I Love Birmingham City

Birmingham City is scraping into the play offs of the English League Championship which is a huge turn around for the club which was located in the bottom section of the 2nd tier English league when Gary Rowett took charge of City back in October of 2014.

Making a transition from the bottom to the higher section of the league is something which is not easy to accomplish but Gary Rowett managed to accomplish this and it’s why he has been so .

Even though Birmingham City are doing much better than before, Gary Rowett is certain that his team can still be sharpened and improved further, this is why he’s eager for the winter transfer window to arrive in January as the English manager is planning on making a number of changes to his squad within the next few weeks.

“I think we’re in a better position this January. Without getting people overly-excited I think we’re in the best position we’ve been in for a while and I’m quite excited. I’ve probably not helped in some ways, but I almost can’t wait for January to come.

“I’m not trying to dismiss the next four or five games and mean they don’t matter because of course they do. But the point to me is that we’ll be in a very good position to strengthen and with the players coming back it’s quite an exciting time.” Birmingham City’s Gary Rowett stated as he voiced his excitement for what’s lying ahead.

One of the things that has been affecting the squad of Gary Rowett the most are injuries as this has forced some of the key players of Birmingham City including: Clayton Donaldson and David Cotterill but with the arrival of the winter transfer window, Rowett is hoping that with the upcoming transfers, these injury problems will be resolved.

Spanish midfielder Andres Iniesta has rejected suggestions that he does not get along well with manager Luis Enrique at Barcelona.

Regarded as one of the best players at the Catalan club, Iniesta has been going through a poor patch of form especially in terms of scoring goals. Last season, he started only 19 of the 38 league matches. More importantly, he failed to come up with even a single goal in the league. Aside from these statistics, Iniesta will feel that he played a major role in helping the club win another treble. When Barcelona won the treble under Guardiola, Iniesta was just approaching the peak of his career.

Now, though, there are different situations at the Catalan club with Iniesta being seen as the senior member of the squad. Since coming to manage Barcelona last summer, Enrique has made some vital changes in terms of tactics and personnel. Xavi Hernandez has been allowed to leave the club in what is seen by many as an end of the era. The departure for Iniesta would also be viewed in a similar manner, but the 31-year-old has denied suggestions of a fallout. However, he admitted that the tactics of the manager does not suit his style of play.

“It is not true that I am suffering in Luis Enrique’s style of play. In the end, you always have to find your place and feel well in a certain formation and I am able to continue doing just that. It is true that perhaps some things have changed for me but that is not a negative thing, in my opinion.I have gone through all kinds of moments last season, with different emotions, I don’t think it was a bad season for me on a personal level. I am more than happy both on an individual and collective level for what we achieved,” said Iniesta.

Birmingham City will have several friendly matches lined up before the start of the season in the first week of August.

They have been quite convincing in the friendly games up until now, but manager Gary Rowetthas claimed that the players will have to start delivering over the next few games in order to claim a spot in the first team for the new season. Birmingham have undergone a number of changes in recent seasons and the latest change is in the manager.Rowett was appointed as the Birmingham City boss in October 2014 and he failed to lead the club to a play-off place.

The 41-year-old is likely to be excused due to the fact that he is one of the youngest managers in the Championship. It will take time before his ideas start to work their magic. Last season, the club finished in 10th place, which was pretty decent considering the budget in the transfer window. In a rather strange situation, Birmingham have scheduled two friendly matches on the same day.Rowett will be sending out two squads for the games against Shrewsbury Town and Northampton Town. The manager says that he will have a close look at both matches and arrive at a conclusion for his first-team.

“We will mix it up again but we are always looking to give people partnerships to have a little look at.It will be a case of us having to get through 90 minutes as a team. If we get one or two tire towards the end then we have got the Under 21s to fill in the gaps. It’s important to us that they get 90 minutes in and after that it’s a case of ‘OK, we now really need to start looking at the team and playing a stronger starting team that’s a bit more consistent’,” said Rowett.

Birmingham City have once again failed to reach the Premier League – even though the play-offs – after they could only finish in the bottom half of the table.

The continuing financial problems at the club can only be recovered either through investment from outside or by getting into the Premier League. The massive TV money available only in the English top division can help cure the financial problems of the club. The continuing failure to get into the English top flight could also lead to the club slowly slipping down the hierarchy. Manager Gary Rowett fears that this will not be the case.

