posted May 13, 2008

In response to 'Gloucesterite 21' about there being a downhill trend concerning Midland clubs, I would like to say that this is a very ill-thought out statement. West Brom and Stoke have just got promoted into the Prem, Forest have just moved up to the Championship after dwelling for several seasons in League One. Villa (even though I despise them) have had one of their best seasons in the past few years. They've beaten Blackburn to the Intertoto and obviously may have a chance of getting into the Uefa Cup.
Birmingham, Derby and Leicester have been relegated, but have had their positions taken up by Midland's sides. Midland's football is therefore in no worse a position than last year really. There are many Mildand clubs in the Championship with a good shout for promotion to the Prem next year.
In regards to my team Birmingham, I hope Sullivan off-loads his shares to a more mature and better-behaved individual (Gold), who has better PR skills. Sullivan does not accept responsibility for his actions and thus blames others at the club with less power than him. He speaks spontaneously without thinking of the consequences, and thus offends our players, fans and also our ex-manager Bruce. His reactionary manner led him to say that he wants rid of anything to do with the club and that he doesn't want to be there anymore. Therefore he should off-load his shares to Gold as he says he would like to.
His best interests aren't with Birmingham. I, therefore, hope that someone with an interest in the welfare of the club comes in or Gold takes over his remaining shares during the summer. Gold's attitude, however, is also unclear at the moment, but he definitely has a better interest in the club than Sullivan.
Yeung's shares also need to be bought-out by someone sooner rather than later. We need him to have nothing to do with the club if we are to achieve a better focus for the future.
The club is a mess atm!

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 13, 2008

In response to 'Deebeegunner', we won't be renaming ourselves btw. You should rename yourselves 'where is your Arsenal?' because I don't really see the power, strength, depth or fight in your squad at the moment. I don't understand why you blame Birmingham for your title derailment- your team or any team does not consist of one player. Eduardo was unfortunately injured by the clumsy goofball Taylor, but he is only one player. Your squad should have been stronger if you were considering yourselves to be contenders (rather than the pretenders that you were) for the title. A lack of passion and a weak squad were part of the reasons for why your train derailed towards the title, Champions League and the domestic cups.
Take into consideration the fact that we are one of your feeder clubs. You have given us many players on loan for the past few seasons in order to help the progression of your youngsters and fringe-team players. You should therefore be grateful that we give and have given your club the opportunity to off-load your non-first team individuals (i.e. Bendtner two years ago) to a lesser team. It has helped your youngsters/reserve players to gain first team experience. I am grateful that Arsenal were able to give us a few of their players because Larsson is proving to be a good player (albeit he may well be off in the summer). He did help us in the relegation battle. Bendtner was also integral (in the first half of the season) to our promotion from the Championship. Muamba has still got a lot of things to improve, but he is still young and may be better in the Championship.

KEEP RIGHT ON!

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 14, 2008

Royal BluThrunThru:

You should rename yourselves 'where is your Arsenal?' because I don't really see the power, strength, depth or fight in your squad at the moment.
Don't you? Oh right - so missing out on a league title by 4 points (mainly self inflicted) a Carling Cup semi using kids and reserve players and another solid showing in the Champions League doesn't mean much to you does it not? Well, i'd rather be in our shoes than yours pal! When we're taking on Real Madrid in the Champions League, you lot will be facing Blackpool on a rain lashed evening. And why you think we should be grateful for letting your club loan you the likes of Larsson, Bendtner and Muamba is anyones guess! You're not our feeder club - you're nothing! Sunderland had Justin Hoyte on Loan, Leicester had Connelly - that doesn't make them feeder clubs. Its Birmingham who should be grateful that we have an abundance of talent and a manager willing to let them go out to lesser clubs for a bit of first team experience! Take you're head out of the clouds son - or is the sunshine out in Harchester this afternoon!

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 14, 2008

i think dark days lie ahead for the brum your gaffer is rubbish the board in termoil there will be no quick return this time it could be a leicester city for you boys in a few years any good players you have like mc fadden well thats the only good player you got will leave hello rangers.
the problem is bruce was the best thing you had look at wigan they were relegated till bruce came you have no real quality players and a board that will sell anyone and wont sign new ones and mcleish is not a good manager he wont get you out of that division your best bet sack him now and get someone like warnock in who can get the best out of under achieving players however bad they are

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 14, 2008

Nah, to be fair it's quite sunny here atm. No clouds in sight. How's the smog/poor air quality in London btw?
As I said in my previous comment, I am grateful that Arsenal have offered us their players. The term 'feeder club' was probably not the exact one I was after, but I was trying to say we have both benefited from you loaning out players to us. This can only be advantageous for both clubs. I hope you can loan us some good quality players next season.
Bendtner may eventually learn to let in winning goals against Liverpool, instead of preventing them going in, but I suppose he is a young lad, so he can only learn in time.
My other point was that you shouldn't blame Birmingham and bear a grudge against a side because you picked up an injury during one of the games. As I also stated, you shouldn't claim your team is based around one player like Eduardo and should have more in the locker/more arsenal in order to continue the push for success. However, as already said by me, you didn't have enough arsenal to push on and actually win anything, thus ending in a trophy-less season for the so-called Gunners. The Goonners may be in for a bit of a change themselves, if the likes of Hleb and others do actually go. With Flamini already gone and Lehmann maybe off to the Schwabenland, Arsenal may need to restructure things as well during the summer.

