Joys and Sorrows at the BCFC Open House, November 2023

Plenty has been written, blogged and released by the press, club and fans about the Open House since Monday so it’s been tricky working out what I can add of relevance to make it a worthwhile contribution.  I made copious notes that I certainly don’t want to ‘go to waste’, and the club were quite open in their intentions that we were all invited simply in the hope slash expectation that we would ‘spread the word’.  So I have to comply, albeit willingly.  That being said, I don’t want to feel I’m duplicating the quality efforts of those who have ‘pipped me to the post’ so to speak, particularly as I’ve been busy at work, rest and play ((C) Mars 2023) since that evening, arriving home circa midnight so not having much opportunity to post anything about it anyway.

My initial thoughts: Positive evening, well worth attending, very late, shame I had to go straight from work…The funniest quip of the evening has been soured by the time I type… Tom Wagner pointed out Blues were on a one game winning streak.  Blackburn have since put paid to that.  Ho Hum.

Secondly, you may wish to look at previous articles I’ve blogged on supporters’ meetings at the Blues, where you can see how we were pretty much ‘fobbed off’ for many years on subjects such as running hot water and safe standing.  This has all been rectified in very short order.  Without the need for the Open House.  As Tom Ross succinctly put it, though, we’ve had a ‘torrid ten years under the previous owners’.

As a school teacher, I finished teaching at 330 and – contrary to popular opinion, can’t just swan out of the door at that time.  I left at 5 to arrive at St Andrew’s in good time for the 6 p.m. start.  The much-derided ‘free tea and biscuits’ were well received, having not eaten a thing since I sat eating my lunch in the staff room at 1230 that day.  I think most people would agree, six hours without eating a thing is something the club shouldn’t expect fans to put up with, if they want us to commit to attending such meetings.

On the subject of John Eustace’s sacking, we were left under no illusion that we were owed no apology for the owners of the club making a decision for their club, but they did concede that they were ‘big fans of John Eustace and would recommend him to any club’.  I hope he has this in his CV.  Ahem.  In fairness, I think far too much was made by us fans of his sacking, as most of us predicted it, anyway.  The only question mark for me, was the timing.  Had we lost a game before he went, I believe nobody would even have been slightly surprised.  The fact is, then, that our owners perhaps showed even stronger integrity and leadership.  They showed they’re willing to make tough decisions for the better of our club.  Certainly even those disgruntled by the decision – for whatever reason – can’t feel the decision was deliberately to the club’s detriment.  Dithering and waiting for the inevitable dip in our form could have meant their preferred candidate was no longer available, and how would we have felt, had they admitted they’d let their ‘chosen one’ slip through their fingers?  Who next?  Our star striker in January?  Our new keeper in the Summer?  At least now we won’t all feel we’re stuck with players or staff because our Board won’t act for fear of ‘upsetting the fans’.  Food for thought…

Soundbites that hit home, for me, “There’s no doubt a sleeping giant has been woken…we’ve set very high goals and will deliver on that ambition.” and “I don’t think anything is impossible with them (Knighthead).”

John Eustace: (and I did fully support him while he was here)- “I thought we were outstanding – I think we limited probably the best squad in the league to very little.” That was him on Watford.   “I was ever so proud of the effort of the boys today to come to the top of the league and play like we did” That was him on Preston.

There’s something in his mentality that sets us up as underdog.  I’ve probably done it for years too.  Accepted it from bosses and players alike.  But when Wayne Rooney was brought in, I felt like the scales were shed from my eyes and I realised we don’t have to accept that.  Don’t need to accept Watford are the best in the league, or that Preston should be respected simply because they’re higher up the league.  We’re Birmingham City and we need to know we’re the best to become the best, or we’re never going to attain promotion.  Wayne Rooney hasn’t attained promotion yet.  Shame on him.  After such a short tenure, shame on us for having such instant expectations.  Yes, it was natural for us to ‘get our hopes up’, and it’s a true pity our results haven’t been better, but we need faith they’ll improve.

The ‘tactical insight’ we were given by Hope Powell, Craig Gardner, Darren Carter and Wayne Rooney was very uplifting.  I have to say, I was looking forward to seeing Hope Powell’s input with her CV speaking for itself.  Wayne Rooney’s media persona isn’t particularly forthright and our results hadn’t exactly been glowing, but my thoughts:

The one who shone (!) for me was Darren Carter.  I shook his hand afterward, surely a Blues Men’s manager in the future if he can be torn away from the Ladies, who are presently on the up after a tricky start to the season.  They may rue the single promotion spot this season.  A close second came Wayne Rooney.  As has been well documented elsewhere, he was assured, bright and knowledgeable.  He came across as ‘the boss’ and like he knew exactly what he wanted to get out of his squad.  He expressed some light hearted frustration that his methods, demonstrated by drone footage from the training ground weren’t all translated perfectly on matchdays, but the improvements from his arrival to the current day were VERY clear to see.  His vision was laid out in very clear terms, in a way you can never appreciate from ‘neutral’ media, or even from the match highlights even on Blues TV. Sure, he may well have ‘cherry picked’ the moments, but they were there to be cherry picked, and they were crystal clear in their relevance.  Key moments from training shown in their glory in the match day.  Every single person I spoke to after the ‘break out session’ said this was truly impressive, and very persuasive.  It may not have translated into three points against Blackburn, but it’s certainly given us fans more perspective on what’s going on behind the scenes, not to mention the assurances from the owners that we’ll get support in January and more full support in the Summer, within the remit of P&S.

