Weaker And Weaker
Unlike the majority of Championship clubs this season, we at BCFC appear to be getting weaker by the minute. Being the underdogs to almost every other team we face is beyond humiliating but, even worse, exactly correct. We border on being welcome fodder for our opponents which is an embarrassment.
Whatever happens between now and the transfer window deadline will never be more vital. John Eustace is playing his ever depleting squad as best he can without the luxury, if you can call it that, of not knowing who will be treading the training ground from day to day. Yes we know the state of the club and it’s need to offload players etc. And we also recognise the problems regarding our ongoing takeover, which may or may not ultimately happen. But losing the faith of supporters so early in the season is damaging.
My hope is that the next few days will see an influx of players capable of keeping our Championship status intact. Winning games for us at the moment appears to be too complicated. And, frankly, a bridge too far with never a thought that maybe one of our strikers will turn it on and burst the net with the all important winner. We expect nothing and that’s the issue. We never get pleasantly surprised.
To get weaker in this league so early in the season is likely to prove fatal, which stresses again the need for this window to work, with outgoings expected to balance the books. All understandable by the majority of supporters, but this balancing act can backfire should we trip up with forty tough league games ahead. My view is that we have never been so fragile all over the playing field, which demands urgent attention this window. Not next.
If we must, we can just about accept the silence from the club in terms of communication whilst the supposed takeover is seemingly being progressed. And we can swallow our lot when our ground is not the best, although the delays in addressing the problems really are a shocking reflection on those running the club. But we cannot sit and watch our team become the fodder of the Championship by simply becoming weaker.
After a summer with a touch of optimism, with the hope of new beginnings and burying the forgettable past seasons, we still hold on for that flicker of improvement, and to enjoy this season. We still may achieve this, but first we have to stem the all too obvious fragility on the pitch.
Mitchell Bray
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Addition of Mejbri will help, but strengthen we must in many depts. Just fear the signing of new players will come at the expense of selling Hall to Leeds or whoever.
I haven’t commented on this site for quite some time as it some subscribers get carte blanche access while some of us are ignored.
However, I have to agree with Mitchell as to our once proud club becoming cannon fodder for every other team in the division. Looking at the forthcoming fixtures on present form I can’t see where a point is going to come from between now and the World Cup, in fact between now and the new year. Useless Eustace surely must be someone’s idea of a joke, it’s clear why he hasn’t managed above the seventh tier before now, he doesn’t have a clue.
Today’s news that Birmingham have sanctioned the permanent purchase of Chong from Manchester United is very welcome though I don’t see him making a step to Championship relegation favourites (a tag that seems unlikely to change with the rubbish the team is playing at present) it does beg the question, where is the money coming from? He won’t be cheap, and if the club can afford that why is the ground still in such a mess? After all making the ground safe would allow bigger attendancies and therefore generate more income. maybe it’s just a ploy from the owners to make us think they’re still potentially putting money into the club where in reality they know that this transfer will never happen.
At present everything about the club is an embarrassment to it’s once proud supporters, as much as it hurts to say it maybe relegation is what we need to hurry the sale on before the present owners destroy our club totally.
As for the players they’re not even putting in a shift, the stats for games are hurtful, during Saturday’s game the team didn’t even have a single shot for the first 45 minutes. As Mitchell says, we’re already the club everyone wants to play as they feel they’re guaranteed 3 points whether home or away. Our match against Huddersfield seems so far away, our dreams are dwindling and our club is folding. I’m not looking for promotion at present, the club can’t afford to get promoted, just a reasonable mid table finish without having to fight relegation.
Get the ownership sorted so we can appoint a proper manager and hopefully begin to attract some decent players. We all know that finances are to put it politely, a problem and will be for a while to come thanks to the present owners but at the present time it’s difficult to be optimistic.
One last thing, if the present ownership bid goes through, which we all hope but seems to be becoming more doubtful by the day, it’s in the contract that if Birmingham get promoted within 5 years the new owners will have to pay the old owners an extra ten million pounds, WHY? What have the present owners ever done to push for promotion now let alone in the future?
