I hate international week. I’m not a huge fan of international football (although I’ll probably end up watching England on the box) and as you’ve probably noticed if you read any of the messageboards around it’s kinda killed discussion about Blues – which is a problem when you’ve made a personal commitment to updating a blog every single day. With there being not much in the news I thought I’d use this article to give some of my thoughts about some of the stuff knocking around online about BCFC.

There have been some fairly big takeover rumours on a couple of boards; talk of merchant banks being involved, of due diligence with books and whatnot. I will say here and now I’m a sceptic; from the bits and pieces I’ve picked up from talking to various people I can’t say I’ve heard anything that backs up the assertion that Blues are on the verge of being taken over. I’m sure that there are interested parties – Colin Tattum alluded to as such in his excellent piece for the Birmingham Mail yesterday. It’s all about price though – at the moment Carson and BIHL have shown no desire to sell and until they do I don’t believe anyone will step forwards with enough cash to change their mind – it would be economic suicide.

On the players front, there was the news Jean Beausejour got kicked out of the squad for Chile’s next day along with four compatriots. There has been all kinds of versions of events floating around, but Beausejour has refuted allegations of attending training drunk. I think this could be a plus for Blues – Beausejour would undoubtedly have played in the qualifiers against Uruguay and Paraguay and the enforced rest may come at a good time considering how leggy he’s looked recently. With the Chilean winger also missing the Reading game through suspension I hope he will return for the Peterborough game as fresh as a daisy.

The other thing I saw in the news today was that Blues are unlikely to make any further loan signings in the twelve remaining days of the loan window barring any major injury catastrophes – which would mean that the rumours of Nile Ranger coming to Blues would be untrue until January at least. I have to admit, I’m uncomfortable with the idea of us bringing in Ranger; right now he’s got more court cases than goals and it seems his head isn’t right for playing football at the moment. As much as I think he’s a player with potential you have to ask yourself do Blues need a player with more baggage than Terminal five at Heathrow right now?

We’re heading into another busy spell of football after this break, with eight games in twenty-six days, including a spell of four away games on the spin against Blackpool, Braga, Cardiff City and Hull City. This little spell is going to go a long way to defining our season; whether or not we will continue our European adventure in the new year and our chances of pushing up the table to look for a play off or automatic promotion spot. As much as I hate international breaks I hope this one has helped our players recharge their batteries enough to be ready for the next onslaught.

Tags: Carson Yeung, Jean Beausejour, Nile Ranger