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Breaking the Vicious Circle
Here’s a question for you, dear reader. If Blues were say in the top six of the Championship rather than the bottom six, do you think Blues fans would be as angry about the current situation as the current trends on social media seem to portray?
It’s not a massive stretch of insight to see the malaise that surrounds Birmingham City at the moment. One can easily feel it on the terraces – there is a tension in the air and it feels like that there is a lot of pent-up anger and frustration. In the last two games I’ve seen two arguments on the terraces between fans on the terraces that had the potential to turn ugly – and this is in the family stand. It’s almost as if people are expecting a poor performance, goals to be conceded and another three dropped points and that tension is causing ill feeling to flow.
Bearing in mind the way we have played this season it’s not hard to understand why people would think that would happen either. The team seems to lack confidence – one can visibly see heads drop when a goal is conceded and the team has sunk to the all-time low of having a pre-match huddle to try to whip up the necessary enthusiasm and spirit to try to win a game. The manager cuts a lone figure in the technical area, shouting at the players whilst taking the brickbats from the fans telling him to foxtrot oscar. It’s like the whole club is in this vicious circle – they have no money to sign good players, so they are stuck with what they have and they can’t cut it, meaning we play worse and gates become lower, meaning we have even less money… and again, it’s easy to visualise this as a death spiral into oblivion.
I want you to imagine though that instead of that, Blues were playing with some of the vim of vigour (and dare I say it luck) of last year. Imagine Stephen Carr and David Murphy hadn’t broken down with injury; that Keith Fahey hadn’t had to return home and that Darren Ambrose’s knee hadn’t turned to mush. Imagine if a few of the games Blues have lost due to not being able to hang on they had clung on; that some of the downright abominations like Barnsley hadn’t happened. Would the anger still be there? Would people feel so frustrated, so helpless and so annoyed sitting in the stands?
I think we wouldn’t be. I think that like last season, people would be behind the team (despite adversity) and that whilst the songs against Carson would continue (as they did last year) it wouldn’t be in the same manner of hate and vitriol but more triumph despite the crap that had gone on.
I think we’ve all lost hope. I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to work that out, but I believe that people need to understand that the reason we feel so bad is because our hopes of getting out of this mess via promotion have all but evaporated. Rather than believing in the team, in the club, the players and the manager we’ve lost faith in them all and now people are looking for someone to blame for this loss of hope.
As much as blaming someone and wanting them to feel one’s righteous wrath feels like the right thing to do, I don’t think it helps. I think right now as fans we need to break this vicious circle of despair, of frustration and of faithlessness. As hard as it is to believe in the team or the manager right now I think we have to try to give them our backing so that maybe they’ll continue to believe in themselves and maybe, just maybe they’ll be able to affect the situation by pulling us out of the relegation mire.
Blues have been in this situation before – worse even, in fairness – and they’ve come through it. If we get relegated and/or put into administration it’ll be hard to take and we’ll have to deal with those challenges if and when they present themselves. However, right now it’s my belief that until the opportunity arises that we can do more to aid the club, right now the best way to make the club an inviting prospect to new owners is to try to support our team.
Tags: Positivity, The Fans
104 Responses to “Breaking the Vicious Circle”
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We actually do have the players to push for promotion. We do not have the manager to push them. We also all know that we only have those players for a very short time. And we are stuck with a manager that can’t push a pen never mind a team. Unfortunately 1 + 1 does = 2 and we are screwed.
It’s a very interesting question and I suspect the current noise level would be far les with a successful team and many more fans would turn up for the home games.
It a vicious circle at the moment with bad news following bad news leading to a complete lack of trust and confidence in all aspects of the club.As many have written before-the club needs a complete clear out to include the board,players and management.
Re-building the fan base and confidence will take a long time to achieve -such is the gravity of the current situation.
I think Pannu would still be irritating and incompetent even if we beat Real Madrid 9-0 in the Champions league.
Agreed! I am sick and tired of the morons singing ‘how shit must you be, we winning/drawing at home/it’s only two-nil’ etc at every opportunity. It’s a funny chant, on occasion but I can’t imagine it does much for the players’ confidence and love for the fans (should they hear it). The fact of the matter is, we’re stuck with the shower we’ve got that owns the club and we can’t do much about it. We need to get behind the lads during games and protest and moan about the owners outside of that. KRO.
Well said Joey
That song is only a little joke, I don’t see a problem with it personally!
Much better post ….stay your positive self ……you carry a lot of weight with Blues fans
Whilst I admit football fans are a fickle breed and if we were top 6 this may not be as bad I wonder if we could have ever been top 6 in the first place. The squad itself is either to old,to young or to injured to perform week in week out. Taking into account a 3rd manager & coaching team in as many years and the fact that non of them know if there going to be sold I’m
Left to wonder is the huddle at the start of the match building team spirit or arranging to car share on the 31st of January when they swan off to Nottingham, Hull and Norwich
The trouble is there are no embers in the fire, no glimpse of light where fans can say yes we have a chance. When the Golds were in their last throws of management we were dire at times then there were games we were great standing up against the might of the Chelsea’s and Arsenal’s of the Prem and indeed when we dropped we came back for more because the team the management and the board to a certain degree gave us those embers to cling to.
Now we have nothing, there is nowhere or nothing to say this is worth holding on to only our love for a team that runs through your veins.
For me I am tired of it all to the point of I would like to go to sleep and then wake up when things are better, it is a bit like an illness that only time will heal.
We have no clout and it does not matter what we do or not do or say this will run its course irrespective of us the fans.
Of course Blues fans would not be as angry, far from it, they would be flocking to St Andrews and filling it, They would be more vociferous in support of the players on the pitch, the manager, the chairman and the owners. The owners themselves would be particularly delighted and at this time of year, being in a top six position, I am certain money would have been found to not only keep the better players we have, but also to go out and buy a few more.
I can in my own mind visualiise instruction being given to the manager about how he considers his team selection and believe he has strict instruction on this. An injured player is at the end of the day is a less saleable quantity than a fully fit one. I cannot therefore see cause to subject SC to derision
Our fans are always going to be expectant of good performances on the pitch but should always get behind the team when that level of performance is not being achieved. Imagine walking off the pitch at the end of a game you have lost, only to hear the fans applauds and Keep Right On still reverberating around the ground. Whatever division we are in, there will mostly always be better teams than ourselves. To imagine the scenario where we are first in the premiership and the Man Clubs are some way behind us, is every Bluenose’s dream. Yet, if we were in the top two or three in division two, playing well and scoring many goals, St Andrews would be packed and the support very vocal.
