Birmingham City objectives for League One season

National World - LocalTV

A look ahead to the new campaign.

Transcript

00:00On to Birmingham City, obviously we discussed a few new faces coming into the side. Wants

00:09to watch for them this season. It's a massive, massive season for them. They want to ensure

00:13that they aren't stopping around it as a Ligue 1 club. They want to be down and straight

00:17back up. So who could sort of help them with that promotion push? Because you need some

00:22players at times to dig in. For example, the festive period, how much fixtures there are,

00:28how tough it can be. You need players to dig in and get you over the lines in games.

00:32Who could those maybe be for Blues in this new campaign?

00:36I think it's going to be a very good season for someone like Ethan Laird to step up and

00:40continue his progress. He showed lots of signs of quality in the Championship last year and

00:44he's got that determination. He's a great character as well, speaking to us in the press

00:48room after most matches when other players wouldn't, he'd be there. He's got great charisma,

00:52great attitude. Potentially a club captain or vice-captain in the future somewhere, whether

00:58it be at Birmingham or elsewhere. Obviously, Dion Sanderson is the current captain, but

01:02I think Laird has got those qualities and I'm looking forward to seeing what he can

01:05do in the third tier. But Alfie May, the signing from Charlton Athletic, being the top scorer

01:10in Ligue 1 last season, 23 goals. He's going to be leading that line and how many can he

01:15score with such a fantastic Birmingham squad at Ligue 1 level at least? He should have

01:20the right service. Charlton, more of a playoff or mid-table candidate. He didn't have the

01:25service to maybe hit 30. Could he hit that total this year? I think it'd be exciting

01:30to see. And then the new signing from Heracles, Emil Hansen, scored plenty of goals in the

01:36Eredivisie last season, plenty of assists as well. He's someone who can cut in from

01:39wide and create the opportunities, but also take on strikes from range or get in the box

01:45and beat defenders. He's someone who should provide a lot of excitement rotating with

01:50the likes of Koji Miyoshi up top. I think it should be an exciting season from the wide

01:55positions as well as up front with Alfie May.

01:57Obviously, it could be a really entertaining season for Blues fans, something they probably

02:03need after the last few years of supporting their side. But in terms of expectations going

02:09back down, is it just quite simply win promotion or do they just want to win the league? It's

02:16obviously going to be an interesting one for them to go back down, but surely with

02:22the talent in this squad and a young manager ready to take on the task, it looks all sort

02:28of set for a positive season.

02:30I don't think Chris Davies would have taken the job if they weren't targeting promotion

02:35immediately. He's been speaking about how he probably could have got a job in the Championship

02:39if he wanted to, which you could say is a little bit arrogant. You could just say he's

02:43confident in his abilities. If he can try and strike a balance, that'd be perfect for

02:47Blues because they do want to get promotion straight away. Anything else would be considered

02:51a failure considering how much investment is going to be going in this summer. The squad

02:55that already exists, if they can keep hold of key players, they should be walking a division

03:00and that's no disrespect to League One. It's just the fact that Birmingham probably were

03:04too good to go down. It was just last season, so many mix-ups with the management and of

03:09course, on the final day going down, they could have stayed up with a couple of draws

03:13elsewhere or turning draws into wins. They shouldn't be in League One, is what I'm trying

03:18to say. If they don't get promotion, that's not enough. The title, it'll be the cherry

03:23on the cake, but the automatic promotion is of course the most important thing.

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