The manager also believes that there will be significant transfer funds available for him to spend in the coming transfer window. Due to significantly lower transfer budgets than other competing clubs, Birmingham do not have a large squad. They are focusing on quality more than quantity and this will once again be the case during the summer according toRowett. The team finished 10th in the table courtesy of three consecutive victories towards the end of the season. All of them were narrow 1-0 victories and this will be an area of concern forRowett. Scoring much more easily will be the target for the new campaign.

“The easiest thing for me to say is that we certainly won’t have a lower budget than last season, I think that’s important.Whilst I wouldn’t want to go into specific details of figures I think it’s important the fans know we are not going to be reducing the budget.But when I talk about reducing the playing staff, for me that makes sense. How do you get better players in with a similar level of playing budget? For me the answer is to maximise all areas of it,” said Rowett.

Birmingham International Holdings is the company that owns the Championship League club and it has reported that a former employee of the club might have left £2.5m unaccounted for. The parent company of Birmingham City FC has already told this news to the police in their region which is in Hong Kong and they are now investigating this incident.

“The Company has reported the suspected misappropriation of funds to the Hong Kong Police Force and they are currently investigating the matter.” This was part of the statement that was released by Birmingham International Holdings.
An investigation committee has been set up which is going to examine what could have occurred in this event. Carson Yeung is the former president of Birmingham City but he had to resign and leave his role in the English club after it was discovered that he had been involved in money laundering and was jailed for 6 years.

Carson Yeung still remains being the majority shareholder but now the Championship League is receiving bids in order to switch ownership.

Jerry Ko is a former colleague of the convicted money launderer Carson Yeung and Ko was arrested by Hong Kong police but was later released after it was announced that more investigations needs to be done.

A total of 7 bidders and possible suitors of Birmingham City have shown interest in taking control of the English outfit and if any of them is accepted by the Birmingham International Holdings then the influence and control that Carson Yeung has will be reaching it’s end.

Even with all of the financial problems that the club is experiencing in this season, Birmingham City are going through a much better season than the previous one where they just barely managed to escape the bottom relegation zone. In this current season, Birmingham City has a pillow of 10 points over the dreadful relegation spots and with less than 7 league matches remaining, they should be able to survive in the Championship League for another year.

Pep Guardiola rubbished the rumours of him being in talks with the English Premier League side Manchester City.

The man who is in charge of Manchester City at the moment, Manuel Pellegrini, is close to getting axed if the news coming through the sources are credible.

But, Guardiola has shown disinterest in taking the City job in case Pellegrini is indeed shown the door.

Guardiola’s current deal at Bayern keeps him at the club for one more season after this one.

The Spaniard was thought to be going to get an extension, but, the Chief Executive of Bayern said a few days ago that the club was not willing to rush the new deal.

That created a few doubts in the minds of the people and that’s why, it was speculated that Guardiola might accept the lucrative offer made by City.

According to Guardiola though, neither has he been approached by City nor does he want to be approached. He would be more than happy to finish his contract with the Bundesliga Champions.

Talking to the media last evening, Guardiola said, “Nobody has tried to contact me and I am not looking for an away move either at this point of time. I don’t want to leave Bayern before the expiration of my contract. I’m only thinking about helping this club develop over the next year or so.”

Guardiola is arguably the best manager in the world at the moment and if he joins City, his tussle with Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea manager, would be very, very interesting.

Guardiola though is a lot younger than Mourinho, but, he is equally as wily as the Portuguese and has had quite a bit of success with Barcelona and with Bayern too.
Guardiola is in his second season at Bayern.

Gary Rowett believes there is no point feeling sorry at the moment.

The Birmingham boss instead wants his boys to dig in deep and see how they can come out of this troubling phase.

Birmingham had a hell of a start in the second division of English Football this season, but, they started slipping a little bit towards the end of 2014 and right now, the scenario is that they have not had a victory in their last 8 games.

They are 17th in the 24-team Championship currently.
Rowett has even tried to change his formation of late. He has been a little more attacking, but, the results have been the same, even worse one can say as the Blues have conceded more goals in the recent games.

In such situations when nothing tends to go right, the players almost start feeling sorry and give up.

And, Rowett knows that. He is wary of the situation and that’s why, he is trying his best to keep the spirits high inside the group.

Speaking to the media yesterday, the 40-year old said, “With the same bunch of guys, we won so many games during the summer and there is no reason why we can’t win consistently again. It’s all about knuckling down and finding a way for ourselves. We have to make things happen somehow.”