KRO
We can all dissect the problems at our club until the cows come home but we are where we are and we can only hope that the mistakes of the past are slowly being rectified.The one thing that has bugged me over the last few seasons is how successive Managers have seemed oblivious to the talent that is in the lower Leagues.Huddersfield have picked up a bargain in Tyreece Simpson for £500,000 from Ipswich and l cannot tell you how many bargains have been snapped up by the likes of Blackburn,Blackpool and Preston in the past but hopefully that is changing with the news that the Salford City strikes is joining us for around £300,000, l would rather do that and follow the path of Brentford who made millions out of buying players for next to nothing and selling them on for ridiculous prices (3 to us) than us keep having has beens with no commercial value whatsoever.It took Brentford years to achieve their goal but they reached it and are one of the most profitable Clubs in the Premier, a model that many Clubs should follow.
Very good post John I 100% agree. What really doesn’t sit well with me is Eustace saying yes our team is the weakest in the league and if we can get some players in then good but if not we carry on. He may as well say I get paid regardless. The Tunisian is supposed to be very good and if we can get Chong for the same price as Leko then thats amazing. I hear we are after a league two striker from Salford as well as left back Bryan from Fulham. I’ll believe it when I see a photo of the player in front of the kop holding up a blues scarf. I wouldn’t trust a word coming out of these owners mouths and will only believe it when I see it. In the meantime KRO.
There’s a lot of ‘doom and gloom’ on this site at the moment, which I can understand, to a degree.
However, let’s put the season so far into context: Out of 7 games played (6 league, 1 Cup) Blues have been ‘competitive’ in all bar 2 in my opinion—the games at Cardiff and Rotherham. Yes, they weren’t great v Wigan, but played very well v Huddersfield and Watford, defended well at Luton and got a great point there, and showed character and fight to come back from 2-0 down at Norwich in the League Cup.
So what’s my point? The point is we all need to take a deep breath and maybe judge the Manager and his squad after at least say, 15 league games, rather than just 6!!
Anyway, since Mitchell wrote his piece, Blues have managed to recruit Mejbri on loan, and are apparently in talks to sign Chong permanently. These lads will undoubtedly help the team. They will certainly bring energy and creativity, which we had none of on Saturday. Unfortunately for us at the moment, if Bacuna has a bad game, our creativity is largely stifled.
In an ideal world we could do with a left back and a goal scorer with pace before this window closes, and could do with offloading Dean and maybe even Jukey, which will obviously help the club financially.
Despite my ‘calm down’ plea above, I’m also concerned about whether or not Eustace has what it takes to succeed with Blues-only time will tell, and 7 games is not a sufficient amount of time.
That said, I would like to know whether Eustace has any say in who joins and leaves the playing staff, as he doesn’t appear to. I think he sees his role as purely to coach the best out of whoever makes up his squad in order to try to win football matches. Having no say in who joins, if that is the case, seems more than a little odd to me? (Does anyone know exactly how this process works at Blues at the moment? Does Eustace have a list of targets, or does Craig Gardner et al just bring in who they can?Please enlighten me!)
Mark R. Really good and reasoned points which are appreciated. Like so many who contribute on this site always have a great input and thought provoking points of view. Today’s comments are a good example of loyal supporters offering their own take on events and each one coming to the party with something. We all learn from each other. Long may it continue.
Thanks Mitchell, and I totally agree-part of the enjoyment of football is about sharing views and opinions, as they are sometimes wide and varied, but nonetheless interesting to read.
On that note, are you planning to counsel the views of our members on the recent transfer window activity at St Andrews?
For what it’s worth I think Blues showed what I would describe as ‘cautious ambition’. They finally brought in a left back and signed Chong on a permanent, which should please most fans, but sadly failed to bring a striker in—although that was not for the want of trying, it seems.
Be great to see other peoples overall assessments of this transfer window!
KRO
We have been gazumped by the Baggies for the Salford City Striker, just when l thought we were getting somewhere,Baggies obviously offered more money.
I have sympathy so far with John Eustace. Up until 29th August, he has not been given the tools he needs to work with. However, calling for his head at THIS STAGE is plain silly. Remember he is on a 3 year contract.!!!! How did THAT happen, when all we do is spend money on sacking our managers and having to a them off.????
lee Bowyer was never given the tools to work with either!
I agree that at the start of the season our team became weaker, whilst others in the league, already better than us, got stronger. The latest surge before the deadline is a slightly more encouraging sign. We must see what it brings, but so many positions which should long since have been addressed remain bare.!!!
With regards to John Eustace. He needs to be given the tools to do the job before we can criticise too strongly, but I am amazed he was given a 3 year contract , when for the past few seasons all our money has gone on paying off managers.
Lee Bowyer was never given the tools to work with either!