Birmingham City ready for another big summer window in preparation for Championship return

National World - LocalTV

It’s shaping up to be a pivotal summer for Birmingham City—not just in terms of recruitment, but also in embracing the fresh challenges of life back in the Championship. After securing promotion from League One, Blues are now preparing for a significant step up in quality, with a renewed sense of ambition and energy around St Andrew’s. We spoke to Charlie Haffenden of BirminghamWorld to get his take on Blues’ summer outlook, which positions are likely to be prioritised, and how the club’s hierarchy plans to back the manager while keeping an eye on the future.

Transcript

00:00It's shaping up to be a pivotal summer for Birmingham City not just in terms of recruitment

00:09but also in embracing the fresh challenges of life back in the Championship.

00:14As a securing promotion from League One, Blues are now preparing for a significant step up in quality

00:21with a renewed sense of ambition and energy around St Andrews.

00:25With a new campaign looming, the club must strike the right balance between adding experience to the squad

00:33and maintaining a long-term vision for sustainable growth.

00:38Birmingham already boasts a solid foundation, especially with several key players retained from their promotion-winning campaign.

00:47The summer focus now turns to smart additions, players who can raise the level

00:52without disrupting the togetherness that powered last season's success.

00:57We caught up with Charlie Haffenden of Birmingham World to get his take on Blues' summer outlook,

01:03which positions are likely to be prioritised and how the club's hierarchy plans to back the manager

01:09while keeping an eye on the future.

01:11Charlie, on Birmingham City, obviously we mentioned the summer window was going to be big

01:18and you obviously put out on yourself that you weren't expecting it to be so big

01:23but the owners came and confirmed that they are going to go big again.

01:26This is an incredible era for Birmingham City.

01:29I mean, it started last season and they sort of built up.

01:32I mean, it could have even started when they got relegated

01:34and the positivity around that relegation was remarkable to see.

01:38But they are now back up to the second tier.

01:41They've now got a job to do again.

01:44Loads of transfer rumours in and out.

01:46I mean, these are big rumours as well.

01:47Big players, lots of experience that could happily drop down to the likes of Birmingham City

01:53and then there's also Wrexham as well.

01:55You know, why wouldn't a player want to come and join these teams at the moment?

01:58Because the only way is seemingly up.

02:01The momentum is really with those clubs, isn't it?

02:03You've got those who've been in the Championship for a long time

02:06and you would normally consider to have a better chance of finishing in the playoffs.

02:10But it's a weird anomaly in the case of both Wrexham and Birmingham.

02:14They're going to be immediately pushing for the playoffs, I think.

02:17But then what happens to the likes of West Brom and Middlesbrough and Coventry,

02:21who've been on the fringes or just about inside for so many years now,

02:24it's going to be really exciting to see.

02:26And as you say, there's probably going to be a lot of investment from Birmingham's side yet again.

02:30And there's been a lot of focus on trying to bring in free agents to start with.

02:34Of course, contracts expiring on June 30th means that the first part of the transfer window

02:39is probably more focused on those free transfers.

02:42But once we head into July and August,

02:44once we've had a few fixtures at the start of the season as well,

02:47a few areas of the squad, a few gaps might kind of get clearer.

02:51And then Chris Davis will look to improve in those positions.

02:54But yeah, I think there's some fantastic names being linked to the club.

02:58One that I quite like to see happen and makes a lot of sense is Tommy Doyle from Wolves.

03:04Been linked to a potential loan move or a permanent move.

03:07Permanent would probably be a bit too expensive at this stage.

03:11But of course, not really fitting into Vito Pereira's plans at Molineux

03:14could shift into that Birmingham midfield,

03:17competing with the likes of Iwata and Pike Sung-ho.

03:20It's been such an amazing partnership, Iwata and Pike.

03:22But if you have someone like a Doyle, who's maybe a little bit more creative,

03:26a bit better with his longer passing,

03:27it could give Birmingham a bit of a different dimension.

03:29But he's just one of many, many players that have been linked to the football club so far.

03:33And the fans are rightfully getting excited because a few years ago,

03:37they'd be spending a million tops maybe on a top signing and hardly that.

03:41And quite often they were flops.

03:43So and spending way too much wages on players that didn't quite deserve them.

03:46Now, yeah, the wages are high.

03:48The transfer fees are going to be high as well.

03:50But it seems like there's a lot more kind of thought behind every transfer.

03:53And they should start into Davies' plans pretty well.

03:56The Birmingham were up against a low block because teams just accepted that they were

04:00definitely the underdogs.

04:01They just sat deep and it was quite difficult to break down.

04:04Birmingham got a bit frustrated at times,

04:06but then Davies would be a bit more flexible about it.

04:08Might use his wing backs, push him a bit higher up

04:10or push a centre-half up a bit like Christophe Clara to really push defences.

04:14I think we'll see a bit more of that again.

04:17Of course, the quality of opposition will be tougher next season

04:20and maybe teams will come out of Birmingham a bit more.

04:22And that could actually suit Blues quite well because when teams come at them,

04:26of course, they'll be spacing behind.

04:28The pace of Jay Stansfield, potentially Kwame Poku coming on from Peterborough as well,

04:32could be really good for them to have.

04:34And yeah, I think it'd be really positive.

04:36Chris Davies, he's definitely a clever character.

04:39He showed that last season and I'm quite excited to see how he'll do in the Championship.

04:42Yeah.

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