Important message that must be learned
THE first time I heard a Birmingham City fan express concern about the possibility of relegation last season stuck firmly in my mind. It was a Thursday. July 7, 2016. In Marbella. Before a ball kicked.
Indeed, Blues’ pre-season training camp hadn’t even ended when, in a bar in the resort town of Puerto Banus, the prophetic Bluenose aired his misgivings.
Remember, this was a time when Gary Rowett was still in charge, when Ryan Shotton and Robert Tesche had been brought in, further reinforcements were on the way and optimism was supposed to be untainted by reality.
“I know what this club is like,” he said. “I’ve seen it too many times before, I just want us to stay in the league.”
And so it came to pass. Exactly ten months and two managers later, there were Blues battling for their Championship lives against Bristol City.
I would love to have met the same supporter at Ashton Gate on Sunday, May 7. No doubt his reaction would have been somewhere between a knowing nod and a hysterical ‘I bleeping told you so’.
The underlying message is that where Blues are concerned you can never assume anything.
Which is exactly what the owners and directors did.
They assumed that on December 13, following the 2-1 El Jurassico had even been long-ballathon victory over Ipswich, they had a free hit.
The following day they sacked Rowett, presumably working on the basis that ‘What’s the worst that can happen? We won’t get promoted again this year?’
Well, as all Bluenoses are aware, what happened was far, far worse than not getting promoted. On and off the field.
On it, a team that was built to be more than the sumum of its p artsa r t s lost confidence, belief and football matches hes at an alarming rate.
Off it the changee of management widdened the fissures in n the whole club – to o such an extent thatt the directors felt t compelled too address all playingng and non-playing staffstaffff in the build-up too the Wolves match. Their exhortations of unity merely papered over those fissures.
And so the club remained ill-at-ease -ease with itself as the team slid further and furtherrther towards the dangeranger zone. The nadir came over Easter when Gianfranco Zola played five at the back at Rotherham, drew 1-1, and followed that up with a wretched 2-0 home defeat to Burton. The games that had always been his insurance policy failed to pay out. Only then d did he do the right thing and step do down. It was not a mo moment too soon. Not a single day or t training session too early. Harry Redknapp’sRe appointment little more than 12 hours later prove proved to be a masterstroke. Within a few days the team was transfo transformed back to its pragmatic,pragmati scrapping, wholegreater-t greater-than-the-parts, 2016 identity. In Red Redknapp’s first home game, StS Andrew’s was not only full but was restored to the bearpitb of unconditionaltio support and defianced of a bygone era.e The respondedr by comingco every team overpiece of adversity thrown its way and, speaking to the players later, you could sense that belief had flooded back.
They were once again the same men who had spent the last two years successfully battling the odds and where doubt had existed for the previous four months, there was now a certainty they would be able to finish a job they should never have been given. Winning a relegation fight. In the end it was nervy, incredibly nervy. As if to underline the folly of the managerial change the last 15 minutes of the season were excruciating.
In a way, though, it was fitting that the scrapping foundations on which this squad has been built, were the qualities that saw it through that final quarter-of-an-hour.
They are the qualities demanded by every Birmingham City fan – particularly those who are able to recognise the past for what it is and use that knowledge to inform the future.
That’s a lesson for everyone at the club. Especially those off the field. Never assume anything.
As if to underline the folly of the managerial change the last 15 minutes of the season were excruciating