irony here in me writing this piece because I’m giving a rumour oxygen that I probably shouldn’t – and I’ll be honest, I’ve wracked my brain trying to think of how I can possibly write it without getting either too sanctimonious or hypocritical.

I only hope by offering an explanation of information available online coupled with a bit I know personally, I have helped to reassure people a little bit.

We’ve got a month left until the real ball comes out as it were. Let’s all take a deep breath and relax – what will be, will be.

However, it’s not just the academy which is seeing changes. There are rumours of changes on the commercial side too.

Some of these rumours have caused some consternation among the fans and with this in mind I’ve put together this article to try to make sense of what is going on, and why I think it’s evidence of the need for stronger leadership from the club.

Sponsor changes

One of the big rumours doing the rounds currently is that there is a change coming with regards to front of shirt sponsorship.

Back in 2024, Blues announced that they had come to an agreement with Undefeated to extend their sponsorship deal as Principal Club Partner for three years.

That extension means the deal would run to the end of the 2026/27 season – ie to the end of this season – and naturally the assumption is that Undefeated remain in place.

However, life is never that simple.

On June 15, Blues completed the signing of Jhon Solis from Girona – a huge signing ahead of the new season. One thing I noticed in the piece confirming his signing was that Undefeated’s logo is not shown. There are logos for Nike, Delta and the University of Birmingham, but the familiar five-strike logo of Undefeated is not there.

Indeed, in the footer there is now no mention of Undefeated as partner of Blues, principal or otherwise – which would further indicate that the partnership has ended. (nb – if you check and it’s still there, it’s possible that you are looking at a cached version of the page – try in incognito mode and it should be gone.)

Sponsorship agreements come and go in football – so it’s not really a surprise if one does come to an end.

What surprises me is that there appears to be no ready-made replacement – especially if one considers how much of a song and dance Blues have made about bringing in revenue.

While these rumours have been ongoing, there is one story that I think a lot of Blues fans have missed about brand partnerships.

Back in January 2024, I reported on this website about the deal Knighthead struck which would add their name to both St Andrew’s and the training ground at Wast Hills. The deal was interesting because it had been cleverly worked to pay out Blues based on social media impressions.

At nearly £10m a year this deal is huge to Blues – based on the accounts for the season ending 2025, that deal would be worth about 26% of the £36.453M revenue made by the club alone.

That announcement made by the club confirmed it was to run until the end of the 2025/6 season – which in financial terms means it finishes tomorrow.

What that means is, officially, one of the biggest brand partnerships and sources of income for the club comes to an end this week with no sign of any extension.

Thankfully, it’s my understanding that the club have indeed agreed to an extension some time ago – at terms which were the same or better than the one agreed in 2024. However, although this extension was agreed to some time ago, no announcement was made as it was felt unmerited.

As grateful as I am that the deal is continuing – especially at better terms – it does make my spidey senses tingle a tiny bit that it wasn’t announced.

I remember the original news was met very well by fans and was great bait for fans of other teams – why not confirm that it has been extended?

And maybe this is on me being the person I am, but leads me on to wonder what else is being held back right now?

A need for transparency?

Transparency is one of those buzz words that gets banded around a lot by people – including it has to be said, me. The need to know everything isn’t something that is shared by everyone but I think that there is a proportion of the fanbase which likes to be updated as to what is going on at the club.

When Knighthead came in, then-CEO Garry Cook made a big effort to show that the fans would be involved.

The Official Supporters Club was set up so that fans could belong to a supporters club with proper affiliation to Blues and have an avenue to not only bond together but to pass back feedback on the supporter experience.

There were groups created under the “Blues Matters” banner which would meet regularly to discuss stuff around the club, with each group having a specific focus,

And then there was the series of Open House events. Originally designed to be held on a quarterly basis, this quickly became semi-annual before seemingly stopping altogether after the last event was held in October 2025.

While I totally get the criticism that the Open House events had the “same old faces” in attendance (being one of those “same old faces” myself), they were a good opportunity for the club to put out direct messages to the fan base to inform and reassure.

I think one of the reasons these kinds of events have died a bit of a death is because they require a lot of effort and maybe the benefits the club got from holding them was outweighed by the cost of resources to do so.

However, I think the mutters online about lack of information forthcoming from the club that I’m seeing demonstrates a need for something.

What I’d like to see is something a bit simpler – an interview with either Jeremy Dale in his position as CEO or someone from Knighthead like Andrew Shannahan to be broadcast via the club’s channels.

I don’t think it would have to be anything groundbreaking spoken about; indeed, I think in the main it could be quite fluffy as interviews go.

However, I think seeing someone from the top giving a bit of reassurance that everything is good would go far.

I believe that the mutterings about things changing are only happening because there is a vacuum of information – change that and much of it will die down.

That being said, there is one thing that us Blues fans need to be patient about.

Not yet time for Wagner

One name that I missed out above that I wanted to hear from is Tom Wagner – and that omission is absolutely deliberate.

There are a lot of Blues fans I see on social media who are desperate to hear something, anything, from Wagner. It’s apparently got so bad that the fact his official Instagram profile liked a post recently was news.

And with this desperation I’ve seen more than one Blues fan offer the opinion that Wagner should record some short video to be shared by the club if only to say he was getting better.

I’m not going to lie, I totally understand this feeling.

Since Knighthead have come into the club, Wagner has been the figurehead. He’s a man who not only comes across as incredibly smart but also incredibly charismatic.

The way Wagner seems to have taken the club and fans to his heart has been something I’ve loved after the previous three decades of ownership – and yes, I miss seeing him involved with Blues a lot.

However, as much as I miss Wagner I also understand the reality of the situation.

Blues are not the only project Knighthead have invested in – and should Wagner record something for us, he would then be obliged to do it for every other project too.

Worse, I have no doubt that by putting himself out in the open like that, Wagner would open himself up to being bombarded with messages from investors, stakeholders and clients as well as Blues fans.

And as much as I miss Wagner, I truly believe it’s in everyone’s best interests if he is given time to recover fully before saying or doing anything.

If that means we have to wait longer – so be it.

In short – things are okay but they would be better if the club could come out and confirm that for us.

And while it’s right and proper that some things are kept under wraps until the deal is done, some reassurances that deals are getting done wouldn’t go amiss.

While I’m now mostly retired from writing about the club I have a feeling this is going to be a big transition for the club to go through and as such it merited me dusting down my keyboard to share my thoughts.

The Blame Game

Before I go any further, I feel it is imperative that I declare my own personal bias in this situation in order to be fair and transparent.

I’ve come to know Craig Gardner on a somewhat personal level over the last few years and I’ve come to like him on that basis. Since my father died in August last year Gardner has been incredibly supportive of not just me but my family and that has been very much appreciated.

