Trevor Francis- Bringing Blues Back

News has come from our sports correspondent that former Huddersfield manager Lee Clark has left Birmingham City after just one year at the club. A message on the Birmingham city website, "Lee Clark has left his position as Head Coach this morning, his reasoning being he thought he couldn't go further with the club, he did say that he wishes the club the best for the future, and hopes that we can go further then what he could take us"
A supporter of the club earlier said, "Thank god he has gone, he took us from a play-off spot to mid-table, an absolutely terrible manager, his style of football is also terrible, I fell asleep at one of the games."
His resignation seems to have been taken largely positively by Birmingham supporters,
This has come as a surprise as he had only just signed a one year extension with the club, but now the mystery arises who is going to be the next manager of Birmingham City, there are several big names contesting the role people such as Martin O'Neill, Eddie Howe, Roberto Di Matteo and Paolo Di Canio.

In a massive turn of event Trevor Francis has finally been made the manager of Birmingham city football club, he wasn't one of the most likely managers to get the job but somehow finds himself at the helm.
This is Francis's second venture at Birmingham city as manager and his third in total, between the years 1971-79 he was a fans favourite at Birmingham City, and arguably the best player ever to grace St Andrews. He became the first £1 Million player.
Fans of Birmingham city are 'delighted' with the turn of events and look forward to a Birmingham city with Francis as head coach.
In a earlier press conference he said, "I am delighted to be back at this club, I have some very fond memories here and am looking forward to getting Birmingham city back to the top flight and hopefully become the best team in England one day"
A supporter said "It's brilliant for Francis to be back, he will be just what we need to mount a recovery, he was also the 1st 1 Million pound player, which means he is also a record breaker and hopefully he can break some records here"
http://i1.birminghammail.co.uk/incoming/article1320184.ece/ALTERNATES/s2197/Trevor%20Francis-1320184.jpg

Francis’s Verdict:
Our best goalkeeper by far is Darren Randolph, he should be a good goalkeeper for this division and should be a key player to this squad, our back up goalkeeper Colin Doyle isn’t a bad goalkeeper but isn’t going to break into the first team many times, I will keep him here as he is a long serving player and has been view a lot with this team, and he will definitely be effective if Randolph gets injured. We also have Callum Preston, he is only young at the tender age of 17, he is going to be a big player in the future and I look forward to watching him develop over the next view seasons.
In Defence, I am hoping to play 3 central defenders but I’m not 100% sure and I am likely to try and consolidate Birmingham’s position in the league before trying for promotion, so will probably play with just the 2 centre backs. Our best defenders are definitely Neal Eardley, Kyle Bartley, David Murphy and Dan Burn. The sad thing is that Dan and Kyle are loanee’s from Fulham and Swansea respectively, but while they are on loan here I will utilise them, both of them are centre backs, so I will need to sign 2 centre backs to play their when they go back to their clubs. Neil and David are both brilliant players and are going to be good if not key players for the club, good news is that they aren’t loanee’s. We have quite a few prospects in defence most notably Will Packwood and Mitch Hancox.
In Midfield we have a number of exceptional players on the right we have Chris Burke, in the centre we have Andrew Shinnie and either Jonathon Spector or Hayden Mullins and on the left we have Shane Ferguson a loan player from Newcastle. All of these players are very god players for the division and are going to be vital if we are to either get promoted or get a top half finish. We do have a number of potential prospects here, we have Central midfielder Callum Reilly and Scott Allan. Both are going to be potential very good players for the club and are definitely going to challenge for first team football.
The strikers at the club are arguably the worst area of the squad with the ageing and useless Nikola Zigic being the best striker at the club, but Lee Novak is the most likely to challenge him, but he still is a very poor player. One good thing though is that we have Koby Arthur, who could potentially have a massively bright future ahead of him.

Former Valencia favourite Nikola Zigic has been released from Birmingham City football club following the appointment of Trevor Francis.
When asked why he said "I just thought that Nikola was surplus to requirements, plus with the financial uncertainty surrounding the club, Nikola being on 60K a week needed to go for the future of the club"
Former player Mikael Forssell stated that the termination of Zigc's contract was the right think to do for the clubs future, he said "He wasn't the best player for the squad and his disappointing form in the Championship will have surely been a reason for this"
We don't know where Zigic will go now but it is very likely he will return to Serbia to see out his career. We don't know if Francis will bring in a replacement for Zigic, but what we do know is that it's likely that Birmingham will not be going route one for a the foreseeable future.

