Robins on much safer ground in drop battle for St Andrew’s clubs
Bears in T20 coup as Carlos
WILL Birmingham City be relegated from the Championship this season? If Blues lose at home this evening to the division’s best team, leaders Norwich, AND Rotherham, also at home, beat Nottingham Forest, then they will be back in the drop zone again.
The Yorkshire team, two points adrift, have two games in hand.
Several diehard Bluenoses have asked me to put the boot into head coach Aitor Karanka but I did point out that the Championship is unpredictable.
Give the beleaguered team and boss a little credit. They won 1-0 at the weekend at fellow strugglers Sheffield Wednesday, even if Scott Hogan did not score the only goal until the hosts were reduced to 10 players after 50 minutes.
When you are fighting relegation these are the sort of games you have to win.
Wednesday are at second-placed Brentford tomorrow night. They do have a game in hand but a lot will depend on whether the London club have top scorer Ivan Toney back from injury.
Take nothing away from Coventry’s fine performance in their 2-0 win over the Bees at the weekend, but Toney was missing. He is the Championship’s leading goalscorer this season with 24.
I wrote months ago that I believe Coventry will finish higher than Blues and I stick by that forecast.
The Sky Blues are only three points ahead but they do have slightly better goal difference.
They are in a tough schedule at present. Coventry drew with thirdplaced Watford then lost at Norwich before their surprise, but deserved,
win over Brentford. Tomorrow the travel to fourth-placed Swansea.
After that, the fixture list goes: Blackburn away, Midddlesbrough and Derby at home, followed by huge games at Rotherham and Luton, before bottom team Wycombe come to St Andrew’s. Surely quite a few points there. Blues, after Norwich, are at home to mid-table QPR on Saturday. Then it is Huddersfield and Barnsley in Yorkshire; Bristol City and fifthplaced
Reading at home, Swansea away, Brentford away, before Stoke at home and Rotherham away. How many points will really be collected from those games? Not too many in my view.
Coventry were everyone’s favourites to go straight down and they are not out of the woods by a long way. But their spirit and squad give them real hope.
The club’s biggest minus is they do not own a ground and therefore pay rent to Birmingham City for the use of St Andrew’s for their home matches. It is a bit like a pub with no beer!
Birmingham should be a bigger club than their current position. They have/had a loyal support and have suffered so many disappointments.
I admire the way their supporters stick at it but I think the club, head coach and team should be grateful that no fans are present to vent their anger at the set-up.
The comedians used to joke that Lord Lucan was spotted in the Blues’ trophy room! Harsh, but true.
No Football League/premier League trophies, no FA Cup, two League Cups (1963 and 2011), and two minor trophies (League Trophy in 1991 and 1995).
This for a club in the country’s Second City which turned professional in 1885.
Many of my friends over the years have been Bluenoses and deserve better but a change of ownership is unlikely.
In normal times, I go to St Andrew’s a lot to see both clubs. To watch Blues, I go to John White’s box where his regular guests also include Ron Atkinson, Garry Pendrey and Jim Barron.
This is my opinion, of course, but I do think the Sky Blues have better players, a better manager and I prefer their chairman and chief executive.
In fairness, I do not know the Blues’ owners and chief executive – their directors are listed as Wenquing Zhao, Chung Kong Yiu, Yao Wang and CEO Xuandong Ren.
I have never seen the owners. Am I unfair and have Blues supporters seen them?
The incentive of the club, it seems, to owners is the valuable listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The listing is actually the Birmingham Sports Holdings, which I understand owns 70 to 80 per cent of Birmingham City Football Club.
This is Chinese, Hong Kong and Cambodian-owned. What amazes me is that last Thursday the shares on this company went up 14 per cent and the next day 19 per cent. Why, when the team is doing so badly?
However, this Hong Kong listing is so important I cannot see the club will be up for sale whatever division Blues are in. The question is, do they care?
Clearly, the fans want lots of changes. Only the head coach and players are likely to go through the revolving door.
Will the Blues and/or Sky Blues go down? Or will both escape? Stay tuned!
Coventry were everyone’s favourites to go straight down and they are not out of the woods by a long way. But their spirit and squad give them real hope.
I’ve heard a lot about the atmosphere and the big T20 crowds that come to Edgbaston to watch the Bears. Carlos Brathwaite
BLOCKBUSTING T20 all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite is heading to Edgbaston after committing to the Birmingham Bears for this year’s Vitality Blast.
The 32-year-old became one of the biggest stars in T20 cricket after his incredible four back-to-back sixes, and 34 runs off 10 balls, took West Indies to glory in the World
Cup final in Kolkata in 2016. The Barbadian all-rounder is currently playing in the Pakistan Super League with Multan Sultans and has played in all premier T20 tournaments, including the Blast with Kent in 2018, the Indian Premier League, the Big Bash, the Caribbean Premier League and Bangladesh Premier League.
“Carlos is an outstanding addition to our team,” said the Bears’ director of cricket, Paul Farbrace. “He’s a game-changer who adds vital firepower to our middle order, but his variation with the ball gives us another strong seam-bowling option.
“I was part of the England coaching team in 2016 when Carlos’ four successive sixes changed the World Cup final, so I’m well aware of his capabilities.
“I’m just glad we’ll have the benefits of his qualities now that he’s signed for the Bears.”
Brathwaite added: “It’s very exciting to join the Bears and to make Edgbaston my home this summer.
“I’ve heard a lot about the atmosphere and the big T20 crowds that come to Edgbaston to watch the Bears. I can’t wait to get started this summer in the Blast.
“I know the team went very close to reaching the quarter-finals last year, but we’ve got a lot of young talent in this squad and I’m hoping we can push on further this year. Getting to Finals Day at our home ground would be fantastic.”