The fact I like Gardner makes it hard to write this; especially as I know despite his protestations that he doesn’t read stuff online he will read this and it may hurt him. However, I can say hand on heart that nothing I have written here isn’t an extension of things I’ve already said – and I hope he understands that there is zero malice intended.

Since it became obvious that Blues would not contest the playoffs at the end of last season there has been a rush for Blues fans online to point the finger of blame at someone for this failure.

Some people took their frustrations out on Chris Davies.

There was an obvious frustration over the team’s poor away record while there were others who didn’t like his style of football.

For a while it looked like it might be Davies who would be the one to get the Spanish archer at the end of the season.

There were consistent rumours all the way until the end of the season that Davies would be the one to go – but like the transfer window often does, those rumours made some of us (including me) look a bit stupid as the smoke cleared to reveal not one ounce of flame.

Other fans took their ire out on Gardner.

Fingers were pointed at the business done in the summer 2025 transfer window and the failure to provide Chris Davies with the tools he would need to get Blues into the top six.

The money spent on fees and wages for Kyogo Furuhashi and Kanya Fujimoto in particular looked poor as both Japanese players struggled to get their Blues careers going.

However, I think when people look at Gardner for recruitment they are only seeing a small part of the picture – and sadly, only a small part of what isn’t right at Blues at this moment in time.

For me, the biggest problem facing Blues is the complete disconnect between the Academy and the first team.

Last season Zaid Betteka was the only Academy player to make his debut for the club and he only played six minutes as a sub in the FA Cup win over Lincoln City.

Again, people could point to Chris Davies for being the problem.

Despite his protestations otherwise it’s been clear that Davies did not have enough faith in players from the u21 squad to fill in the gaps in the first team squad caused by injury or suspension; a problem that is all too common for managers under pressure to get results.

However, while I believe that there were missed opportunities to see if any young players could make the step up to the first team, I think the lack of opportunities is a symptom of a much deeper problem.

In May 2024, Blues u18 squad won the Professional Development League National final, bringing home the silverware after beating Charlton Athletic 3-2 after extra time at Birmingham County FA’s HQ.

Every under 18 who played in that final would go on to be offered a new deal with the club. While there wasn’t a generational talent of the ilk of Jude Bellingham within the ranks there was potential; potential which would need nurturing and growth to make the step up to being pros.

Two years later and of those players only Betteka has made his debut.

This season Billy Burrell, Menzi Mazwi,  George Wynne and Dan Isichei have all made the bench but not one has been trusted to go any further, following in the footsteps of Byron Pendelton in 2024/25.

Sadly, many are making exits this month.

Of that team Godfred Boakye, George Wynne, Yusuf Ahmed, Frank Tattum, Alvaro Ruiz-Rente and Dan Isichei have all been released.

And while it’s true that most Academy players will not make the step up to being a pro, I think there has been a major misstep by the club in that these players are being released rather than sold.

As much as the lack of the pathway to the first team can be blamed, I think there is also a lack of cohesion in the way we bring our upper Academy through.

I see other clubs build rapport with smaller teams to allow them to loan out promising players so that they can get minutes and learn the men’s game properly.

Blues have been really poor at this, and the result has been some really poor experiences for young players which have stunted their footballing development and destroyed their potential value to the club.

For me, this is a huge failure – and as much as I like him, I can only point to Craig Gardner as being the person who has to carry responsibility for it – and I think it’s this for this reason more than recruitment the pressure has fallen on his shoulders.

When you’ve been in football for multiple decades with barely a break there comes a breaking point and with all this pressure on him I wasn’t that surprised to see confirmation that Gardner is to walk away.

The Future

With all the rumours over the last few months, there has been the attendant rumours as to who would come in to replace Gardner, with names from Dan Ashworth to Kristjaan Speakman touted as potential replacement Directors of Football (DoF).

I’m not going to pretend to know who is going to get the job because the truth of the matter is I have no real idea; other than to think that the appointment of Ashworth would be incredibly unlikely bearing in mind how highly thought of (and well paid) he is at the FA.

However, with those words “World Class” once again the millstone around the club’s neck, I did want to offer my opinion why we need to be patient when it comes to who comes in as Gardner’s successor.

If you listen to some Blues fans on social media or on forums, the simple answer would be to find the “best possible person”, offer them a dump truck of money and let them get on with it – and in a simple world, that might work as an answer.

However, we don’t live in a simple world – and as such there are no simple answers.

The first thing that springs to mind is an adage someone gave me when the words “World Class” first appeared in the Blues consciousness around the time Knighthead came to the club – namely “world class people don’t sit by the phone waiting for you to call them”.

What was meant by this is that the best people for roles are almost always employed for great sums of money at big clubs / institutions and thus are unlikely to abandon them for the project at Birmingham City no matter how glamorous it might appear to us.

Although it does appear to be a summer of upheaval with lots of people in these kinds of DoF roles moving clubs, I think Blues will still need to work hard to get someone in with a genuinely top-quality CV.

Money isn’t the sole motivator for a lot of people and as such Jeremy Dale, Andrew Shannahan (and Tom Wagner, if he’s ready to come back to work) are going to have to work hard to show that Blues is a place where someone could really make their mark and showcase just what they can do.

However, for me there is a much deeper issue than competency that Blues will need to search for when they look for a new DoF.

One of the reasons Gardner stuck so long in the role at Blues was the fact he’s quite a likeable guy.

He managed to get on with the former owners enough to survive former CEO Ren Xuandong’s frequent changes of favoured agent / fixer, and was important enough during the purchase process that he gained the favour of Tom Wagner.

A new DoF is going to have replicate those interpersonal relationships with people like Wagner, Shannahan and Dale – as well as with Davies, Mike Rigg, plus the coaching and academy staff if they are to be successful.

One only has to look at how Dan Ashworth got on at Manchester United to see that even the most competent DoF types can struggle if they can’t make those relationships work.

And as much as Gardner is likeable, I think a new DoF is going to have to better find a balance between being liked by Knighthead and co and being able to disagree with them.

Most importantly, us fans are going to have to be patient with any replacement.

While I know we live in a world of immediacy where a day is a long time in football let alone a week, I think it’s imperative that we understand it will take a long time for a transition of DoF to show effect.

I honestly think we’d be lucky to see much difference to the way the football side of the club is being run within twelve months of a new DoF being appointed – maybe even longer.

For one, it’s going to take time for a new DoF to bring in the people that they want to take on roles at the club – especially if those people are anything approaching “World Class”.

More importantly, processes take time to overhaul.

A competent DoF is going to want to take time to assess every part of his remit, before prioritising what order things get fixed in and how that process is going to work.

This means a new DoF doesn’t necessarily mean a magically great transfer window this summer or January. It also means that it might be some time before enough reform is brought to the upper academy to help it bring through more players to become assets for the club – whether to be played or sold on.