I do not believe we’ve all lost hope, we are just a little bit more than disappointed. We all know that with a little bit of luck going our way, we could have probably been sitting in position, 8, 9 or 10 at this point in time. St Andrews then would have a more relaxed atmosphere around it.
It becomes far too easy for the fans to apportion blame on the manager and the players but these people are not the root cause of the situation. Steve Clark was offered the job at St Andrews and, he duly took up that offer, who would not have? His contract obviously would have had confidentiality clauses in it for him not to divulge specific working policies. We do not know the restrictions he is having to work within except for the financial constraints.
So, blame for our current situation, both on and off the pitch, can only be pointed in two directions. Firstly the owners who took on our club out of being on ego trips, rather than having the financial resources from which to progress Birmingham City FC. Secondly, the supporters. What financial position were we in when under the control of Sullivan, Gold and Brady and what was one of the major contributing factors for those three selling up and leaving St Andrews. It was the continuous abuse aimed at them by the supporters. Any West Ham fan will now tell you of their delight at how their club is run from the top right now as compared to their previous owners.
As it is at the moment, without receiving huge but realistic transfer fees in for our better players, I firmly think that the impending possibility of administration would be the saving of our club. I do think that over the coming week we will see players sold at ridiculously low sums of money in order to keep the club afloat. That only cures the situation in the short term. The better situation for Blues right now would be for no outgoing transfers and therefore possibly no financial resources to save the club. Birmingham FC is still an highly attractive proposition for any potential invesstor but, like we do ourselves in daily life we wait for the in-store sales, I believe that another Brady would walk through our doors with a rescue plan upon impending administration.
Right now as supporters, there is only one thing we can do and that is to get behind our manager and team. Keep Right On.
Michael Davies
excellent post mate i second that. kro
Look mr Davies when you come down from your love affair with the last board you will realise that the reason that West ham is well run is because sullivan and Gold are both West ham supporters. they were never interested in blues the same way it was just another business portfolio to them. they were happy to finish 17th and collect the profits of staying in the preier league and that was the sum total of their ambitions for blues despite all the bull they put in the local rags.
The only cup we ever went for was the one that david gold bought. i remember one year they said they were going to sign maradona!
A very accurate summary Michael, !!. Oh, for another Brady, indeed, !!!.
Sullivan made it very clear that he wanted to go either to Cardiff or somewhere in London for ages before he finally left. If the abuse drove them away why did Gold want to remain as president of the Blues?
It is easy to attack the fans’ attitude to Sully but he did bring it on himself with his continual lies about what he would do for us if we just kept paying top dollar for tickets.
In hindsight the previous directors were great, as long as you wear rose coloured specs, in reality we had the chance to be a middle of the Prem club and they failed to capitalise on the potential through their greed, whining and Sullies continual statements that it was HIS club, and that we owed him something, ie the obligation to pay over the odds. We went down twice under Sullivan because he refused to spend a little bit more than he wanted on the one or two players who would have kept us up. It is clear that he’s quite happy to spend big now he’s at WHU, a club he actually cares about.
R Smith;, You are of course quite correct about Sullivan, !!. but I think you missed the point being made, That the club was well run by Karren Brady,
If it had been just Gold and Brady, ?. We could have maintained progress without being in this present parlous state that we find ourselves in today, ?.
Sullivan, unfortunatel, never had the love for the Blues, !!.
Spot on oldbluenose karren brady may have been well paid but she did an excellent job and david gold was a gentleman it was just sullivan who spoilt it. You wouldnt have wittnessed a certain mr dugarry playing at st andrews if it had not been for them !!! as a friend said to me recently the lower you go the higher you bounce back !! lets hope so kro.
Thanks 08;, I echo your hopes regarding the ” High-bounce-back “. Let us hope it commences before the start of next seaon, !!. k,r,o.
I agree with R. Smith but the point made on Gold and Brady is true too.
They never went the whole hog with Blues and the fans knew it and since they have gone to WHU they have proved it.
They spent a lot more on getting WHU promoted while also carrying £70 million of debt, than they did in our immediate return to the prem under Bruce or McLies.
I think at the back of most fans minds we knew they wouldn’t put cash in, without clawing it back later, the opposite of what fans do.
They blew it in 2006 relegation season when all they brought in was Latka, Pandiani, Sutton and Campbell.
What they did do for us though was cash flow and we wouldn’t be having a fire sale like these big mouth muppets are doing, it would have been a controlled situation with more professionalism especially under Brady compared to incompetent Pannu whose told the whole worl we’re desperate, very clever fellow!!
A commendable and very astute response …so very true.
Thanks, Paulo, !!.
It is a very sad state of affairs for us at present, I do not blame C,Y. Unfortunately, He bought us for the wrong reasons and his past caught up with him, !!. but that has all caused us grief that we could have done without,!!.
I blame CY, he was clueless.
I think he bought shares in the club while in the Championship, he should have bought the whole club then for about £25 million, which would have left him £55 million to spend on the club.
Instead he waited till they got promoted meaning the price of the club went up to about £43 million and then the clueless man went and paid a rip off price of £80 million for it, when at maximum he should have paid a premium of £50 million to encourage G&S to sell.
I presume he didn’t want a Championship club, his ego or his unknown and still unknown partners wouldn’t allow that. This also shows he hadn’t a clue about English football nor football business.
All this naivety has cost the club, himself and all BIHL shareholders nearly everything they are worth.
Chris;, You hit the nail on the head, mate, — NIEVETEY<!!!!!!.
If only Steve Clarke had been offered the job!
Steve Clark and SC?? Wrong team mate!
AJ’s right, all week it’s about the mess our beloved team is in but for 90 minutes it’s not about the fools who own the club or the idiot who allegedly manages it, no I do not rate LC, it’s about the 11 guys on the pitch wearing a blue shirt and they deserve our support even if only because they are wearing the shirt.
