AITOR’S AIM FOR STAYING POWER

AITOR KARANKA says he’s in it for the long haul at Birmingham.

The former Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest boss knows he is their sixth manager in as many years.

But that has not stopped him from following Gianfranco Zola, Harry Redknapp, Steve Cotterill, Garry Monk and Pep Clotet into one of the hottest seats in the Championship.

Karanka (below) said: “I don’t want to say I don’t care about how the other managers got on but I come here hoping to be here for a long period.

“What went on in the past doesn’t concern me. I trust myself. If I’m the sixth one in five years, it’s because I haven’t done my job properly.

“If I thought I was coming to a place where I could have been sacked in two or three months, I would have stayed at home.”

The financial fall-out from a mammoth spending spree back in 2017 – while failing to mount a serious promotion bid – has dogged Birmingham.

The club survived and selling striker Che Adams to Southampton for £16million and wonderkid Jude Bellingham to Borussia Dortmund for £28m have kept the wolf from the door.

Karanka has brought in George Friend and ex-Arsenal trainee Jon Toral on free transfers.

But he won’t rush into signing more – or making bold promises.

He said: “I needed to get to know the players we have, first. We’re not going to hurry.

“And I’m not going to make the same mistake at Birmingham that I did at Middlesbrough.

“In my first press conference, I said I was there to win promotion. Then we lost the final.

“It was a good season but because we lost in the final, it was seen as a failure.”