This summer has the potential to be a bumpy one for the club – but this is the nature of forward motion.

The first three years of Knighthead’s ownership have seen us transition from a basket-case in a delipidated stadium to an ambitious team looking forward to moving into the sports quarter.

With Gardner departing we’re saying thank you and goodbye to one of the people who helped lead that transition.

Now is the time for the club to welcome people who will take it to the next level.

We’ve been patient enough to see things through this far – we need to be a little bit more patient to see things down the next step to the end of the road.

The run of poor results have brought the toxicity back to the club both online and at the ground. Three successive poor results at home have seen games ending in boos while matters threatened to get ugly at Vicarage Road as Marvin Ducksch had to be led away from confronting fans in the away end.

Naturally with defeat comes blame and the finger of fury has been pointed in various directions.

Head Coach Chris Davies has taken flak for his tactics and player selection and Director of Football Craig Gardner has taken a lot of stick for player recruitment choices not only in the summer but in previous windows.

I wish I had the immediate answers to these problems, but the honest truth is that I don’t. I have no idea as to what will definitively fix things.

However, in a world where online hot takes are a dime a doze and where fan watchalongs are deliberately created to create hyperbolic clips of despair, I feel there is a need for a voice of balance if not reason.

I’m in a fortunate position whereby I still am privy to a fair bit behind the scenes at Blues and I think it’s important to try and offer context to the current situation with the team if there is to be reasonable discussion.

Recruitment

One of the chief avenues for displeasure for fans recently has been the recruitment of players.

Blues went pretty hard for players in the summer, committing big wages if not fees to land players of the ilk of Demarai Gray, Kyogo Furuhashi and Bright Osayi-Samuel among others – and with half of the season gone there is a feeling that far more of the transfers made were misses than hits.

It’s not hard to understand why people are unhappy either.

For all his effort in pressing, Kyogo has looked less and less likely to ever add to his tap-in against Sheffield United in the League Cup.

His confidence levels clearly look shot and while there is an argument he’s not been given as good service as he could be, one would hope he would have taken at least one of the chances he has had.

Similarly, Marvin Ducksch has come increasingly in for criticism for his production on the pitch.

A purple patch of a couple of goals is now long gone and the German’s seeming lack of enthusiasm for the physical side of the game has not gone down well with fans of late.

Then there is the clamour to send back loan players Eiran Cashin and Lewis Koumas to their respective loan clubs due to their perceived lack of skill on the pitch.

While Cashin has had a couple of okay games recently, Koumas has been especially lacking in product and I find it very hard to argue with the idea that he should be sent back.

Then there is Kanya Fujimoto.

While he has made the bench of late, his inclusion seems to have more to do with making up numbers than actually getting game time leading fans to question if Chris Davies had any input into his transfer as he clearly doesn’t fancy the Japanese attacking midfielder.

The age and wage profile of incoming signings very much point to a decision to concentrate on immediate results rather than resale value.

This kind of strategy is a common one and is fine as long as those immediate results are forthcoming.

If, however, more than one or two of this type of signing fails to settle in it immediately not only raises questions about the implementation of the strategy but also comes with financial implications due to the Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) that Championship clubs are bound by.

I feel that the usage of artificial intelligence (AI) by the club in scouting is also somewhat problematic.

Although using AI can be helpful in sorting through masses of data and statistics, I feel that there are intangible aspects to players that it cannot process and as such there are issues with over-reliance on AI.

For me an example of this is Ben Davies.

As I understand it, his re-signing for Blues was difficult and the club decided to pursue other avenues such as Jack Robinson and Eiran Cashin (who was in fairness a long term target).

The fact that Ben Davies hasn’t pulled up trees with Oxford suggests that Blues may have been right not to be held to ransom by Rangers; however I do wonder if enough store was put into the quality of the partnership he built with Christophe Klarer last year. After all, the best teams are greater than the sum of their parts.

I’m yet to understand how AI could put into tangible statistics this kind of data – which leads me to think that there has to be a lot more work done on top of researching AI.

I also wonder how much the club have underestimated the difficulty of signing players in the Championship compared to League One.

In League One Blues had a much more prestigious “Project ” to offer than other clubs in the same division so wages / location / other intangibles were less important.

In the Championship Blues are having to compete for a smaller pool of players with more clubs with similar if not greater levels of ambition.

This means that the club has to also compete on factors like wages as well as intangible factors like prestige of location or perceived quality of coaching.

The upshot of that is that Blues have undoubtedly missed out on targets, forcing them to potentially offer more money than was previously desired or to go back to old standbys such as known agents and players for signings.

I’m not convinced that the replacement of Craig Gardner and / or his staff is the panacea to all of the club’s recruitment problems that some people think it is.

I think that there needs to be a proper period of reflection from the club management into what was done, what wasn’t and what needs to be improved upon; with a view to improving club infrastructure and procedure to make things better in the future.

My fear is that there might be a temptation to throw more money at the problem in a desperate attempt to change things in the short term with the very real possibility of further filling the squad with deadwood that can’t be shifted.

Squad Management

Given the issues outlined above with regards to recruitment, it could be quite easy to absolve Chris Davies of any blame with regards to the way the squad has been managed.

After all, if he’s got an unbalanced squad full of players who aren’t quite good enough then how is it possible for him to succeed?

As much as I understand people being faithful to Davies after his 111 point season last year, I also think that it’s important to recognise where he has made mistakes.

It goes without saying that one must play with the cards they are dealt – and it is always possible to play a bad hand well.

I’m no tactical genius; I’ll leave discussion of game tactics to people like Ryan Deeney who know what they’re doing.

However, there are things that even I can see and pick up on and need to be spoken about – such as the way players have been managed with regards to fitness and form.

One of my biggest gripes with Davies last year is his absolute commitment to sticking with the same players for as long as he can.

It’s not hard to understand why either – why change a winning team, and Blues did a lot of winning last year.

There are issues though when teams are not rotated.

The obvious one is that giving players too many minutes in too short a period of time can cause injuries to happen.

Some might mock the idea of football players getting fatigued but I think such are the levels of athleticism required it’s inevitable that fatigue and injury will set in if rest and recovery is not built in.

Then there are the issues caused by having players not being any kind of consistent runs of minutes in the team. It can be very hard for players to come in from the cold as it were to play at peak performance.

This has meant that when players have had to come out of the team due to injury or suspension, the drop off of match quality can be exacerbated further.

This has led to players being rushed back from injury into the team faster than maybe they should have been – which has caused injuries to then reoccur.

A good recent example of this has been Alex Cochrane, who has twice been reinjured in his first match back from an injury-enforced layoff.

However, the biggest issue I have with Chris Davies right now is his absolute refusal to try players he wouldn’t normally play.