There is a lot of negativity surrounding BCFC at the moment, the vacuum created by the transfer window is not helping. I am of the view that the club and supporters in particular need to look at other clubs and situations in the football league. I listened to Guy Whittingham at Portsmouth talking about working with a very small squad of players and using academy players and just planning on a week- by- week basis. He was very positive, and l think we need a dose of realism linked to the general criticism of our club at the present time. Staying in this division and gaining enough points to stave off the consequences of possible administration should be what we concentrate on. Get behind the team game by game and Don’ t let CU &PP overshadow the football being played.
Having seen how Swansea have managed the log haul from.the bottom of the football league to their present position is an inspiration to all football supporters whatever team they support. Keep the faith and let’s hope we are still in this league next year.
There has to be a catalyst for any major return of that sort of spirit. Ideally they sack the manager and replace him with someone who’s popular with both players and fans. I still believe there are two major problems, not one global syndrome – Hughton protected the players from the storm last season and Clark has failed to, dramatically.
Presumably we’re waiting for Clark to resign to avoid a pay-off… Just hope its not too late when he does admit defeat.
What a stupid question, the answer is of course……….YES, we aren’t though.
I love going down the Blues, always have always will.
It’s part of who I am and has been part of my life since making my debut at 4 years old in 1967. To me Blues symbolise more than just a football club, I actually see them as a cultural, community icon of the people of Birmingham. I don’t identify being a Brummie so much with the Town Hall, The Rotunda or The Bull Ring, although they’re a part of it, for me and my identity as a Brummie it’s being a Blues fan. It’s hard to put into words cos it’s not a tangible thing but anyone who went to Wembley, the Europe trips, the great night games of the past, the league cup run would have felt the feeling I’m trying to describe.
I can get that feeling even if the place is empty. I only have to walk in and I still get butterflies in my stomach looking at the pitch and stands. St Andrews contains many memories and emotions for all of us and I’ll never ever stop going so long as I am able.The reason a lot of folk are negative is cos they need to find a reason for not going down but one which negates them having to admit they no longer love the club. You name it I’ve heard it down the years, every excuse you could think of. I’m not talking about low paid/ex pats/unemployed nor away trips but people who could easily afford to go to the home games but have no intention of ever putting another penny into the club and expect those of us who are left to keep it going. You will find these people at Wembley finals, Europa games and on the internet. The net is infested with them.
There are another group who have lost their minds and seem to think we have always played Barcelonaesque football and can’t understand where it’s gone. Some of these attend others don’t. Then you just have the mindless idiots who see which berk is shouting the loudest and just follow him.
The most important group though are the ones who go down, know it’s shit, know why it’s shit and accept we’re in a bad spot right now. Replacing LC wont make any difference. We have a squad of mostly average inconsistent performers whos better players will be gone soon so it will get worse. I’d like to stay up and think we will. By my yardstick that will be a huge credit to LC. If we go down so what? Been there done that? Will still miss the place a week after close of season, will still buy me STs and will still love every minute of being there.
Unfortunately Paul, that’s life.
People follow success and as we’ve been moderately successful in recent seasons, we have gained a following. It is the kind of following that YES helped to pay the wages of Zigic, Bowyer, Foster, Johnson, Beausejour etc. but are not here now to sustain it because what they see isn’t as attractive or alluring as before….a little bit like waking up next to a stranger after a night on the tiles.
As the gates go down, the cash flow suffers in all areas (food, merchandise, web subscriptions etc) and the club have to economise by allowing better paid players to leave, as they are right now.
When we were relegated most of our squad left as – like our dear departed fans – they wanted to follow potential success. Whether that has happened for any of them is another question and one that in most cases would bring the answer no, as all most players have done have offloaded a hefty wage bill from us and pushed it onto another average/inferior club.
This is football economics at work, and it is exacerbated by the ‘leftovers’ playing badly right now and LC trying to galvanise a below-par set of players. Would we be better if we didn’t have the 4-5 long term injuries and absenteeism? Maybe, but I still think we would be in and around the kak as our team has been ripped apart and pieced back together too much to be effective. Plus you have a certain bitterness running through the team that other players have been able to leave for better things and they’re stuck here because nobody really wants them.
That’s why King, Butland, Redmond, Davies, Burke et al may or may not go, because as true Blues fans we want them t stay as they represent the backbone of a squad that was performing well last year (exception being Butland) but in reality we overvalue them to the outside world. To other clubs they are clearly at best average or they’d have been bid for properly by now. Knock down bargains will probably ensue once the 11th hour comes I am sure.
Our strongest 11 right now would still be decidedly average in the upper reaches of this league and it is all down to lack of investment:
(1) from our owners to re-develop the squad post-relegation
(2) from fans to back a team that is ailing and failing
(3) from some players to mentally adjust themselves to a positive frame of mind to either get fit quicker, train harder or play better
(4) from our Management team to help said players and adapt the way we play to suit the tools at our disposal
Theories are all nice but its what we see in practice that counts. Paul I think it’s very admirable how you continually mention “cut me and I bleed Blue blood” as if we had more of this going on we’d be in a better place.
As it is we’re decidedly average to below-par and we need to Etch-a-Sketch the whole club, playing staff, fans and approach to go back to somewhere near successful again.
How we do that can come in a number of ways and I am sick of speculating how quickly it will happen too but I think the noble thing for our current Board to do is to ensure we are fully appraised of the situation and to work out how to exit this mess quickly and effectively before non-attendance, apathy, frustration and anger turn to something uglier.
Lets hope we can respect our club enough to ensure 2nd February is a constructive day off the pitch (Blues Trust meeting) and on (beating Forest and reminding McLeish who we are).
Neil, superbly written and some excellent points.
Here here!
Superbly written.
I might also add the majority of Blues supporters are content with a draw or expect the team to lose ..A sad reflection on the current state of affairs.
Good post with a realistic overview of what is happening to/at our club.
You can make any player look average if he isn’t coached properly. heown’t do the right things and the team will play badly and won’t knit. You could put george best in the Blues team right now and they still probably wouldn’t win cause they can’t defend,and if he passed the ball his teammates probably would make a hash of the shots at goal. He couldn’t do it all on his own!
well said mate. I agree with you totally.
I agree with you Al. There wouldn’t be as much noise if we were higher in the league and it looked like we could get our hands on some premier league money last year.