We'll have a good, potentially successful season, if we sort things out regarding the club management and bring in a mixture of fresh, young players and Championship-experienced individuals. I think McLeish will stay and the current board seem to be maintaining their usual attitude to managers....i.e. giving the manager time to settle and make his own mark on the team, which McLeish has also said he'd really like to do.

I don't think we'll find it overbearing in the Championship, but I think we have the potential to have a successful season, if we get everything finally sorted in the summer!!!!
KEEP RIGHT ON!

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 14, 2008

firstly to royalblue i aint a gooner so that rant was pointless ok buddy but i take your point but you aint coming back up anytime soon you have a bad team bad board and a terrible manager if you even make the play-offs this time i will be shocked your going to do acharlton this season underachieve as usual face it your never going to be as big as aston villa and thats what really hurts aint it

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 15, 2008

My comment was actually for Deedeebunger and not at all for you. Thought it was quite obvious because you hadn't mentioned Arsenal at all, but I had and so wasn't reacting to your comment. So all in all it definitely wasn't pointless.
Our team is actually not that bad, our board bar Sullivan and Yeung are not that bad and our manager did pretty well for Rangers and for Scotland, so I think he still needs to make his own mark on a fairly weak squad (left to him by Bruce). We'll see what he does in the summer and then judge him at the end of next season as to whether he can be successful in the English league or not.
With a good restructuring of the club and team, I think we will prove to be quite a good team in Championship. There will be contenders for the title, namely Reading, Derby, Watford and the like, but I think and hope we will mount a good challenge.
We haven't got the money or set-up that Villa have, and thus I'm ambivalent about us not being able to contend with them at the moment. Ideally I'd like to establish ourselves as a regular Prem Club, who can contend in the top half of the table, but we'll have to restructure ourselves and sort out many different issues at the club before that.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 15, 2008

royalbluethruandthru - use my name properly you muppet. So you reckon your main rivals will be Reading, Derby, Watford? Clearly you're not concerned about QPR then who are already starting to collect Premier reserves to get them out of the Championship. They will have more money than anyone else come the summer and do you really think you'll be able to attract rival players to Birmingham when they could be part of an upcoming club with tax free London lifestyles - No! Face it pal, you're in for a rough ride, you'll be everyones scalp next season and have to raise your game. QPR are about to become the Chelsea of the Championship, you'll have either Hull or Bristol that'll just miss out through the play offs, a much improved Sheff Utd, Crystal Palace, Cardiff fresh from either an FA cup defeat or heading into Europe for the first time and no doubt some surprise side (Forest, Plymouth, Sheff Weds) that gets off to a good start whilst the big guns are struggling to adapt!

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 15, 2008

Years ago chairmen of football clubs usually came from the area, were industrialists, and self made millionaires. They had a passion for the city and a real and genuine commitment to football, the fans and the well-being of the club. It is a sign of the times that this is no longer the case, and chairmen and members of the board are only interested in an investment and revenue per se. I have been genuinely sceptical about the Golds and Sullivan in particular, because their revenue and wealth comes from the profits of pornography. They are also 'Londoners' or more to the point 'Eastenders', who like the 'mafia' wanted to go 'legit', and thus ingratiated themselves into a respectable football club, so that they could be seen in the public eye as being 'reformed' characters. Take one look at Sullivan's high kitsch mansion, he's like a 'loveable' little rogue deep down. Although Karren Brady has past associations with Sullivan and 'Goldstar' publications, I have more faith in her business acumen, than the other pair put together. I'd vote for her to be 'chairperson' of the club, and I'd like to see an ownership from the City, who have a genuine passion for the club, football and above all the fans!

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 15, 2008

hahaha- sorry Dee'bee'gunner. I'll make sure I never do that again in order to avoid your brash, obnoxious response.

I didn't want to mention all of the rivals like you and that's why I added 'and the like' at the end. Obviously it's not going to be that easy because the Championship can throw up many surprises sometimes. Players will want to come to Blues because it is a big club and an attractive proposition for players.

Sullivan has said before that if a local businessman wanted to buy the club, he'd be happy enough to sell. However no one has come forward up until now. I do hope that someone with a genuine love of the club and with the best intentions in mind comes in to buy Blues, but I can't really see it happening. Who knows, maybe even a consortium of genuine fans and interested businessmen would want to come in for the club?!

To be fair Sullivan and Gold have done a terrific job over the last 15 years in terms of turning round the whole club foundations. They did provide a vast amount of money to Bruce during his reign and have invested in the club.

add comment | complain about this comment