In the last two games Blues have had two or more u21 players sat on the bench available to him as well as Kanya Fujimoto.

As I privately expected, none of those players have had a sniff of getting onto the pitch which leads me to wonder what the point is of putting them onto the bench other than to make up the numbers.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that those players will absolutely definitely make a difference.

Indeed, I think it’s more than likely that that they wouldn’t have.

However, the chance of those players making a difference rises from zero if they’re actually given a chance to try.

Furthermore, by denying those u21 players a chance to play a few minutes Davies is telling current and prospective u21 players that there is no pathway to the first team – which I think is damaging to our longer term goals.

I understand that right now Davies is under a lot of pressure to turn the results around and he’s going to what he knows.

I get that it’s hard to go to an u21 player that almost certainly isn’t first team ready – but I think we’re at the point where maybe it’s worth a shot to see if the unlikely can happen.

Young players and the Academy

On the face of it, the Blues Academy should be seen as a bright spot for the club.

Not only is the Academy now Category 1, but my understanding is the first audit of the Academy went extraordinarly well and that everyone connected with that should be congratulated.

However, it’s also clear that there is a disconnect between the first team and the Academy system with players not able to make the step up from one to the other.

Part of this is undoubtedly where Blues are feeling the longer-term effects of the under investment in the youth setup under the previous ownership.

Not only can Blues not currently compete with the fees laid out by local rivals for players at Academy level, but the club is also dealing with years of losing the cream of the crop to those better funded local rivals.

That being said, I think that there are other issues which Blues need to deal with which are more endemic to football and wider society.

I’ve long held the opinion that mental strength and discipline is of the big things which separates the players who make it in professional football from those who don’t.

It’s one thing to have the skill and talent to be able to play professional football; it’s another entirely to be able to deal with the pressure that comes from playing professional football.

I look at Jude Bellingham as the obvious poster boy for a player who had the mental strength to deal with being a first team footballer at 16.

While his skill and ability was incredible at that age one of the key repeating factors in opinion pieces about him was the maturity Bellingham showed.

Much of this was down to having strong parents in Mark and Denise who helped to not only advocate for him but also to keep him grounded.

For other players, it’s not as easy.

As someone who grew up in Chelmsley Wood, I completely get it.

While I didn’t grow up in deprived circumstances my family certainly weren’t rich and as a consequence when I finally did get money in the form of a student loan when starting university, I went wild.

The consequences of that were far reaching –  not only debts that took me years to pay off but my off-the-rails behaviour leading me to be booted out of not one but two unis.

Nearly 30 years later I’m still not great with money and as much as I’d love to go back to university to finally get a degree it’s now virtually impossible for me to do so.

Now imagine being 16 or 17, growing up in inner city Brum without much money but a lot of skill at football.

Imagine being told thaty you’re the best thing since sliced bread, having more money than you can imagine being showered upon you – and having to remain disciplined enough to not spend any of it on the fun stuff all your mates are doing.

That’s going to be hard enough if you come from a strong family background, attending a good school with lots of positive role models in the background.

Imagine doing that without any of that help; without any of that grounding.

For me the biggest investment that needs to be made right now is in the duty of care we have to every kid within the academy.

I’m hopeful that the move to Category 1 has helped with that in the longer term, but in the shorter term I think we need to find a way to deal with some of the problems the club has (unintentionally) created for their biggest prospects.

Otherwise, we will continue to lose potentially very good players in the same way we lost Romelle Donovan to Brentford.

Equally, it’s important that as much as the first team is demanding of discipline, some grace is given to players who have not been afforded the chance to grow within a culture of discipline.

From what I’ve seen and heard, I think this might be hard for Chris Davies but for his growth as a coach I think it’s something he needs to work upon.

Having gone on for nearly 2,500 words about some of the issues the club faces, it’s important to repeat that realistically, Blues are in the best position for a long time – maybe my entire lifetime.

Likewise, it’s important for me to reaffirm that for once I have faith in the people at the very top such as Tom Wagner to lead the club forward and upward.

My only hope with this brief return from exile from writing is to make the same points I’ve often made in the past; that there are very few simple answers.

As much as the club do need to make some changes, I think it’s really important that they’re calm ones and not made for knee-jerk reasons.

As ever, patience is the key – and keeping right on to the end of the road.

Interim Blues CEO Jeremy Dale had confirmed at a recent University of Birmingham event that Knighthead were looking for a public investment of around £270M to create the vital transport links needed to make the Sports Quarter truly viable.

All of this has left some Blues fans openly wondering on social media if this is the inevitable catch that will ensure once again promises and dreams will fade.

While I’m a believer that we really need to ditch negative mindsets, I do think that this is a time to properly understand what is required and the obstacles that may be in the way of it happening immediately.

With this in mind I’ve put this piece together to examine exactly what the transport problems are, what £270M could to do solve this and what hurdles lie in the way of that money being invested by the public purse.

The Infrastructure Problem

One of the big things that has emerged since Birmingham City started routinely selling out St Andrew’s again is that the road network around the stadium is struggling to deal with the volume of traffic generated.

As someone who lives in Digbeth and who has to commute to the other side of Coventry on a regular basis by public transport, I can honestly say that public transport in the area is struggling to keep up with demand too.

Throw in the issues that have occurred with the lack of secure parking – ie vehicles getting stripped for spare parts – and it’s easy to understand why there is a desperate need for better infrastructure right now.

The issues aren’t just about the here and now though.

The vision for the Birmingham Sports Quarter will mean a huge further influx of people to B9.

Taking out the issues that a full 62,000-seater stadium could cause on its own, there is a desperate need for better transport links in the Birmingham Sports Quarter area if it is to become a hub for people to live, work and enjoy themselves.

In a simple world, the answers would be easy. More spaces for parking, more roads for vehicles, more buses, more track and stations for trains etc. Throw money at a problem and it goes away, right?

Having attended the “What Next for Birmingham” panel discussion myself, I’ve come to understand the nuances of the problems that Birmingham faces.

Take rail for example.

An obvious answer would be to expand a station like Bordesley so that it has multiple entries and exits; maybe even multiple platforms for trains.

As much as that sounds like the easy answer, it doesn’t attack the actual issue of capacity that rail faces right now.

Back in 2022 former West Midlands Mayor Andy Street was pushing for a £950M investment into Birmingham Moor Street due to the fact that Birmingham New Street is running at full capacity.

Street was quoted as saying

“The longstanding issue with rail in the West Midlands is the capacity in Birmingham at New Street, and actually it’s appalling. It runs at full capacity and if anything goes wrong it falls over, and has consequences across almost the entire country.

“There is no additional capacity in terms of new train paths to put in. So even if we wanted to increase the capacity of certain services, we can’t.”