The last game that Birmingham had won in the championship was a month back on 10th of January against Wigan Athletic at home. Since then, they have played 5 draws and suffered 3 defeats.

They had actually started playing slightly defensive Football in the New Year and that cost them. They probably need to be ruthless and be a little more expressive on the pitch. They have looked to do so in the last couple of games and they should continue that way.

On December 26 of 2014 Birmingham City sustained a heavy defeat as they faced off with Derby County and lost 4-0.

2 days later following that morale crushing defeat and Birmingham City managed to bounce back by claiming a 3-1 triumph over Nottingham Forest. The manager of Birmingham City, Gary Rowett believes that his team deserves more credit for being able to come back from such a big defeat and end the year of 2014 on a high note.

“It’s as good a result as any, particularly after a heavy defeat at home to Derby – which I said after that game I felt was a little bit harsh on us. But that shows character, I am sure there were one or two in there who might have thought ‘I fancy a little breather today after that 4-0, get me out of the firing line’’

“But they have all manned up and put in an absolutely fantastic performance once again. I have been so pleased with everybody’’ Birmingham City’s Gary Rowett said.

Gary Rowett continued on saying that the team is back on track in the English Championship League as they have secured a total of 3 victories in the past 4 matches that they have played and it’s an impressive accomplishment considering how competitive their league is.

“We’re now on the back of four wins out of five again which is very difficult to do at any level, let alone the Championship, which as we know is a competitive league. We’ve played against and beaten some very good sides. The Forest match was another example that we shouldn’t be fearful of anyone.” Gary Rowett added on.

Rowett wants his team to continue having the ‘’no fear’’ approach as his players are starting to give it all out in the pitch and not be afraid of what opponents they are facing on the playing ground.

Stephen Gleeson believes that the new boss Gary Rowett has come with a good game plan that is benefitting Birmingham City big time.

Since Rowett’s arrival, Birmingham has been unbeaten. Out of the three games they have played, they have drawn two and have won one.

According to Gleeson, Rowett is trying to build the team around a strong defence which is the right approach.

Speaking in an interview earlier today, the Irishman said, “We are focussing on being solid at the back because it gives the attackers that much more freedom.”

“Gary has been very clear about what kind of game he wants us to play. He has made the players know about his role and everyone has responded beautifully. Right since that game against the Wolves, we have been executing our game plan to perfection.”

“The idea is to frustrate the opposition players and make them commit errors. We try to control the game from the back. We look to make sure they don’t have too much of possession when the ball comes in our half.”

Rowett has been appointed as boss at St. Andrew’s after the sacking of Lee Clark who could not produce enough positive outcomes in the first couple of months in the season.

Rowett was in charge of Burton Albion, a League Two side, before being given this job.

Burton is the only club that Rowett has managed so far. He had been an assistant there for 3 years before being elevated to the head coach position in 2012.

The 40-year old has an impressive start at Birmingham, but, he has a long way to go as the Blues are still at the 23rd position in the Championship table. They are, however, 9 points ahead of the last positioned Blackpool.

The plethora of financial problems at Birmingham City appears to have forced to manager Lee Clark into relying upon the youngsters, who he says that have been brilliant in the last few weeks. Players like Demarai Gray and Koby Arthur, who are still in the teens, have been able to keep out much more experienced players out of the starting line-up. Clark has the ability to call up experienced American Internationals like Brek Shea, but he has so far rejected the opportunity due to the performances of these players. He has said that the attack minded youngsters can propel Birmingham out of relegation trouble once and for all.
The club are just a few places above the relegation zone after having managed just two wins throughout the campaign. Scoring goals has been a problem for the club, who have averaged just one goal per game. On the other hand, they have allowed teams to score almost two goals per game against them. This deficit sees them just a few points about Fulham, who occupy the final relegation spot. However, the fact that Fulham have started picking up points could be a worrying factor for Clark. After the recent international break, Birmingham have a home match against Bolton, who are bottom of the Championship table.
“They are forcing me to pick them, simple. They are exciting me, I love watching them. I am looking forward to when I can get them both on the pitch together from the start. Demarai has that ankle problem, but hopefully he will be OK for Bolton Wanderers. That will be good for us because when you have got the ability to go past people at such speed, it’s difficult to defend against. The two of them are so brave, as well,” said Clark about his youngsters.