Gardner is planning to sow seeds for growth with Blues
BIRMINGHAM City have employed two policies to their recruitment over the last four or five years. Feast or famine.
In 2017 and 2020, it was all new player announcements, ‘wadmin’ and a philosophy of ‘just one more’, yet the jigsaw of a successful team remained steadfastly incomplete.
In 2018 and, to a lesser extent, 2019, either EFL or financial restrictions meant quality additions were rare and – guess what – the jigsaw of a successful team remained unsurprisingly incomplete.
The one constant was the turnover of managers, which led to a churn of players and a surfeit of time or money, sometimes both, just to tread water in swell near the bottom of the Championship.
The appointment of Craig Gardner as technical director is intended to end that cycle and herald a new era of evolution rather than revolution.
A regime which will hopefully last years rather than months and in which recruitment – the very lifeblood of a football club – is proactive rather than reactive.
For all his newness to the most important role at any club, Gardner’s recent experience of playing, extensive contacts from a long career, relationship with Lee Bowyer and knowledge of Blues and its owners, should stand him in good stead.
The 34-year-old said: “It’s very exciting, a good opportunity. I know the club, I know the fans, I understand the fans, I understand the club.
“I have been given this opportunity at Birmingham City – a club that is in me – and I think people know I will do everything in my power to help this club.”
There’s plenty to be done. Gardner will probably be judged, first and foremost, by his success in the transfer market – an environment that has been less than kind to those at Blues who have dabbled in the recent past.
He has not been given the pot of gold handed to some of the club’s managers. Indeed, Gardner and Bowyer are going to have to work harder and smarter to generate the surplus they will need.
“We’re still suffering from three, four, five years ago, that’s no secret, I think the fans know that,’’ said Gardner.
“We haven’t got bundles of money, I don’t think anybody has, so we have to be creative with what we do.”
Creative genius is often ten per cent inspiration and 90 per cent perspiration, and it’s the latter portion that craves Gardner’s attention. Identification of new players and development of the club’s own will be the key.
“Our academy is so important to this club because you can look at how many top players have come through, not only Jude (Bellingham), but Nathan Redmond, Jack Butland, Demarai Gray – the list goes on and on. We don’t want that to stop, we want a conveyor belt for them to keep coming.
“Lee is on board with that, he knows that, he wants to bring these academy players through, but we have to make sure a) they are ready, b) they are good enough, and c) they want to play for Birmingham City. It’s a massive club.”
Ensuring readiness is the reason for the promotion of Paul Harsley, from the club’s youth system to Bowyer’s first-team staff.
His brief will include managing the young prospects as they enter the world of first-team football to maximise their chances of success.
“When you make that step from academy football to the first team, you go from boy to man, and you have to have somebody to control everything. Your minutes, your games, everything,’’ said Gardner.
“Because if they are not controlled, and you are not playing enough minutes for the 23s, when you are called into the first team, are you going to be lacking? Are you going to be match fit?
“It’s so important for us as a club to have that person in Paul to look after everything so that when
Lee wants to bring that young lad off the bench or wants to start him, he has got all these minutes under the belt, he is hitting his targets in training, he is fit. It helps Lee, it helps the club, it helps the young lad.”
And then there’s the players who are already breaking through at other clubs. Brentford have perfected the art of the seamless transition, where any given player’s successor is known way in advance.
“The whole point of talking about the recruitment, we are not just recruiting now for this transfer
window, we are recruiting for January, we are recruiting for the end of the season, we are recruiting for the next January – for the next two or three years,’’ said Gardner.
“We are watching
kids now that are 18, 19, 20 so when they come 21, 22, 23 we will be ‘Right, we know them – that’s who we want’.
“Brentford are really, really ahead of the game in their recruitment department.
“Am I saying we are going to copy Brentford?
“No, we are going to do it our own way, but we do look at other people and how they do it.
“It’s about knowing the players, the value of players, ‘Is so-and-so worth that much? Yes he is, we go in at that’.
“If the player wants more and we don’t think he’s worth more, we look at B, C or D.
“We have got lists, we don’t just look at A.
“This is how organised we are, and this is all part of our new regime.
“It is a big job, but if you surround yourself with people you can trust, you are all in it together.
“This is about Birmingham City, the fans having a voice and everyone coming together and us succeeding.
“I don’t want to get too carried away, but this could be the start of something good.”