The idea back then was to add two platforms to Moor Street and link it to the Curzon Street terminal of HS2, effectively turning the two into one huge super-station. Sadly, that plan fell flat after being denied any investment by the Government at the time.

Fast forward to now and Knighthead are asking for a sum less than a third of that ambitious plan – so what would £270M get?

What can we get with £270M?

It’s easy to think that £270M is a lot of money – after all it’s more than a quarter of a billion pounds. However when it comes to infrastructure it isn’t that huge a lump sum of cash as the failed bid for the Moor Street improvements show.

Having made some discreet enquiries, I’ve come to the conclusion that this sum of money would be to pay for two projects.

The first project I believe this money could pay for would be an extension of the Midlands Metro tram past Digbeth to the Wheels project and potentially further.

As it stands the Eastside Extension of the tram network is currently slated to run from the delta junction at Corporation Street / Lower Bull Street to Digbeth.

However, issues with the HS2 works at Curzon Street station have meant that a temporary terminus is being built by the Clayton Hotel to allow for switching of trams until tracks crossing the HS2 land can be built.

The original business case for the Eastside Extension budgeted the project at £137.2M; however by November 2023 this had ballooned to more than £244M due to the need for the turn back facility on Moor Street Queensway.

On April 7 of this year, the West Midlands Combined Authority discussed the Eastside Extension and further funding needed.

Due to reporting restrictions it’s difficult to know exactly how much funding is required.

However, there is a note in the minutes that the WMCA Board have been asked to approve the budget and funding for phase 2 of the Eastside Extension at its next meeting in May, subject to an appropriate funding solution being identified and agreed.

The timing of this meeting and the upcoming board meeting, along with that between Wagner and Reeves leads me to believe that the Knighthead chief has been lobbying the Government to pony up the required funds for this project.

I believe the second project that Knighthead are seeking funding for is the improvement of Adderley Park Station.

The proximity of Adderley Park station to the Wheels land makes it the natural choice of station to improve and its position on the line between Birmingham New Street and Birmingham International make it a good choice for fans travelling from the Blues heartlands in east Birmingham.

While the issues with capacity are still very much a thing, I suspect what Blues will push for is an improvement to the platforms so that they can handle longer trains.

The reason I think this is one of simple logic; if there can’t be more trains on the network due to capacity issues, then surely the answer is to add extra rolling stock to improve the services currently to the station.

As it stands, the station is served by one train per hour on the line between Birmingham International and Rugeley Trent Valley, which is made up of the new Class 730 fleet, typically running six carriages, split as two sets of three.

There is also a service between Birmingham New Street and London Euston via Northampton which runs on the same line, although it makes its first stop currently at Birmingham International. This train is normally made of Class 350 rolling stock, typically running eight carriages, split as two sets of four.

Now while I’m not a train nerd (despite the evidence above), my thought is that if the platforms at Adderley Park were lengthened to a point where they can take 12 carriages, it might be possible then to run special longer versions of the above services stopping at Adderley Park to ensure more people can get to and from the station than currently can.

It’s easy for us as Blues fans to think of these projects as no-brainers – after all, we KNOW Birmingham needs investment in infrastructure. Surely the Government see it the same way?

The Financial Issues

Whatever the flavour of Government in power, the biggest issue any Chancellor has to face is the basic economic problem of infinite wants and finite resources.

I can’t remember much of what I learned in my college economics lessons, but what I do remember is that every Government runs policies based on how it feels it can best service the needs of its electorate with the resources at its disposal.

The current Chancellor Rachel Reeves has made it plain she will stick to various fiscal rules in her efforts to get the economy into the position she wants it to be during the current Government term.

As I understand it, the basis of these fiscal rules is that the Chancellor wishes to balance spending with the revenues brought in from taxes over the next five years and only wishes to borrow further money for investment projects.

Now, while Knighthead are looking for money for investment in infrastructure in Birmingham, they’re not the only ones.

Every city, town and local authority will have their own projects that they want funded by the Government and there can be only so much money to go around.

It’s not for nothing that Tom Wagner is making sure he gets face time with everyone he can in local and national Government.

Wagner will be well aware that the investments Knighthead have already made will be at risk if the funding does not come through and from the tiny bit I know of him and his team they will be playing every pressure point they can to make sure they get the funding they require.

What this means for us is that the public investment required is in no way a done deal; there is very much a battle still to be fought.

However – I think as fans we have every reason to remain positive that everything will continue as Knighthead want it to.

I personally think it’s telling that HM Treasury were the ones to share the selfie with Wagner on LinkedIn, rather than the other way around.

Right now, the current Government need to show that they’re attracting investment in the country and Knighthead’s vision to invest in one of the most deprived areas in the UK is almost certainly a good look for them politically.

It might also be naïve on my behalf, but I have faith in Tom Wagner himself.

The last two years has seen a sea change in the way the club is run, particularly with respect to commercial partnerships. If Wagner and Knighthead have the force of character to create partnerships with truly multinational businesses, then I have to believe that they can do what is necessary to get the public sector on board.

I can believe that for many the whole Birmingham Sports Quarter is still very much an abstract; a dream on paper that is a long way from completion.

It’s not hard to understand why fans have doubts either; the last decade has been a series of metaphorical kicks to the nutsack with little to no help from entities such as Birmingham City Council.

As fans, I think we have a choice to make. We’ve seen on the pitch that the club can have a winning mentality far beyond what has happened in recent times.

Now we have to decide if that extends to matters off the pitch.

However, it’s not just on the pitch that Blues have record results. The recent accounts filed by the club showcase just how far the club are coming on financially.

In the past I’d normally have done what I could to make sure I got a piece out immediately about finances and the implications that it has for the club.

These days, things have changed.

With a change of ownership, there is no longer a worry about the direction of travel the club is undertaking financially. I’m not concerned about the club owing money to shady corporations in the British Virgin Islands or similar and I’m confident that the club is now being run by truly competent staff.

There is also a plethora of people online these days who can report on the accounts with competence thanks to their skills and qualifications, which has ensured that the headline figures were reported almost instantly.

I can’t compete with people like Kieran Maguire on that sort of thing and in honesty I don’t want to; it makes me happy that there are people of his ilk who are making sense of this sort of thing for the common fan.

Instead, I’ve spent a few days trying to talk to contacts around the club to see what I can do to answer what I think are the more important questions in this piece.

As always I must stress I’m not an accountant nor do I have any training in that field and that I recommend taking a look at the figures for yourself to come to your own conclusions.

Profit and Sustainability Rules

Although Blues are currently in League One and are not currently subject to PSR rules, the fact that we’re now just two points from promotion means that it should come back into our consideration.

With Blues making a £13.827M loss from operations in the 2023-24 season, I can understand that it’s inevitable there will be questions from some fans concerned if the club can continue to invest in players in the summer.