It looks like things are getting desperate.
It can’t help confidence levels of the squad when fans slate players on blogs, forums and twitter etc. especially when there are quite a few young players that are more than able to use google. We need to get behind the players.
As you say about the noise, if Zigic was playing more, not getting sent off and scoring then his wages wouldn’t seem so steep. I agree they are extremely high for a championship player but he would be more appealing if he was banging them in every match.
We need to get fans to home games and make some positive noise. Last season and the season before when we got relegated we sang to the very end and I’m sure that would have left players proud to wear the badge and represent us.
If we rally ourselves it’ll run off on the players with or without Clarkes efforts.
I go to every home game and I want to be positive but then the game starts! Or worse still I see the team selection (ie no recognised strikers in the starting 11). Clark could makes all the difference; to the fan’s positivity, the player’s confidence and thus the performances (place these in whatever order you want).
Was it a positive step by the morons who were waiting for Boro to score to put up a Clark Out banner?
Then raise it and take it down dependant on the score at the time?
I can still see the smug smile on the fat old bags face whos flag it was, she wouldn’t have looked so smug had it been anywhere near me I tell ya.
These ‘fans’ had spent all week making a banner in the hope we’d lose.
I am going to the forest game but not in hope of us winning. i am going to vent my appreciation of McCleish, how sad is that.
Depends on the individual I guess. Some people use Birmingham City as a convenient coat hook to peg their life’s miseries on. No matter how good we play, how full the ground is or how exciting the match day experience is they actually want to able to moan and also take pleasure from doing so. It makes them feel better about themselves to constantly bitch about the team / the board / the manager / the price of the Bovril etc. Some fans also use it as an opportunity to let off steam after a bad week at the office or having a barney with the wife and think it’s perfectly acceptable to scream unnecessary and often very personal abuse at the players. This really winds me up.
To get back to point I think that yes, if we were riding high, injury free playing attractive football and winning games then the feel good factor of last season would still be present. We all care how the club is run, owned and structured but if things on the pitch are going well that is the most important thing to the average fan. We still wouldn’t be happy about it but I think most of us would overlook it as we would have something positive to focus on. Also if we were riding high and did get promoted then the financial burden would significantly ease so there would always be that carrot dangling and the hope and dreams of better days.
At least now the bovril has meat in it again…
I don’t want much to be honest,I just want to be given some form of hope….pannu is scum.
It is an interesting question and I believe that if the playing side had carried on the manner of last year attendances would be better, the noise level higher and blood pressures significantly lower. Yes it is absolutely horrific at the momment, it almost feels like a ordeal sitting through another match (and I suspect it will get worse) with the away fans bubbling with noise and enjoyment as more often than not through the 90 minutes their side are well on top, We seem to be at our best when the footbal gets chaotic and comes down almost entirely to the last 20 minutes when players seem to almost ignore the prep and go for it, the crowd get up for it too (this largely seems to coincide with Zigic and/or King being on the pitch) and despite the previous 85 minutes nothing is quite the smae as that last gasp equaliser or winner and for a brief momment everything else about our situation seens to be forgotten and the whole trip seems like a good one. So yes most likely if things were better on the pitch the off field situation would be put aside and the frustration/anger would be less.
But in a kind of way I think the current situation needed to happen to actually focus where we really are. To expose the web of lies and dodgy dealing that the clubs owners are operating. I also believe (or more likely hope) that we will come out the other end stronger, it may take 5 years or even more but at least we will not be a house built on sand.
On a side note, and probably already discussed on the site, does anyone think that there is a possibility that the whole Birmingham City venture may just be a potential avenue for cleaning money for some people?
An interesting article, if things were different and we were in the upper echelons of the division then yes, obviously attitudes would be different about the football, more possitive, there would be that carrott of hope that we could pull ourselves out of the frying pan and leap over the fire into a warm gooey cash bath of the Premier League. There would still be the uncertainty though, still the prospect of admin, and we would still be selling off our best players (now more than likely at cut down prices). So would the apathy, missery and moaning still be there? I think it would.
Lets remember, we are not in that hyperthetical situation, we are in a relegation dogfight, yes WE AS FANS DO NEED TO PULL TOGETHER and start supporting our club from the stands and backing whatever team LC picks but in the end we also need change, from top to bottom. When our owners finally do sell up I’m sure it will breath fresh life into the club (as it did when CY took over), I strongly believe a change of manager would do the same, but obviously it wont happen with things how they are, and maybe it would cause more harm than good, debatable.
KRO and roll on Burnley and Forest.
From the many heart felt replays you are receiving about this issue comes a out poring of anger, sadness, bitterness, helplessness and dissolution. The fact is we have no one to turn to we are on our own together. We don’t have a wonder boy like TF anymore or any player we think could do something special. We don’t have a manager that inspires faith or hope and our owners well our owners are nothing more than shysters and dim witted clowns. CY can only be thinking of the 4 walls closing in on him and Penu his only task is to some how recoup some of the monies they so easily and foolishly paid to those other lot of toss bags Gold and co. Our club is turning to dust about us and we are powerless to stop it.
Sent from my iPad
Times like this make us stronger and our fans different to some other clubs. Experiencing the lows only enables us to appreciate the highs fully like the cup win and stint in europe. Let’s face it we couldnbe in a lot worse of a position with loads of debt or even worse in Carson’s postion, as much as we dislike him who would want to be in his shoes now? Regardless of his court trial outcome look how much money he is likely to loose on the price he paid for our club alone. Let’s just hope that after the club is eventually sold the fans rally behind new owners and return to support the club in force taking a leaf out of the rangers supporters book who back their team 100% regardless of what division they are in.
actually ash the clubs making a profit. the debt is the loan we owe to CY. The problem is the bank took away the clubs overdraft when carson was charged with money laundering so the club has a cash flow problem. Villa on the other hand are £50 odd million in debt and should they get relegated will be in a worse situation than blues!
If Clark knew what his best team was instead of this bizarre rotation policy he appears to have adopted. Fact is Burke, Zigic, King should be starting week in, week out that’s where the goals came from last year, that’s where the confidence comes from. I accept that at the back we haven’t been as strong, maybe Doyle should have had an extended run in the team at the of the season, especially as he’d featured for most of the pre-seaosn whereas Butland had been off on international duty and therefore hadn’t built up a relationship with the back four.
