Birmingham City are potentially two games away from relegation to League One after a disastrous campaign in the Championship.
Blues travel to Huddersfield Town this weekend to play the ultimate six-pointer. A defeat could send either team down, only a win will cut it for Gary Rowett's side at this stage of the season.
Their task was made more difficult by the failure to beat basement side Rotherham United last weekend. Blues only mustered a 0-0 draw at the New York Stadium and Sheffield Wednesday's win over Blackburn Rovers on Sunday plunged them back into the bottom three.
This week's Keep Right On Podcast reacted to the Rotherham draw and assessed Blues' chances of staying up before tackling takes and questions from supporters. You can read the Q&A section of the podcast below...
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In both your honest and unbiased opinions, why do you think it’s gone so wrong this season?
AD: "In short, the constant chopping and changing of managers is the main reason. Firstly, the decision to fire John Eustace when the players were doing well pulled the rug out from beneath them. When Wayne Rooney came in their playbook was completely ripped up and he tried to do a different thing with a group designed to play a certain way under John Eustace. It did not work and players have said that on the record since. It didn’t feel like it was ever going to work.
“With 10 points in the first six league games under Tony Mowbray, he really steadied the ship. He stepped down due to illness and Mark Venus wasn’t able to carry that on. The results under him were disastrous and Blues had to bring in Gary Rowett. If you include Steve Spooner, Blues have had six managers this season - three permanent and three interim.
“It’s a very big squad of players, which can in itself lead to problems. But the constant shifting of messages has been the biggest problem for me. They had clear messages and structure under John Eustace and there was no need to change it. The hierarchy could never have foreseen the illness to Mowbray, that has been a massive stroke of bad luck, but they could have managed things a bit better beforehand.
“Hopefully this car crash of a season does not end in relegation. The biggest problem for me is that so many things have changed since pre-season when everything all seemed rosy. It’s all been blown apart and it’s no surprise Blues are in this position based on what’s happened.”
BD: “All the problems flow from that decision to change from John Eustace to Wayne Rooney. The squad was recruited to play the way Eustace had them playing to a degree, I do think Craig Gardner and his recruitment team did try to move it on a little bit. What they were doing was playing to a plan. I’ve always said you don’t go looking for trouble in the Championship because it finds you and it has absolutely found Blues. And everything that has happened since then, some of it controllable and some of it not controllable, all goes back to that decision to move on to John Eustace, which they could have done in the summer and given themselves more opportunity to build a team. They also could have waited until this summer. All the subsequent failings lead back to that decision for me.”
Are fans/owners downplaying how bad it would be to go down? Absolutely no guarantee of coming up and then we need to go up again, a big two billion pound sports quarter in the Championship wasn’t the plan. League One is an absolute disaster that doesn’t seem to be bothering people.
AD: “From the ownership perspective it goes back to the Sports Quarter announcement and I did ask Tom Wagner whether relegation to League One would change the plans. He said, ‘No, absolutely not’.
“You wouldn’t expect someone at the top of an organisation who is supposed to exude confidence down to his employees to say ‘Yes that will massively impact things’. He gave those under him the right message.
“With regards to supporters, I think a lot of people are just more encouraged by the situation and the noises coming from the new owners than they were under previous owners. I think it’s more a case of if Blues do go down - and obviously nobody wants that - then they are in a better position to come back up. Judging by what the new owners have done in recent weeks, such as announcing the Sports Quarter and employing new staff in new roles, it suggests they are planning far ahead of potentially being in League One next season. They are planning 10 years away, not a year or two away. I don’t think it would change a lot in the short-term. But obviously they wouldn’t want Blues down there for three or four years and you would hope the finances would be in place to make sure Blues are way ahead of their competitors and at the top of League One.”
BD: “If Tom Wagner has said Knighthead remain committed in the event of relegation we have no other option than to take that at face value. The other point I would make is that people are saying Blues can’t fill their stadium now, why make a bigger one for League One? It’s not about that. It’s about building a stadium that generates more revenue to buy better players to attract more people, whether that’s League One or the Championship. Symbolically it would not be a good look. Knighthead have said they want to put Blues in the Premier League, if they go down this season they will be closer to League Two than the Premier League.”
If we’re in League 1 next season, will we be able to retain the best of a bad bunch?
AD: “Who are we defining as the best of the bad bunch? For me we’re talking Krystian Bielik, Paik, Miyoshi, Lee Buchanan and Laird. We’ve said a few times that Laird, when he puts it together, is a potential PFA team of the year right-back. He hasn’t put it together enough in recent weeks. I think Blues would have trouble hanging onto him because I don’t think he sees his career in League One at this stage.
“Lee Buchanan signed a five-year contract so Blues have the cards there, whether they are in the Championship or League One. You would like to think they would be able to hang onto him. He was good under John Eustace and he’s been good under Gary Rowett, he was unsettled by Wayne Rooney and out of favour under Tony Mowbray. In the right situation in the Championship, Lee Buchanan is a very good left-back so I think there would be teams looking at him.
“With Paik and Miyoshi, I don’t think there would be any chance of keeping them. They both came here to further their careers in Europe and with their international teams. Paik has just got back in the South Korea team, I don’t think he would have any chance of keeping his place if he was playing in League One. I couldn’t see Paik or Miyoshi sticking around if Blues do go down.
“It’s the same with Krystian Bielik. In his own way, he is a contender for player of the season and it’s strange to say that because he really dropped off under Wayne Rooney. I think Rooney made life very difficult for Bielik with the way he played. Rowett has simplified his role and he’s been the most important player since Rowett came in.
“He was very reluctant to go down to League One with Derby County, so I’d be stunned if he was now, particularly given that he’s lost his place in the Poland side in the last 12 months.”