The other ‘breakouts’ included a stadium tour where we witnessed the £1.25m new pitch that means we shouldn’t witness the post-Coventry mudbath at the end of the season, an excellent guide to the infrastructure by Nick Smith, who clearly has his notes written inside his eyelids as he didn’t have a notepad, slideshow or anything to hand to help him reel off fact after fact about all of the investments Knighthead were making in the Men’s, Women’s and Academy training facilities as well as plans for fans’ parks at St Andrew’s.  This was a truly world class ‘pitch’.  We were inspired by the Head Teacher of King Edward VI Baalam Wood Academy who – alongside Jedi Campbell was literally turning children away from gang crime through the medium of football and delivering them safely into careers like law.  Powerful stuff you should volunteer to help with, should you have the desire and impetus.  They revealed the Trust had received zero help from the previous board – no real surprise – but had already received much more from the new owners.  This from a Head Teacher with no employment at the club.  Anthony Isherwood, the Community Director, cut clear through the propaganda to tell us the club would be delivering a Christmas present to every single child in care in Birmingham (More than 11,000!).  Who said football was more important that life or death?  Football can make such a difference.  Anthony went even further in announcing a “Willows Hub” in January 2024, that would provide warm spaces, food bank and kitchen, seven days a week, within a mile of the stadium.  Powerful reality in this time of cost of living crisis. Blazing a trail to show Birmingham City Football Club is more than just the FC.  It’s the beating heart of the City!  Win, Lose or Draw in the match, the Community can only Win.

Club shop revenue is 100% up over last year, which can only be a positive and Jeremy Dale announced the ‘Happy Abode’ would become a ‘Supporters’ Club Bar’ next year, as said Club became re-established.  A final breakout session was to feature a fans’ favourite of old, Liam Daish, who spoke honestly and openly about the troubling history of losing Academy ‘Category One status’ and how driven the new owners are at regaining it.  The Women’s Team, of course, already have it, and have had 9 debutants in the first team from the Academy over the last two seasons.  The Men’s team – who were represented by Brandon Khela in this session – are ranked top in the EFL’s 3 year ‘productivity rankings’.  This can only improve if we attain the Category One status which is scheduled for audit in July/August 2024.

I have often felt, when I go to these events, that a veneer has been plastered over the cracks.  But the staff can’t always hide the repair-work.  “You’ll need to speak to the Board (even though they won’t speak to you).”  “Installing hot water just isn’t possible.” “Safe standing just isn’t safe.”  The propaganda machine is best projected through a single mouthpiece.  There was a tiny element of that here, as Garry Cook delivered the CEO’s pitch with all the corporate spiel you would expect, acknowledging the expectations of ‘the Americans’, but their zeal to match.  Yet that element was blown away by the ‘break out sessions’ where we were greeted by such a diverse cast of characters that you couldn’t help but either be persuaded by their honesty or else applaud the unity of their message.  Similarly, I read with a wry smile Dan Ivery’s blog that he was surprised that Wayne Rooney was present, as I had seen him through a closing doorway very early on but kept my mouth closed, after all, he works there!  Security guards and hosts greeted us all and thanked us for coming, those giving the talks were frank about the mistakes of the past and very enthusiastic about the future and how safe things felt in the hands of our new owners.  The contrast was very palpable, they said.  If this was Charlie entering the gates of the Chocolate Factory, with his 99 Golden Ticket winning friends, nobody was carried away by squirrels and the slightly deranged Willy Wonka seemed to have rationalised his act.  In fact, all 100 friends seem to have been given the keys to the factory with the promise that more Golden Tickets will be issued in February.  The view from the top of the great glass elevator was of the whole of Birmingham…and it was Blue…not violet.  We were obviously there to spread the good news, to evangelise.  It wasn’t quite a ‘warts and all’ experience, but I didn’t expect one.  But I didn’t expect to see so many dedicated people there, either.  So many stakeholders all passionately delivering the message that the future is bright.  The only notable absence?  Jasper Carrot.  Make of that what you will.

I’ll leave you with the words of Garry Cook:

“I’m the luckiest man in the world…I’m rebuilding my football club.”

Read that again.  Rebuilding.  He didn’t say adding to a decent squad (and I’m not jumping on the get rid of the current players bandwagon, here), he didn’t say making St Andrew’s a better place (it’s already been documented elsewhere he’s pretty much alluded we’ll need to move on in the not-too-distant future to improve revenue streams), he didn’t say building bigger and better.  He’s been very open about the fact that our previous ownership woes broke our club to such a point that it needs a rebuild.  This takes time.  Look at the photo I posted at the top of my article.  It’s got a 2030 ambition on it!  In 2020, we didn’t know we’d have lost Trevor Francis (RIP) by now.  We will journey on.  There will be Joys and Sorrows too.  But we will Keep Right On.