Although I do know that the loss made on paper in these accounts is not necessarily the same as the PSR result the club will file with the EFL, the truth is I don’t know exactly how much they differ and thus it’s difficult to make a guess as to how close to the line we will be.

One thing I am sure of is that the obfuscation as to exactly where Blues are in relation to PSR is deliberate from the club.

As someone who believes that football finances should be more transparent this is saddening, but I have to accept from a pragmatic standpoint that it only works if every club is forced to commit to the same levels of transparency.

The reality is that the club’s willingness to keep secret how close to the PSR thresholds is nothing to do with us fans.

As we saw last summer, clubs know we have money to spend and thus are willing to jack up transfer fees up higher in the belief we’ll pay more.

Because of this, it’s important to Blues that other clubs aren’t aware of just how close to the line they are sailing.

And this means we have to take it on trust that Tom Wagner and Knighthead know what they’re doing and they will continue to keep the club compliant while investing as much in the squad as possible.

Revenue

Anyone who has followed the words of Tom Wagner in the last couple of years will know that the Knighthead chief is all about the revenue generated by the club; the more it can generate, the more it can spend.

I’m a fan of this approach myself having seen the damage that continual cost cutting can cause. From my standpoint, consistently looking to improve revenue is taking positive steps to improve things and positive is good.

The Knighthead difference is massively present in the 2023-24 accounts with revenue going up from just shy of £19M to £28.720M – an increase of 45%.

This massive increase in revenue in addition to transfer profits (the Jude Bellingham sell-on money) ensures that losses were cut in half in the 2023-24 season.

What is more important is that while revenues are going up, it’s the ticketing and commercial revenues which are improving. From a sustainability standpoint it’s imperative that Blues aren’t overly reliant on one sector of revenue and this has massively improved.

As to be expected, reopening the stands made a massive difference as it ensure that money received from match receipts would massively increase.

However, it’s commercial which has really turned out to be the winner as Blues made more than double the money from commercial sources compared to the previous season.

And even though Blues are in a lower division this year, I’m led to believe that this commercial income has continued to grow and will again jump next year on promotion.

My one fear with commercial income is that Blues must do their due diligence on potential partners.

For example, in recent times the deal with God55 as Asian betting partners was almost immediately pulled after a news story emerged alleging that God55 were not registered with any gambling authority.

I spent a couple of years working in the iGaming sector and my experience has left me feeling that this is something Blues need to be very careful with, especially outside of the UK regulatory structure.

I’m hopeful that the deal with God55 was an outlier and is a mistake that won’t be repeated.

Transfer Fees

One of the biggest themes of this season has been the number of salty opposition fans moaning on social media about how Birmingham City have “bought the league” this year. The figure that Blues are alleged to have spent has steadily climbed as the season has gone on almost to the point of parody.

Now, of course with the splash Blues made on Jay Stansfield there were going to be allegations that Blues have spent astronomical amounts of money, and this coupled with hyperbolic reporting in the press is only going to fuel the flames of envy.

Back in September last year I made myself a little spreadsheet to try to guess how much Blues had spent and how that would work with amortisation – and even though I was conservative in my original estimates I was surprised with how much pushback I got from contacts who insisted the figures in the press were not to believed.

One of the good things about these accounts is that they include a net spend figure for transfers after 30 June 2024, which is given as £21,070,000.

A quick look back through the transfer window confirms that the signings of Ryan Allsop and Bailey Peacock-Farrell were both made by that date and thus won’t be included; however, the remaining 15 permanent signings and five loan signings (including January) have only cost the club in total slightly more than some think we paid for Jay Stansfield.

Of course, the number given above is the net spend, which means it will include the money we have received from the sales of players like Jordan James, Juninho Bacuna and Koji Miyoshi.

From an amortisation point of view this gives me the impression that Blues probably have broken even on transfers this season; especially as any money made on Jordan James and Koji Miyoshi will have been pure profit due to their book value being zero as ex-academy player and Bosman free transfer respectively.

This in turn should give fans even more confidence that we’ll be okay from a PSR point of view, which should then mean Blues have definitely got some wiggle room this summer to make some decent signings.

In short, like most things Blues this season we can take lots of positives from these accounts.

Of course, there is no time for anyone to rest on their laurels as Blues do need to keep continuing to push revenues as high as possible, while the recruitment team will need to show once again that they can bring in players who will improve the squad without breaking the bank.

That being said, I hope readers of this blog will understand why I have faith and trust in the current staff to continue to deliver.

And while the whole situation reeks of classically overblown internet drama, I do believe it should make Blues fans think a bit more deeply about how things might change in the coming years as the club grows in strength both economically and in the league table.

Surprise and Delight

As with most internet drama, the initial outrage occurred with a leak of information. In this instance, it was screenshots of WhatsApp chats from Official Supporters Clubs (OSCs), where the block booking of Vertu Trophy Final tickets for members was being discussed.

Of course, with nearly 44,000 tickets available the truth of the matter is the supply of tickets is huge. It is almost inevitable that some will make it to general sale and realistically any fan who has real desire to go will be able to get something.

And as such, it shouldn’t really be a problem that the club are selling tickets via an official arm.

However, as with anything else the lack of official information has led to various straw man arguments being constructed.

For example, an apparent inability to buy tickets in certain blocks led many to believe that favourable seats had been ringfenced, which then came with the usual accusations of “club favourites” being looked after; all grist to the mill for the usual windup merchants and terminally entitled fans on social media.

And as those tweets and Facebook posts were shared around further by fans, the flames of outrage were fanned further and further until a decision was taken by the club that they needed to issue a statement to end all speculation.

As it turned out, the statement made by the club – viewable at this link – didn’t really help the situation.

While some were mollified many weren’t “surprised and delighted” by the information given and it didn’t appear to tie up with some of the screenshots that had done the rounds online.

Worse, the statement only proved to ensure that people who hadn’t seen the original drama were now actively looking for it to find out what it was about. OSC leaders who had nothing to do with it found themselves on the end of accusations from within groups as more and more muck was thrown around.

Now I’m not a communications specialist, but I think the club really could have done better with this whole situation.

Rather than talking in marketing speak about something that the club was planning to do at Wembley, I think the club really should have gone with a simple statement admitting mea culpa.

If the club had come out with something saying like “OSCs have been working to help Blues fans go to Wembley together and sit together, and that this one of the main reasons that the club wanted the OSC structure” then it would have been harder to argue with even if fans didn’t like it.

Just as importantly, if Blues had then gone with something along the lines of “the club apologises for not making this method of ticketing sales plain from the beginning and will strive to be more open about decisions like this in the future”, then I think more would have been mollified.

What it comes down to is a brutal truth that I think we as fans are going to have to accept; that Knighthead have put a lot of money into the club and thus will sell tickets to games in the way they wish to whether we as individual fans like it or not.

