I Love Birmingham City

Birmingham City’s poor form at the start of the new Championship season continued after they suffered a 2-0 defeat against Sheffield Wednesday in the latest league match. The performance of the players disappointed manager Lee Clark, who said that the club stand no chance of recovering if the players continued with this kind of a performance especially in the second half. Clark was extremely happy with the performance in the first half, but there was complete capitulation in the second period. May scored the opening goal of the match in the 67th minute, while Helan’s goal just one minute before injury time sealed three points for the away team.
The defeat means that Birmingham have taken only one victory this season and have suffered three defeats from the seven matches. They lie just two places above the relegation zone. After having avoided relegation only narrowly in the last two seasons, Clark does not seem to be faring much better this time around. He has been struggling to make changes to the squad due to the financial restrictions, but the manager says that it is not an excuse for current players to perform poorly. The manager has recalled that Birmingham allowed Leeds United to get back into the game in the a similar fashion after dominating in the first half.
“You cannot play so well in the first half and be so different in the second period. This is something we’ve got to address very quickly. We allowed Leeds back into the game in the closing stages and it occurred again against Wednesday. We were the dominant team in the first half and then the second half things changed too dramatically for us,” said the Birmingham boss. The club with no wins in the last five matches travel to Norwich, who are second in the table, this weekend.

Birmingham City has made yet another signing this summer in the form of the youth sensation Denny Johnstone.

Johnstone is a product of Celtic academy. He had been featuring for the junior team of the Hoops on a regular basis in the last couple of years, but, did not get to play on a senior level even once. He was looking for a team where he could get the first team playing time and thus, he opted to sign for Birmingham.

A few Scottish sides also had their eyes on Johnstone, but, eventually, it’s Birmingham which succeeded in securing the services of the teenaged striker.

Talking to the reporters after completing the signing of Johnstone, the Birmingham manager Lee Clarke was quoted as saying, “We had been in touch with them (Celtic) for a long time and eventually, we got it done. I believe Denny has got a lot to offer in the coming years.”

“Celtic was not willing to let him go, but, the bloke himself wanted the transfer. There were interest for him from other places too, but, we were able to seal the deal.”

“”Denny is a different sort of a forward. He’s got fantastic holding skills and his movement inside the box is pretty smooth as well. It’s great to have versatile players like him around.”

Earlier, it was thought that Birmingham might not be able to pay as much of a compensation amount as Celtic wants for Johnstone and thus, the deal would not materialize, but, that wasn’t the case to be. The Blues agreed to meet Celtic’s demands at the end.

The exact compensation fee has not been revealed yet, but, it’s believed to be in six figures.

Johnstone is just 19 years of age at the moment.

The manager of Liverpool, Brendan Rodgers, is trying hard to reach an agreement with Bayern Munich over the transfer of the Switzerland international Xherdan Shaqiri.

With the possibility of Luis Suarez making his way away from England this summer, Rodgers is keen to bring in some attacking quality at the Anfield and he is already supposed to have a couple of good deals in the form of Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana.

The official announcement of Lallana deal has not been made though, but, it is believed to be sealed by Liverpool.

In spite of having the above mentioned two guys from Southampton, Rodgers is still not satisfied. He wants to add one or two more strikers to his squad and that’s why he has placed a bid for Shaqiri.

The rumours say that the Reds management have offered 15 million Pounds for the player.

This offer had actually been made to Bayern before the start of the ongoing FIFA World Cup, but, it’s unclear if they accepted or rejected that.

Shaqiri was on Liverpool’s radar in 2012 as well when he was to take an away transfer from FC Basel. But, the Reds weren’t successful in signing him at that time as Bayern managed to grab the player. But, this time around, they are in with a good chance.

However, according to a few reports, Manchester United is also interested in the player.

As far as Shaqiri’s career at Bayern is concerned, he is not a regular starter there. He gets a decent amount of playing time though, but, he is not a certainty in the starting XI.
The 22-year old winger has played 43 league games during his 2-year long tenure at Allianz Arena so far and has found the back of the net 10 times.

Birmingham manager Lee Clark has stated that he is hoping that the club can do a Leicester City and do well over the next few years after only narrowly managing to avoid relegation to the League One. Birmingham escaped the drop on the final day of last season, but he is now hoping that the last day relegation survival will now be a thing of past at the club. Leicester suffered a similar fate a few years ago, but they have now been promoted to the Premier league after winning the Championship with a record points tally.