I also think LC showed colossal inexperience for the Leeds replay…..it’s ok saying we would’ve got mullered by Spurs on tv but the fact is this – there would’ve been prize money for winning the game, tv revenue plus any funds provided by an unexpected bonus of a replay/progression to the next round. It all adds up.
I am behind the players 100% they have the talent and despite what others say we still have more or less the same squad as last season it’s simply that the backroom staff are amongst the worst we’ve seen (ask Newcastle fans about the Souness, Roeder, Allardyce eras!) and don’t know how to get the best out of them.
Being a manager of a club like ours is tought, I’ll admit, especially given the expectations at the start of the season – and the fact that we have the Chinese version of the Kumars in charge It’s a sad state of affairs but the way things are going we’ll be back to the days of crowds of 5-6,000 watching goalless draws in League 1.
Still, heads up, bring on the Claret mob from up north and let’s give McLeish a round of applause when he comes back for winning us a trophy before sending him back up the M1 with nothing to show for it.
KRO & SOTV
I do not want to blame the media for the situation the club is in but I once went to a end of season bash when Barry Fry was incharge and I over heard BIG Liam Daish say to Colin Tattum “what have you ever done for this club” as he smoked a big fat cigar !!!!! How true where these words.
Once again we are asking for transparency in the age of austerity how about 68th minute backs to the game for one minute waving anything transparent, clingfilm,plastic bottles, plastic wallets anything transparent. As I believe that a salary of 680,000 to one person and then to be told it is pocket expenses is never a will never be transparent!!!!!!!
Anyone see the B’ham Mails “open message from the Birmingham Mail to Randy Lerner” headline today? A small crisis happens there and the Mail comes out fighting for them. What about the massive crisis we have at the Blues? What has the Mail said about that! Anyone seen the Mail challenging PP or CY for some truths?? I think they should rename the paper the Aston Mail.
Didn’t they do a front page splash on it recently?
My criticism of the mail isn’t so much that they’ve not covered it – they’ve not followed it up is the big problem and that’s down to editorial line and finance.
Then why so for AVFC and not for BCFC? Is the editorial line for preference to AVFC? There are only two clubs in Birmingham (Express & Star covers WBA/Wolves) so they can hardly stretched for an editorial line. Also journalism that people are interested in sells papers, at this rate the Blue half of the city will boycott the paper, I know I’ve stopped buying it. If they are not interested either editorially or financially then why bother publishing a so called local newspaper? Utter rubbish, bias and apathy from the Aston Mail.
To repeat (and I have checked) the Mail’s last front page splash re AVFC was over McLeish. They’ve done two, maybe three about Blues since.
When I said about editorial line it’s about money spent, not about which club to favour. It’s not about favouring any club – believe me, I know a lot of Villa fans who claim it’s a “Blues rag”. The Mail don’t have much money to spend, ergo they can print opinions and fans reaction and not much more. That is the issue – not “which team they support”.
My point is the challenge to the owner, not a count of how many stories have been published – like the way that the mail has challenged the randy bugger at AV. That’s what good journalism is, exposing or unearthing issues and accountability. Where is the investigative side of journalism around CY/PP, where is the challenge to CY/PP?
Did you read my reply?
If the newspaper doesn’t have the money to investigate, it’s not going to happen is it? THAT is the issue.
Trouble is the Mail is owned by a London company, Trinity Mirror Group so will not get the money to carry out real journalism compared to it’s southern operations.
I boycotted it years ago.
Filth rag, always has been always will be.
Lip service is all we get
3 clubs Albion are in birmingham just!
The ground is but not the area it represents.
Oh, great site by the way and keep up the good work. Nothing like OP to keep me up to date :)
Marvin, i love the idea, waving transparent objects will certainly be something new, something that might bring attention to the situation. But lets be realistic. Blatter, Fifa, UEFA, The FA, Chairmen, MD’s are corrupt. Nothing will be transparent while there is cause to keep it hidden. What kept Saville safe for so long was others knowing if he went down he’d take them down. I feel the same tact is present in football. So we won’t find transparency, because too many greedy ****’s will have to much to lose.
It’s gonna be very hard to break this vicious circle and only something drastic that may be able to.
Last season we still had hope even when we were relegated in the sense that CH’s arrival, the Europa adventure, players still being signed – King, Burke etc., not being overly tipped or scrutinized for getting straight back to the EPL, made for a win-win season with the excitement of the unknown.
We played well with a sense of belief and togetherness and were pleasantly surprised with what we saw and our expectations rose. What was happening with CY and co was at the back of our minds but had not been given a priority.
It all started going wrong, in my opinion, when CH left and there were rumblings about what the current season would entail and what was going on behind the scenes. Some supporters were never going to be happy with LC’s appointment and would still have been giving him stick if we were in the top six; ‘Why weren’t we in the top two??’ they would most likely have said.
Foster and Mutch were sold and even though players did arrive, they were never going to be classed as more than short-term stop-gaps and not really the game-changers that would enhance what we already had – that is in no way intended to demean those that came or are in our team and squad.
PP starting making noises about what a precarious state we really were in – even though most knew by that stage – and what was likely to happen regarding more players sales and a greater use of our youth players. The whole Paladini issue, CY having his trial moved (when most were hoping for a decision which would then in turn have a bearing one way or the other for our club as well), the uncertainty of who will go/be sold this month, our very indifferent form and of course the realisation that never mind promotion, there is a possibility we could get relegated. Whether through a points penalty or through not getting enough of them remains to be seen.
Getting new owners or going into admin or even getting relegated will allow us to then start re-building from the foundations. All have their own plus and minus points when taken into consideration and there is the distinct possibility of all 3 happening together.
If we are relegated into the third tier, I believe there is a lesser chance of getting a group in who are only after a quick buck and hope we attract someone with a long-term and realistic view of what can be achieved. It will be extremly sad if that had to happen to get the ‘right’ sort of new owners.