Furthermore, I think this brutal truth is part of a longer and more difficult conversation that we need to have as fans as things move forwards.

A Continual Conscious Decision

Although I’ve not written much on this website for a while, I have continued to follow news about the club and football in general closely, and as such I’m aware of various trends that are emerging.

One of those trends is the way clubs are looking at season ticket holders in the long term.

For example, at Brentford a policy of “Every Seat Counts” has been brought in whereby if a Season Ticket Holder fails to use their ticket for four league matches before the renewal date for the next season, they will lose the automatic right to renew their season ticket.

If a supporter can’t attend a game, then they are obligated to transfer their ticket or sell it on a ticket exchange to ensure that they don’t receive a “yellow card”’ for non-use.

While no policy of this kind has been even discussed at St Andrew’s, I am of the opinion we’re no more than two seasons away from something like it being brought in.

As demand continues to grow for tickets it makes economic sense for every seat within the ground to be occupied; furthermore if the demand is there the club can make more money by selling tickets on an individual match-by-match basis than it can via season tickets.

I have no doubt that such a scheme would be unpopular with a fair chunk of fans.

For example it would impact fans who like myself have a long commute to work which makes midweek games tricky due to time constraints.

Yet the club would be absolutely within its rights to introduce such a scheme if they feel the demand for tickets is high enough that it is required; especially if one bears in mind the desire for the club to push revenues to the levels being mooted.

Again, it comes down to a brutal truth: That despite everything good going on at the club, not every decision is going to be popular with everyone.

And as such, I think we as fans need to understand as the club becomes more and more of a commercial powerhouse we have a continuing conscious decision to make regarding our feelings towards these changes.

For some, there won’t be a choice.

Loyalty above all to the badge will dictate that they will continue to attend every game as they already do and in reality only financial constraints will force any changes to that.

But for others – and I group myself into this category – there will be decisions to be made as things inevitably evolve going forwards.

As much as I’ve been an advocate of improving the club’s finances, I’m also aware that my feelings around the reasons I go to games may change.

Despite what people might believe based on the stuff I’ve written for the last decade or more, I’m uncomfortable with the way the game is changing and I fear that commercial changes could erode the social reasons for going to games.

And as egotistical as it might sound, I believe my fear of growing alienation is part of something that the club need to be wary of.

The Product

One of the things I’ve enjoyed a lot over the last couple of years is the meme about Birmingham City being “The Project”. It’s been a huge change from the farce the club had become under the previous regime and it’s something I think many of us can get behind.

However, one of the things that I’ve thought a lot about over the last few months is how the club is packaged as a product to sell to commercial partners.

We know that one of the cornerstones for the economic revival of Birmingham City has been the plethora of partnerships that have been built with various companies.

These partnerships and sponsorships ensure that money continues to flow into club coffers and has helped to push the name of the club out to new markets that we wouldn’t have dreamed about five years ago.

To seal these partnerships, the club have to sell a vision of how it sees itself and why it’s economically favourable to both parties to come together.

Of course, success on the pitch helps. Every business wants to be seen as part of a success story as it’s something that they can use to promote themselves as successful.

I have no doubt that as Blues look to set records for points and wins in League One, there will be partners who are loving their logos being attached to such great PR.

Another important part of this product is us, the fans.

I’ve had a few discussions with people from the club who have talked about how potential partners have been brought closer to signing based on the vibe at the ground.

And while we’ve had fireworks, performers and light shows to help build atmosphere the key component of that atmosphere always comes from the fans attending the matches.

Can you imagine commercial partners getting the same vibe when the ground was half full?

Do those feelings of success come through if a team is winning in front of a dispassionate and depressed crowd?

It’s for this reason I think it’s imperative that Knighthead and Tom Wagner understand that there is a balance that needs to be struck going forwards.

For example, while it’s good that the club are continuing to look to expand the fanbase to bring in new supporters, there also needs to be an understanding that we cannot alienate too many of the current fans who have supported the club through thick and thin.

While I completely understand that loyalty is what makes us fans and doesn’t really entitle us to much, I also feel that loyalty is a commodity that is hard to regain once lost.

In my eyes the easiest way for the club to lose that loyalty is when fans feel they are being unfairly treated.

Of course, perception depends on the individual and some fans will feel unfairness more keenly than others, but it is something I think that the club needs to continually bear in mind.

As someone who has been terminally online for more than half their life, I’m willing to accept that the online drama we saw on Wednesday was in reality a lot of fuss about not much.

Despite that, I think it’s imperative that the club understands that this cannot become part of a deeper mistrust.

I hope that lessons are learned about how things are communicated and that going forwards people at the club are strong enough to understand sometimes somewhat unpopular things have to be said.

Equally, as fans I think we need to understand we’re not going to like every decision made by the club. Sometimes in life we’re the pigeon, and others we’re the statue.

While the Insider West Midlands Real Estate Investment Summit being held at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in central London doesn’t sound the most thrilling of events, it included a “fireside chat” with Blues Chairman Tom Wagner to talk about Knighthead’s plans for a Sports Quarter in Birmingham.

And while it was always unlikely that Wagner would reveal anything too groundbreaking, what he did discuss should give every Birmingham City fan a little bit more hope for the future.

Although I unfortunately couldn’t be present at the event, I’ve spoken to Blues fans who were in order to put this article together.

Revenues

Monday was an unusual day for me as a Blues fan, because for the first time in a while it was a transfer deadline day where I felt completely relaxed at the thought of Blues not doing any last-minute business.

And while I get that there were some of the more shrill fans out there disappointed that Blues didn’t acquiesce to their demands to sign a winger or a forward, there did seem to be a consensus opinion from the majority I spoke to that not panicking at the end of the window was a nice change.

One of the main reasons we didn’t need to go mad on deadline day is the sheer levels of business we did at the start of the season.

Although I’m of the opinion that much of the transfer fees reported to have been paid by Blues in the summer was inflated by the media, there can be no denial that Knighthead properly backed Davies with money in the summer window.

The only reason they were able to do that was because Blues are now earning much higher revenues as a business.

More money coming into the club means it can spend more and stay within the rules; and as we’ve seen from the procession of commercial deals the club has signed in the last few months those revenues are only going to climb.

One of the things that Wagner confirmed during this chat is just how those revenues are climbing – and how they will give the club more chance of going for back-to-back promotions to the top flight.

Stock market rules preclude Wagner being too precise with figures, but he was able to confirm that Blues’ revenue this season in the third tier would be comparable with a mid-table Premier League team, once the huge revenues from TV rights deals were taken out of the equation.

He also made the point that clubs with parachute payment levels of revenue in the Championship had a one in four chance of promotion from that division, and that Blues were aiming to match those levels by bringing in £50m of revenue if and when the club is promoted.