24 year old Etien Velikonja is off to midlands club Birmingham city on a season long loan.

The Cardiff city striker is said to be delighted at moving to such a reputable club, his motive for leaving was to gain some more playing time.

Last season Velikonja joined Cardiff from Maribor for 1.4M, and has only appeared 3 times scoring no goals.

Velikonja said "Joining Birmingham will hopefully get my career back on track, and next season I might be able to break into the Cardiff first team"

Trevor Francis said "I am delighted to have signed Velikonja, hopefully he can become the less expensive replacement to Zigic, I'm sure he is going to get a few goals for the club"

In other transfer news at Birmingham city, Callum Reilly (Bristol City), Mitch Hancox (Aberdeen), Akwasi Asante (Barnet) and Emmitt Delfouneso (Southport) have all left the club on loan.

It's that time of year again, end of august, it's transfer deadline day.
We'll be looking at the 2 new Birmingham city signings.
Birmingham city football club have signed Morgaro Gomis and Aaron Martin both on free transfers.


Morgaro Gomis had only been released from Birmingham in June, but Francis obviously saw something in him to bring him back, and Aaron Martin had recently had his contract terminated by Southampton.

We have yet to hear from either of the players about the transfers but the Birmingham city manager Trevor Francis has spoke out, "I actually can't believe that we let Morago go, but I'm just glad he wasn't snapped up and now he is back, he will definitely have a role to play in the team, and as for Aaron Martin I believe he can be a brilliant player for the club and when Kyle and Dan go back to their clubs we will only need to get 1 defender"

When asked whether he wanted to sign other players he said "I am always looking to sign players I believe this club could do with some more signings"

[/size]

Nice results over the last couple months, but obviously it is not possible to beat the mighty brighton
good luck over the season, do better than me and don't finish bottom.

2014-02-23 00:05#162772 captainbrickarms : Nice results over the last couple months, but obviously it is not possible to beat the mighty brighton
good luck over the season, do better than me and don't finish bottom.

Thanks, I know they are just too good, they scored 5 goals :o
I'll try not to finish last but I can't guarantee anything

Tough results there against Leeds and Bolton, but you're doing well otherwise so I hope that doesn't weigh the team down any

2014-02-23 04:01#162782 yuttra52 : Tough results there against Leeds and Bolton, but you're doing well otherwise so I hope that doesn't weigh the team down any

It kind of did, but we soon picked ourselves back up.
Thank you

Koby Arthur had only featured as a substitute before November, but he finally got his desired first team spot against Huddersfield, he was an terror to their defence all game and even got on the scored sheet. In his 4 starts and one substitute appearance he has scored 4 goals, gotten 2 assists and 2 player of the match awards. Only being 17 as well, this player looks to have a very bright future at St. Andrews.




Again not the best month for Birmingham, but there have been 2 good result from promotions contenders Blackpool and struggling Barnsley, but two very poor losses struggling Bolton and mid table Leeds. I have been very impressed with the start of Koby's career and he is already pushing Lee Novak and maybe Peter Lovenkrands out of the squad. Another 6 points from a possible 12 leaves us in a play off place, which is great for the team and I hope we can carry this on.

Dan Burn has been brilliant all season, but this month Birmingham have relied on him extensively, he has chipped in with 2 goals, he has also helped us keep 2 clean sheets. Even when we lost the games to Nottingham Forest and Wigan he was still our best player. He also got one player of the match award, but he was also the Runner up to the Young Player of the Month award. Consistency has been a major part of his performance all year round his performance in all matches have been a solid 7 out of 10, he hasn't made many mistakes all season, Birmingham have a player they can rely on even if it's only for a year.



Well I can't say I am too disheartened by those results some very solid performances. 10 points from a possible 18 isn't bad in hindsight and has meant that we keep our place in the playoffs going into the new year which is always a vital thing to do. This month I have been very impressed with the way we have defended keeping 2 clean sheets, the only game we didn't defend well was the Wigan game. I have been impressed with the way Dan Burn and Etien Velikonja have been playing both having some very good performances and sharing Player of the match awards.