The former Newcastle United star also said that his former club are struggling after the sale of Yohan Cabaye to PSG for around £ 20 million. Since then, Newcastle United went on a very poor run of form that would have seen them relegated had they played like that for most of the season. Birmingham will be hoping to strengthen the team in the summer despite the financial problems surrounding the club. It would be very important given that the club need to sort out the absence of Federico Macheda, whose goals towards the end of the campaign proved vital. The striker has since signed for Cardiff city on a permanent basis.

“I’m hoping the next five years can be like that. When we survived at Leicester that day and avoided relegation, the next five or six years were like being on the rollercoaster as Kevin called it. We were going up and never came down which was good because I’m not really a fan of rollercoasters going down. You want to progress each year. There wasn’t transfer windows as such then. I wouldn’t mind following that path that’s for sure,” said Clark.
Newcastle are widely expected to sack Alan Pardew after six defeats on the bounce.

Birmingham city manager Lee Clark was delighted man after his Birmingham team managed to avoid relegation by the skin of their teeth. Birmingham came into the final weekend in the championship as one of the teams involved in the relegation dogfight. For long periods of the match against Bolton Wanderers, it looked like they would be relegated to the third division of English football. This was primarily because they were looking totally out of the picture after conceding two goals in the second half.

A defeat would have seen the teams of six consecutive defeats, which would have been a major reason towards their relegation. However, Birmingham completed a remarkable turnaround by scoring two goals in the second half. The second goal especially was much more difficult, as it came into injury time. This meant that Birmingham have been able to survive in the championship on goal difference. Doncaster Rovers also have the same amount of points, but they will be relegated due to an inferior goal difference.

After the match, Clark was delighted man. Relegation would have crippled the club, which has already been suffering with a lot of financial problems. Clark has stated that the club can hope to build for the next season and avoid relegation trouble throughout the campaign.

“You know what, not once could you say that about these players, that they didn’t care. And that’s why fans have stood by them. They have supported them because they see the effort has been there. None of them have ever not tried in the games or on the training pitch. Yes, we have lacked quality at times and have had very disappointing days. We have had too many disappointing days, of course we have. But this group have always given their best,” said the manager after their championship status was confirmed.

Birmingham City has conceded more than 29 goals in their past 16 league matches and their recent streak of negative results has left them sitting in the bottom few spots of the Championship league with the relegation zone being only a few points away.

The head coach of the club, Lee Clark has been struggling trying to find players that can consistently play at a high level in the defence and things are even tougher now that they have lost Bartley and Burn with injuries.

“I don’t think you need to be a rocket scientist to realize that the goals are coming from down the wide areas of the team, but, you know, we lost two important players in Bartley and Burn,”

“They were magnificent for us in the first half of the season and it was no coincidence that they played together in that 10-game unbeaten run when we took 20 points from 30 and we were on the fringes, seven points from the play-offs,” Lee Clark said.

Birmingham City rescued 3 points by overcoming Doncaster Rovers but is still in need of a few more positive results in order to maintain themselves safe away from the dangerous relegation spots.

Following Birmingham City’s victory against Doncaster Rovers, Lee Clark announced that his players made a terrific performance in the 2nd half which turned things around.

“I think that’s four games away from home since the turn of the year, Blackpool, Millwall, Charlton and Doncaster, where we needed to take maximum points and we did,”
“It wasn’t looking likely at half-time. We were 1-0 down and other results were going against us. But the players put in a terrific second-half performance, in all aspects of the game.” Clark added on.

Manchester United striker Federico Macheda scored two goals for Birmingham City, where his playing on loan until the end of the season, to help the club record a 3-3 draw with Burnley at home.

It has been a tough few weeks for the club, as their owner has been found guilty of tax evasion and will now spend the next few years in jail. Further, they have been slipping down the table and are now closer to the relegation zone. Hence, three points was the need of the hour for Birmingham from their home match against Burnley.

The pulsating encounter looked to be heading for a defeat for Birmingham as they trailed Burnley with only minutes remaining after a goal from Sam Vokes in the 86th minute. However, Macheda, who had scored an equaliser earlier in the match, stepped up once again to find the back of the net in injury time to send the home fans in ecstatic mood. Manager Lee Clark said after the encounter that there was no doubt that Birmingham deserved this point after the effort they have put into the match.