To give an idea of how that compares, the latest figures I have for revenues for Blues from the year end 2023 accounts submitted by the club to Companies House are roughly £18M.

And while Blues don’t have to submit their accounts for last season until the end of March, there is a way for us to see more recent figures.

ZO Future Group (what was Birmingham Sports Holdings) still must include accounts for the club in their own group accounts even though they have absolutely zero say or control over what goes on at St Andrew’s.

In September of last year, ZFG confirmed revenues of roughly £23M for the club for last season. They are due to submit interim accounts by the end of this month for the period up until the end of December 2024 and that should give us an idea of where the club stands right now.

As Blues continue to build revenues, then it will be easier for the club to spend more money.

However, one thing that is interesting is that Wagner confirmed during his talk is that he knows that pushing up ticket prices for the regular fan won’t work in the long term as Blues fans won’t pay it.

That means to continue this exponential revenue rise, the club need to have more tickets and hospitality to sell… hence a new stadium and the sports quarter.

The New Stadium

I think it’s fair to say most Blues fans are eager to see and hear more about the sports quarter. It’s been nearly a year since the Open House meeting where the plans were spoken about and in that time actual news about what is happening has been somewhat thin on the ground.

As I expected, the summit was not the time nor the place for Wagner to drop out new renders or plans for the stadium; however, it was a chance for him to talk a little bit more about some of the obstacles the club faces and about how the whole sports quarter will be funded.

One of the chief issues the club faces is the length of time the planning process takes. Wagner has been in the news in recent weeks talking about what needs to happen to take the process forwards.

On January 27, Wagner told the Financial Times

“We’re hearing all the right things in our conversations. What we need to see now is a bit more action. We’re confident that they’ll do what needs to be done. If they can’t for this project, well then maybe I’d be more pessimistic on the UK economy more broadly.”

He went on to say

“Capital is highly mobile, it will find the path of least resistance. When governments begin making things harder, vis-à-vis other jurisdictions into which that capital may flow, they will suffer.

“There are lots of projects that we are looking at in the UK that we’d love to pursue if the process can be made easier. And we’re not the only ones. If things change by just a small amount, there’ll be a lot of capital inflow and a lot of excess growth.”

Reading between the lines of what he is saying, I believe that Wagner was using megaphone diplomacy in an attempt to push the plans for the sports quarter forwards.

We’ve seen that Manchester United are getting government support for their project to regenerate the area around Old Trafford as they look to increase the capacity of their stadium further.

Like Blues, Manchester United are working with their local council – in their case Trafford Council and their Combined Authority (Greater Manchester) to develop plans for the area.

On Wednesday morning, a press release on the Government website seemed to indicate that Knighthead have achieved their next objective of government backing.

The press release confirms £100M of Knighthead backing for the Sports Quarter project, and has quotes from both the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy and Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds.

There was also confirmation that Reynolds will visit the site and learn more about the project.

What Blues will want next is a commitment from the Government that they will invest money into the project themselves. There is an expectation that Manchester United will receive public funding to help move three rail freight terminals which are currently blocking redevelopment there.

Blues have also been pushing for improvements in infrastructure around the Sports Quarter project.

One thing that Wagner spoke about at the summit on Tuesday that I’ve not heard before is the idea of underground links.

While we all know about HS2 and the tram links that are due to be built between that and St Andrew’s, Wagner floated the idea of an underground busway to link the Sports Quarter to the centre.

Without seeing any kinds of plans it’s difficult to know exactly what his vision is, but I suspect that any underground connection would be similar to the Loop in Las Vegas, except with electric buses ferrying hundreds of people rather than electric cars with four at a time in.

The only other comparable idea I have found is in London where the controversial Silvertown Tunnel is due to have electric buses to ferry cyclists from one side of the Thames to the other.

Regardless of how it is achieved, the current situation at St Andrew’s has shown that there must be investment in infrastructure if the sports quarter is to be a success.

Having seen the havoc that a 27,000 sell out can have on the local roads after a game, I can’t imagine how the current road, tram and rail network would cope with potentially double that number of fans.

Infrastructure improvements isn’t just about local travel though – and this is where the project really can better the city as well as the club.

Global City

Over the last decade or so I’ve been a lucky bloke; I’ve been able to travel two thirds of the way around the world and have been to places as diverse as San Francisco and Taipei. During my travels one of the things that has always struck me about my home city is just how crap it is to travel from.

One would hope that as the second city in the country Birmingham would boast a decent airport.

While I accept that it’s personal preference, the truth is that for me BHX is an airport to be avoided. The number of destinations available from the airport is small compared to many airports in the UK; for example there are no direct flights from Birmingham to the USA.

I understand that the lack of direct flights is to do with the historically low take-up of seats and it’s not made economic sense for a while for an airline to institute a service connecting Brum with an American city; however I think one if Birmingham truly is to be on the world map then we as a city need to think globally.

One of the things that I’ve hoped that would happen following the tie up between Blues and Delta Airlines is that we’ll see the return of transatlantic flights from BHX to America and clearly I’m not alone in that.

During his fireside chat Wagner made reference to it being a shame that there was no connection; that instead one had to travel up to Manchester or down to London to fly to the USA.

And while it is annoying for the residents of Brum to not be able to fly to the States from their local airport, what we should be seeing as a bigger annoyance is that we’re not getting the reverse traffic either.

If Blues (and Birmingham itself in truth) are to be successful in the longer term, then I really do believe much will be about attracting a global audience to the city.

While a 60,000 seater stadium capable of hosting sports like NFL as well as Blues would undoubtedly be the centerpiece, I think it’s inevitable that the master plans will include other amenities to bring in visitors.

For example, I’m expecting there to be an arena capable of hosting bigger concerts than the Utilita or BP Pulse arenas.

Birmingham frequently gets missed out by the larger acts because there is nowhere in the city to host concerts with more than 15,000 people bar the stadium on the wrong side of the M6; and that collection of sheds has its own infrastructure problems which will also need fixing should they decide to copy the Knighthead ideas.

As such, it’s important that the quarter appeals not only to just Blues fans or Brummies, but to bring in outside visitors from elsewhere in the country and beyond.

I’m hoping that Wagner wants to help make Birmingham a tourist destination because in the long run, it’s that external money which is going to be needed to keep pushing revenues up.

All of this should renew Blues fans’ excitement about the whole Sports Quarter project. The lack of information has caused a little bit of doubt from some of the bigger sceptics and has allowed some of the noisier rival fans to make troublesome noises about things not happening.

There should be no doubt that this project is huge and it is going to require Blues working with not just local stakeholders but national and even international companies and government entities.

However, as more news emerges it feels clear to me that we are even more in the position where the club are more needed by those in power than the other way around – and that is a position of strength for us, for Knighthead and for Tom Wagner.