The problem is total lack of confidence from us fans. Lack of confidence in the players, the manager and the Directors. Lets face it, we have been lied to, let down and ignored for far too long. I love Blues, have done for over sixty years but I have to say I am loosing interest. I cannot relate to the club any more. Every year we have a new set of players, new Manager and a set of Directors I cannot back in any way. Before all you fans get on my back saying I should stick with it, I have tried, I simply am at the crossroads. The problem is when I stopped going to the matches I found other interests and it will take some time to get the interest back. We must get new owners. I don’t care about sticking fifty million pounds in the transfer kitty, I just want to feel part of the club again.
Leaving aside all the financial turmoil surrounding the club, this group of players should be doing far better, the fact that they are not is down to the manager, and his comic assistants, if they had an ounce of honour they would walk.
Ridiculous.
If you wanna feel part of the club start supporting them instead of posting on the net.
Easy.
Just the reply I expected, but you are entitled to your opinion, as I am.
Difference is yours make no sense.
‘I want to be part of the club again’ Fact is, you don’t
You want to be a net man which is what you are
The voice of reason? I think not.
Yawn, yawn, change the rhetoric.
i’m a better fan than you and only i am right mentality, no wonder the club is divided.
So you want to drive away fans who have a different point of view and be a martyr.
You’ll probably be happy when only 7000 turn up and half of them will have bedsheets.
Yawn, yawn, change the rhetoric.
i’m a better fan than you and only i am right mentality, no wonder the club is divided.
So you want to drive away fans who have a different point of view and be a martyr.
As a ST holder and fan of 49 years who made his supporter debut aged 8 in 1964, I agree in principle with many of Paul Carter’s (and his many pseudonyms :)) views but in these times of general austerity for many people surely the club does not help itself by charging £27 for a tuesday night match against Sheffield Wednesday? Even worse is the decision to charge £30 for the Forest game although I can understand the thinking behind this: the return of TSM and the fans chance to vent their spleen in his direction, but surely lowering the prices of these games would entice greater numbers to attend? The same can be said about the Leeds FA cup replay: £15 for ST holders an £20 for others, whereas prices of £5 and £10 respectively would surely have resulted in a crowd of 20k which may have led to a better, possibly winning performance. I will be attending both games and also paying the £57 for my other half to attend and not joining in the boos and anti Carson songs rather taking out my frustration on the inept officials we will inevitably get. I urge all others who are financially able to please attend whichever games you possibly can between now and the end of the season and back the team as doing so might just make the difference.
£27 for a match between two teams in the bottom 5 on a no doubt freezing cold evening is not going to tempt the casual fan back to Stan’s. Understood that the prices and grades are probably set at the begining of the season but I personally believe (as usual) that the club have got pricing wrong)
There were just under 15k against Bristol City and I think that was £20 so I expect probably our lowest home gate of the season (depending how many Wednesday bring)
we aint the only club struggling in the football league,look at the last 20 years or so at the patterns being made here ie.the big clubs get bigger eg.man u ,man city,chelsea,the rest of us r finding it harder and harder to compete,with all this money now in football why is it the PLAYERS take almost all of the share clubs r finding it harder to keep up with SILLY WAGES,if u want to compete week in week out u have to buy the best players who demand the highest wages ie $200k a week.to me that is such a pish take and it wont get any easier when these super rich idiots want a hobby and buy a club and then say right mr manager get me the worlds best and pay them what they want.CAP wages and get rid of agents silly cuts and spread the money evenly and filter it down the leagues more making it a bit more fair to smaller clubs.OVERPAID OVERRATED UNDERPERFORMERS need i say more?
Two people on here ‘The Martyrs’ only see their point of view, but many on here have dozens of different reasons for not going, not one or two for everyone.
I too am fed up with the wages paid to players in the top two divisions.
Tarrantini was on a good deal at Blues in 1978 on six times the working mans average wage of £60 a week, whereas now the players even in the Championship are on 20 times the average wage of £600 a week.
To compare Tarrantini to todays top flight wages would mean a prem player earning £3,600 a week, but most are earning £30,000 to £100,000 a week, totally immoral.
All clubs are to blame for this.
If they agreed to spend no more than 40% of turnover on wages, clubs would have cash in the bank and could slash ticket prices.
Gordon Taylor is happy to let his members be paid greedy, selfish, immoral wages which bankrupts clubs and puts backroom office staff on the dole, and can’t pay suppliers which then puts them on the dole, but is the first to moan when their greed comes back to bite when clubs can’t pay the palyers.
There really are no ”Whit if we were in top 6 place” to consider. We are not there. we are where we are and we can only talk about facts. The sad thing is we do not really know the facts concerning the true financial position.
The only facts we know are that we are in a perilously close to relegation position and whilst going down another division might help the footballing side of things in that we could really start to give youth a chance.
The downside to that is that the lower leagues receive very little TV money but that might be a good thing because it might force the current regime to cut their ties and sell to a more well meaning buyer.
On the football side. LC failed at League 1 in the past so we know that he really couldnt be an option if we go down. The alternative would be to remain a struggling Championship for years to come and those seem to be the choices we have at the moment. nether of which are appealling to Birmingham football fans who love their club
I understand now that PP is about as transparent as MUD !!!!! His strange pocket expenses have been analysed by an account and they find it a strange way of conducting a buiness, what I have always thought about the Chinease population is they are very honurable , this is not the case and once again I do not want to bash the press of our great city , but if they could get to the bottom of the chinease mafia , then would it not sell more papers. We need to make a stance and sooner rather than later as I for one am looking forward to a few derbies next season with the vile.
Of course we would be elated and shouting our bragging rights from the rooftops about how succesfull we would be, and how committed and hard our players would be, and we would be mobbing Lee Clark to shake his hand and have our picture taken with him ..the messiah, the chosen one who took a club on that was doomed to fail, with no money and no new players to be bought. We would be empathising with LC on ‘his’ achievements and how hard it was for him. He would be front page news with each win and a secure place in the play off zone. We would be singing so loud, that we would want that 2nd place ..and a return to the Premier League. We would understand that we have players that are either over 30 or under 20, and we would credit them and Zigic would be inundated with offers. Marlon would be our hero and Redmond would be the poster guy with the big sponsorship. Curtis, Caldwell, Caddis and Robinson would be the divisions most feared back line and not forgetting England’s goalkeeper between our woodwork.
And then reality kicks in, and lands you one right in the wedding tackle, and reminds you that football is about success from the very top ..down. It is a business, and with that comes either security or collapse, never really ‘middle of the road’.
