GARY NEWBON Blues can look forward to a new era of stability with boss Eustace
BIRMINGHAM City have had 12 different managers in the past 12 years. Sheer incompetence by previous owners and executives that has taken the club in that period from both League Cup winners in 2011 and relegation from the Premier League in the same season to mediocrity in the Championship. Plus a few scrapes with relegation.
Now I feel, with a little patience, the new owners and Blue Noses have something to look forward to with manager John Eustace.
He should look back on his first season at St Andrew’s with satisfaction.
John is in for the long haul so forget stories about him joining Swansea.
That is an old story when he was offered that job two years ago but stayed as assistant manager at Queens Park Rangers, where he worked for first Steve Mcclaren and then Mark Warburton.
Now 43, the Solihull-born midfielder started his playing career with Coventry City where he was restricted to 98 first-team appearances due to injuries.
Ron Atkinson was manager of the Sky Blues and told me that Eustace was very good and reckoned if it had not been for those injuries he would have probably played for England. The next Coventry manager, Gordon Strachan, made him captain.
Eustace played for several other clubs before beginning his management career at non-league Kidderminster Harriers.
Here he developed some young players and his policy of attractive football really paid off with play-off spots as well as reaching the first round proper of the FA Cup.
His winning percentage was 53.40%. Kidderminster were then dubbed ‘the Barcelona of nonleague football.’
Eustace had two years there before his move to QPR, having correctly been identified as a young coach with a bright future.
After all those managerial sackings at Blues, he moved to Birmingham City two weeks before last season opened. He signed on a three-year contract.
What a start, playing a 3-5-2 formation with Scott Hogan and Troy Deeney up front.
Blues’ results were the best after 24 games for ten years.
Then injuries and suspensions came along (added to fan protests against the absent owners and the structural ground problems) and it was a hard slog for the management.
But Eustace dug in and turned Blues (favourites to finish bottom at the season’s start) into a respectable 17th – 14 points above bottom-placed Wigan in 24th position. Blues were also nine points above the relegation zone. Eustace’s attacking principle had to be adapted as the various selection problems set in but the powerful striker Lukas Jutkiewicz, involved in 43 matches, weighed in with five goals and two assists. The 34-year-old has a great attitude.
With the Financial Fair Play changes thought to be introduced soon – 70% of revenue – Blues have to be mindful of avoiding a points deduction.
The wage bill has to be reduced so the likes of Deeney, Harlee Dean and Maxime Colin have now left the club.
On loan last season, the youngster, 20-year-old Hannibal Mejbri, was a firm fans’ favourite and has returned to Manchester United.
The Tunisian international played on the edge and sometimes had to be substituted after a yellow card. But he made a big impact and was one of the youngsters on the Eustace team sheet. So, good recruitment of new players this summer is going to be vital and Craig Gardner and his aides will need to get it right.
The new owners appear to be very good news. The American financier Tom Wagner has obtained 45.6 % of the club.
Local businessman and Blues fan Jeremy Dale put the owners’ group together. It is a new era.
I hope they prove to be good owners – I have no doubts about Eustace. If the board and supporters get behind him, both with patience and backing, better days will be back for the Second City’s other team!
They must be fed up being in the shadow of Europe-bound Aston Villa.
Birmingham City have been relegated from the top flight 12 times, now equalled by Leicester City.
Blues have also been promoted a record 12 times to the top division.
Leicester is my team since my grandfather, who lived near their ground, first took me when I was six years old.
The Foxes are aware of my history and I was with my wife Katie in the boardroom a week last Sunday when they won the match 2-1 against West Ham but lost the struggle for survival and were relegated. Very sad and deflating.
The next day as the guest of Richard Clowes and his wife Dot we were in a Leicester racecourse box for the football club’s race day.
The Foxes’ owner had four runners. I had a tip from the inside the parade ring from the man that counts in the pre-race horses that King Power’s 4.48pm runner The Big Board was the one the stable fancied.
Really? It was 20-1 and had not run for six months. Ah well, I chucked another £20 at it.
Wow, it duly won and the Tote gave me back £420.
With a little patience, the new owners and Blue Noses have something to look forward to with manager John Eustace.
On that happy note let me remind you I am back in the Sunday Mercury with Utilita Energy.