The brilliant result against a team chasing automatic promotion will certainly help them perform well in the coming matches. The club, though, have had just one win in the last five league matches.

“Without a doubt we deserved that. That’s why the emotion was there at the end, I was celebrating like I was, for the fans, for the players. If they had come off that pitch losing the game, it would have been criminal for their efforts. We were brave, we created chances. They stuck to the game plan. There was nothing in the first-half. We made half an error and got punished to go 1-0 down,” said Clark. Birmingham’s next match will be against Sheffield Wednesday away from home.

The Championship club Birmingham City has struggled in this season trying to keep their head above water as they scrape the lower section of the league and after not being able to pick up positive results in their home turf, it has been officially announced that the assistant manager and the first team coach of the club have been sacked.

Terry McDermott and Derek Fazackerley was the duo in charge of implementing the formation and tactics for Birmingham City but after not being able to win in their home stadium after 11 matches it was only a matter of time until the club went through a few changes of their own.

The former Everton player Steve Watson is being linked as the man to be the next assistant manager of Birmingham City and he is expected to be joined along with Richard Beale and John Vaughan.

The manager of the club, Lee Clark has denied saying that anybody has been sacked although confirmation from the media has been announced.

Clark stated: “We had a discussion at the weekend, a debriefing of the game with players and staff. As I said, no one has been sacked. We had a discussion. And, as you know in employment, once that happens, it has to go down the legal route and that is where we are at the moment. For legal reasons I can’t divulge much more we are discussions with the two guys.”

John Vaughan will remain being the club’s goalkeeper coach while Richard Beale is expected to retain his position as development squad manager.

“John has always been in that position in the dugout, but the two other lads move into those roles and it will be of great help and great support to us,” Clark added.

The manager of Birmingham City, Lee Clark, has said that his players are immensely frustrated after not being able to get better of Barnsley the other day on their home ground St Andrew’s.

The Blues had put themselves in a position to win that match, but, they seemed to slow down a little bit in the latter half of the game and that cost them a couple of points. The visitors managed to neutralise their lead and the game eventually finished in the form of a draw.

Birmingham City’s performance at their home venue this season hasn’t been the greatest and that’s a worry for them. If you want to be at a decent position in the points table at the end of the season, the first thing that you need to make sure is that you secure as many points as possible from your home games, but, that hasn’t quite happened for the Blues so far.

Talking to the reporters after the match against Barnsley, Clark said, “Our start was quite good, but, unfortunately, we couldn’t keep the momentum going for the full 90 minutes. We gave Barnsley the opportunity to come back into the game and with the amount of talent they have got; they were never going to waste that opportunity. They played some eye pleasing football in the later stages of the game.”
“You definitely get frustrated when you don’t win a match after being in a position to do that, but, it’s vital to learn from each and every match.”

Birmingham City’s recent performances have been great. They have been undefeated since the last 2 and half months. Out of their last 10 games, they have won 4, while, in the rest 6, they have shared points.

Kyle Bartley told that the Blues need to get some momentum when Blackpool comes to St Andrew’s on Saturday. Birmingham City is looking forward to this match as a springboard for the rest of the season.

Lee Clark’s team is looking for their very first consecutive wins in the season since April when Blackpool come St Andrew’s. With matches against Bournemouth, Middlesbrough, Barnsley and Doncaster Rovers and to follow, this is a good scope for Birmingham City to finally rise up Championship.

At present, they are at 18th, with fourteen points from fifteen matches. Quite interestingly, last year during the same stage, Birmingham City was also on 18th spot in the Championship, with nineteen points.

Kyle Bartley told that he thinks it is the Championship. He heard Steve McClaren talking after Derby performance speaking about consistency. Sheffield Wednesday registered a 5  2 win and after that got beaten 3 – 0 by them. If you look across the whole league, maybe except the top two or three, then everyone has been inconsistent.

He added that this is about getting that level of consistency – going forward to play well, and the results come after hat. This is something that they have not managed to do till now. They have played quite well, but they did not strung together the results. They have been very up and down. If the team could continue to play as a team, work hard, the team would go on a good run for wins.