We been dealt a bad hand (again) and we know it. Now we’re supporting our team who are facing the business end of the championship season, while just above the drop zone. There is not a chance in hell that anyone is happy with blues right now, in some way. I suppose we have to face facts, in that Clarky never stood a chance and wasn’t told the whole truth about the future events that are still unfolding as we speak. It wont be the ending of him, but it will be the making of him as a person. No one can dissagree that he is just as deflated as we are, but we can see that his tactical decisions are sometimes bizzare and some prevent us from coming out the traps.
We all know what we could be facing now, and what’s worse is that even if LC and the lads find that formula and get it together, we could still be in big trouble anyway. Pannu has a lot to answer for, and the time for hiding behind ‘confidentiality’ and being in HK isn’t going to wash with the fans anymore. The poison that is BIHL need to be accountable for each and every decision that has affected BCFC from operating and performing in a positive and succesful football club.
If a culmination of outcomes this season means we are going to be relegated, then I would take that happily, just to be rid of every connection to BIHL, HK, CY and PP.
Something positive, with a new start would definately brighten things up ..but that might have to wait till August (?).
Well articulated, Paulo, !!.
I agree when you suggest that [ maybe ] relagation would be the Catharsis we need to go through to release us from the present ownership and possibly attract a ” DECENT ” owner who will do a pre C,Y. re-build from the bottom up, ?.
Thanks ..and hopefully BCFC could get an owner(s) who would be prepared to invest in the club, not just on the pitch.
Paolo;, That also is my heartfelt wish, !!. That someone would like to re-build us from ground-up, !!
Everything looks better when you win. Of course we’d all enjoy the buzz of being in the top six, but it would be a Bradfordesque achievement in the circumstances. And, whilst it would obviously mean higher gate receipts, I’m not sure it would keep us out of trouble.
Let’s not forget that when CY was arrested, confined to HK and had all his assets frozen, our last game was in the Premier League and we had just beaten Arsenal to become League Cup Winners,
Although I am gobsmacked by the board’s ongoing naiviey and far from impressed with their management of the crisis, I’m pretty sure that all our present ills are a direct result of Carsongate.
The next 7days and the following four months may bring some much needed closure.
P.S. Congratulations to BCFC for beating the Perry Bar Pixies and good luck against Laudrups’s Swansea in the final.
KRO
BCAFC …I think you mean?
Ted your correct, 10,000 more on the gate would only add £200,000 per game (£20 ticket) and that is only £1.6 million extra till August, chicken feed.
The current owners have contributed to the apathy. There is a limit you can take before you cut off otherwise you hurt too much. They really dont have a Scooby Do and are sinking fact and taking us down with them
I mean lets be blatantly honest here – the demise of the Vile and Bardford City gave me more joy than the shower that is the Blues all season…
Hey cant we cheat abit and put some cheering crowd noises through the loud speakers
There’s nothing happening on the pitch to raise the fans spirits. We have been appalling all season and the manager is clueless. Until the owner and manager go or results pick up the atmosphere of doom will continue. The only positives of this season are the blooding of our youngsters
We could win promotion and I would still want a new manager AND board. Both of the aforementioned parties are amateurs, their track records and present performance are poor,poor, poor!!
Ahhh the proclivity of a football fan to whinge and grumble when things aren’t going there way. It has to be said in the past I have been one of those fans who has argued with my fellow supporter over there inappropriate vocal support. It is the most frustrating thing in the world to sit behind / alongside a whinging football fan.
Birmingham has always had its share of boo-boys, as I’m sure all clubs do, and it seems to me that some fans seem to think that because they pay to enter through the gates that they should be allowed to bellow obscenities and all sorts of grievances at football players on the pitch. In the two particular incidences that I was involved in the when Blues were losing the one individual would get on the back of Bryan Hughes (Hughes you’re shit, get him off the pitch, etc) and the other was at Stan Lazaridis (taunts about his weight and lack of skill). These were different years, different seats. The first incident resulted in my brother and I moving seats, as the guy threatened him even though it was me who instigated the argument. The second resulted in the guy apologising as he didn’t realise how annoying he was being. In hindsight I shouldn’t have opened my mouth, but in a way I’m not sure I should have been put in a position where I felt I needed to.
Anyhow, the main crux of my argument with the individuals was that how do you expect a player to perform if each time he makes a mistake you jump on his back. His confidence will drop and in the end he won’t care about his performance and he’ll just turn up for his pay cheque and two finger salute the crowd.
Protesting about the board, the manager, the players is not the way forward. I mean look at Blackburn, it’s worked for them eh (with a considerably larger and stronger squad than ours). I’m aware its not always easy to be blindly positive like a Pompey fan when the walls around you are caving in, but at least their fans have always seemed to send a positive vibe out onto the pitch. The players need our support and not our pressure, and with our support we collectively might just survive.
If the truth be told, Birmingham’s problems are minor compared to Portsmouth and Coventry. i bet they would love to swap places with us!
Ironically though Pompey’s plight stemmed from a similar position to ours though. When they won the FA Cup the club weren’t in a financial position to pay out the win bonuses, and then the subsequent European bonuses, which then started the cycle of them having to be sold (Gaydamark left a hefty loan on the balance sheet which he wanted back which had covered a lot of the payments). They were sold to a bunch of money launderers who got caught, and have sadly spiraled to where they are today. Pompey/Coventry or Blues will never die as such but the worst case scenario is that you have to do an AFC Wimbledon and start right at the bottom. Or hope for a Rangers and just start at the bottom of the league, because the Scots weren’t strong enough to tell them to go F themselves.
You think youve got it bad, Gary Megson is only 20-1 to be our next manager.
Just looked at tickets for the forest game £32!! For a game in the championship. No wonder we’re getting crap gates. Is there no way they can change the ticket prices to £10 each for 1 game and see if the attendance improves? I was going to book 2 tickets with my mate tonight but £64+parking for a struggling team in the championship. Just scandalous.
Matt
They can’t alter ticket prices on any major scale at all. They are allowed two further games this season with reduced ticket prices.
One thing worth bearing in mind, if prices were dropped that far for every 1000 tickets they’d sell at the higher price, they’d have to sell more than 3,200 at the lower price to make any more money. I’m not convinced that many extra fans would come.
A few weeks into the season I decided to right this season off, and just hope I’d see some decent football and enjoy my days home and away,Which I must say I have and don’t regret buying my season ticket.
I enjoy still enjoy the match day experience, ok I’d rather see a full stans and some additions to the team but,it’s been some interesting team selections to say the least, usually forced upon the manager through injuries.
Meanwhile I’ve lived in hope that a buyer would be found and always look in the media for even a litlle snip of hope, unfortunately at the moment the hope is getting slimmer by the week.
But I’m not screaming for heads I understand the situation and realise if there’s no buyer thats tough and if there is any potential buyer, it will happen in due course, There’s not a lot we can do. Unless the real firesale starts and players start going for peanuts. Which I don’t think will happen. Then it’s time to protest. But I expected what as happened this season . And I pays my money I takes my chances with the team I love. KRO
let me get this across if anyone wanted to buy our club they would fight tooth and nail to get it look at the glazers even though they are idiots they showed persistence thats what the buyer needs the gates are getting lower in all fairness the last time we were in the championship i was at games where 17,000 would turn out and thats when we were top 2 biggest problem is they are dusting this problem under the carpet if you dont act we are going to do a luton be up near the top of the leagues then sink to the conference, THIS CITY HAS BEEN BLUE FOR 138 YEARS dont let those useless idiots ruin it you may have the titles on this club but this is our club KRO
Kenilworth Road only has a capacity of 10,000, that isn’t comparable as Luton really aren’t a big team, Bradford City would be a better example. Unless we went into liquidation we are not going to fall out of the league and I can’t see HSBC letting that happen. The last time Blues got relegated to what is now League 1, we were getting similar gates to what we are now, the previous relegation to that we were getting hideously low gates. Fans stop going when they expect the team to lose games.
The Glazer analogy is nuts too, as Manchester United were bought for 800 million, not 80 million as they have a business model that they can sustain that level of debt. Blues never has a business model that could sustain our existing debt, let alone one that put us 20 places lower in the leagues. Also, the Glazers were lucky to have bought the team back in 2005 prior to the financial meltdown, I’m pretty sure the banks wouldn’t lend them half that money now.
Almajir, i know this article isn’t defending CY or PP and i’m not saying that you openly do that but from the tone of your writing and your ability/habit of not laying into them i have to ask you, and please do not take offence, who do you think got us in this position? If it isn’t CY and PP then who? If we were in the top 6 I would still want CY and PP out. This situation has gone on for too bloody long now. I got tired of waiting for the accounts to be sorted out 12 months ago and they still procrastinate. Proper business men surely wouldn’t have let this drag on for so long, especially if they really gave a 5hit about our club. My other feeling on this matter is that DG and DS could and should have thought more about who they sold up to, instead of taking the first opportunity to get rid to the first Tom, Dick or Carson that came calling so that they could go to their beloved Hammers. Nearly every decision from business to hiring and firing since they have come has been poorly thought out and executed. Chris Hughton (the best manager we have had for an age) would surely have considered staying with us if the finances and owners weren’t in such a predicament, and we probably wouldn’t be in such a league position with CH still at the helm. So in my humble opinion it is all CY and PP’s fault, and i would love to hear you say this instead of making such diversary articles asking if we were higher in the league would we be happy. I usually enjoy catching up on OftenPartisan but have had enough of you skirting the issue. Grow a pair and say what you TRULY FEEL.
KRO
Grow a pair and say what you TRULY FEEL.
I always say what I truly FEEL. It might however not be what you truly FEEL.
I don’t think CY and PP are solely to blame.
If McLeish hadn’t got us relegated, we would still have Premier League money last season – which would have been a major help. If the players had played better and not “thought of the beach” post Carling Cup Final we may not have been relegated.
Yes CY overspent on contracts but I seem to recall fans demanding it as a sign of ambition. He ran out of money – it’s not the biggest crime.
People seem to have this misguided notion that Carson is asset stripping the club but it’s not the case. To asset strip a club you buy it cheap and then sell everything you can as expensively as you can to make a profit. Carson paid three times what the club was worth, sunk in a load of money and he’s losing it by the boatload.
one reply to 3 posts, thanks Almajir. i really was hoping to have a dialogue with you, obviously you only reply when challenged to grow a pair, or you are just too busy with other stuff. either way i am disappointed.
Unfortunately Roskoe, I do have other things to do other than post on here.
I don’t agree with you. I’m sorry if that offends you, but I think the situation is more complex than you do. You don’t agree with me – that’s cool. Difference of opinion is fine.
What else is there left to discuss?
I do have other things to do too, hence no reply for a week. I haven’t taken offence with our difference of opinions in fact you haven’t offended me at all. i do feel that you missed the point i was making and that is a bit frustrating but nevermind. So bearing in mind your view of administration being the way forward, how does the lack of sales affect the clubs immediate future regarding administration?
KRO
“Carson paid three times what the club was worth, sunk in a load of money and he’s losing it by the boatload” – If paying 3 times the club value isn’t a great example of poor business decision making i do not know what is. I didn’t suggest that CY is asset stripping the club i just said the decisions made in both business and football have been rubbish, naive and not in the best interests of BCFC, make of that what you will. It doesn’t suprise me at all to see your reply skirting any real opinion again. You say what you truly feel? I fail to see much feeling in your posts, and by that i mean emotion, all i see is a guy making excuses for a couple of idiots. If i am wrong i apologise, and i don’t want a site full of vitriol, i just get frustrated with the way you report the facts and don’t (as far as i see)show a great deal of emotion about the shocking way that CY and PP have, either through naivety, stupidity or idiocy, messed up our club.
Almajir you say that if we hadnt got relegated then the prem money would have been a help. If CY hadn’t paid over the odds then we might not have needed that prem money. I fail to see how any blame can be placed upon anyone other than CY and his team. I am devastated by the position BCFC find themselves in. I had always had the idea that our darkest days (Kumars anyone?) were long behind us but I fear that our darkest days may yet be to come. I hope i haven’t offended you, i always recommend this site to any fan who hasn’t been on here before , i just feel that you make excuses for CY. PP et al when alot of what they have done/are doing is inexcusable. My opinion only.
KRO