Birmingham's promising start under John Eustace has faded post World Cup amidst the usual collection of ownership problems and EFL investigations - Matthew Elliott is our regular contributor from St Andrew's.

How’s the season gone so far?

Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit.

We had a very decent start and definitely exceeded the expectations at the time. However, post World Cup we’ve really struggled to find any form at all and it has seen us slide down to our comfort zone in 18th.

Birmingham league results so far…
Luton 0-0 Birmingham
Birmingham 2-1 Huddersfield Hogan 5, Placheta 45 — Ward 61
Cardiff 1-0 Birmingham Philogene-Bidace 17
Birmingham 1-1 Watford Hall 19 — Manaj 63
Birmingham 0-1 Wigan Broadhead 82
Rotherham 2-0 Birmingham Wood 28, 71
Birmingham 1-2 Norwich Hogan 50 — Omabamidele 63, Hernandez 90
Preston 0-1 Birmingham Colin 16
West Brom 2-3 Birmingham Wallace 23, Thomas-Asante pen 83 — Hogan 14, 54, 71
Birmingham 0-0 Coventry
Sheff Utd 1-1 Birmingham McBurnie 64 — Deeney 70
Boro 1-0 Birmingham Akpom 23
Birmingham 3-0 Bristol City Trusty 3, 43, Sanderson 75
Hull 0-2 Birmingham Deeney pen 14, Bacuna 47
Birmingham 1-1 Burnley Hogan 80 — Gudmundsson 74
Blackburn 2-1 Birmingham Gallagher 17, Wharton 42 — Hogan 80
Birmingham 2-0 QPR Trusty 4, Longelo 29
Birmingham 0-0 Millwall
Stoke 1-2 Birmingham Baker pen 75 — Hogan 13, Dean 67
Birmingham 2-2 Swansea Hogan 12, Deeney 89 — Ntcham 30, Grimes 45
Birmingham 1-2 Sunderland Jutkiewicz 78 — Simms 25, Diallo 49
Blackpool 0-0 Birmingham
Birmingham 3-2 Reading Deeney 2, pen 23, Chong 36 — Joao 82, Ince 90
Burnley 3-0 Birmingham Zaroury 1, Roberts 44, Tella 90
Birmingham 0-1 Hull Estupinan 77
Birmingham 1-3 Boro Chong 74 — Crooks 57, 59, Akpom 85
Bristol City 4-2 Birmingham Semenyo 17, Wells 21, Sykes 47, 66 — Deeney pen 34, Khadra 76
Birmingham 1-2 Preston Jutkiewicz 83 — Ledson 10, Browne 15
Swansea 3-4 Birmingham Piroe 23, 58, Cullen 29 — Hogan pen 14, Chong 55, Trusty 90, Jutkiewicz 90
Birmingham 2-0 West Brom Mejbri 10, Bielik 52
Birmingham 0-2 Cardiff Ng 84, Robinson 90
Huddersfield 2-1 Birmingham Hungbo 25, Headley 49 — Deeney 6
Norwich 3-1 Birmingham Nunez 27, 36, Tzolis 90 — Colin 53
Birmingham 0-1 Luton Morris 47
Wigan 1-1 Birmingham Fletcher 59 — Bacuna 4
Birmingham 2-0 Rotherham Khadra 5, Long 35
Watford 3-0 Birmingham Louza 6, Davis 16, Assombalonga 74

Quite a significant drop off since we last played, when I thought you looked v good, what’s gone wrong?

Honestly, it’s hard to pinpoint just one thing. The squad is just a mishmash of young loans, academy kids, ageing players and players in the final year of their contract. We are dealing with a number of injuries to key players and I don’t think we have a squad that is capable of playing three games a week or 40+games a season. Eustace has to shoulder some blame for team selection and set-up, but he hasn’t been given the best hand.

How’s John Eustace doing?

He’s done okay. He probably overachieved at the start of the season and that re-set the fans original expectations, so this drop off in form and slide down the table has been hard to swallow for a lot of fans. We need to remind ourselves that we were the bookies favourites to go down at the start of the season. We are probably where we should be, but things are getting twitchy. He’s making a lot of changes to personnel and post-match interviews are feeling repetitive and it’s causing a little bit of restlessness. That said, I like him and I think he will be a good coach/manager with more experience. I want to see him given more time with a squad of players that have been more carefully recruited for the long-term.

What January business did you do?

We brought in Kevin Long on a free transfer from Burnley and Reda Khadra on loan from Brighton. After a shaky start Long has settled in fairly well, he has had his moments like all of our defenders, but given the situation we were in I think it was a pretty smart signing. Reda Khadra looks to be a very good player. He’s technically good, quick, tricky and likes to shoot. His decision making can be a bit wayward at times, but he’s probably our most dangerous player.

Summer Ins >>> Tahith Chong, 22, AM, Man Utd, £1.5m >>> John Ruddy, 35, GK, Wolves, Free >>> Auston Trusty, 23, CB, Arsenal, Loan >>> Dion Sanderson, 22, CB, Wolves, Loan >>> Przemyslaw Placheta, 24, LW, Norwich, Loan >>> Hannibal Mejbri, 19, AM, Man Utd, Loan >>> Krystian Bielek, 24, DM, Derby, Loan >>> Emmanuel Longelo, 21, LB, West Ham, Loan

Winter Outs >>> Jonathan Leko, 23, RW, MK Dons, Undisclosed

Stand out players and weak links?

I’ve already touched on Khadra as a standout player. Jutkiewicz seems to have found some of the warrior inside himself again too, which is great to see. John Ruddy is still doing very well in goal too, despite this poor run.

With regards to weak links, Maxime Colin at right-back/wingback has been really struggling of late, to be honest the defence in general is very hit and miss. The midfield doesn’t feel has cohesive as it was at the start of the season and we struggle to score goals… so that’s all quite depressing.

Revised expectations for the remainder of the campaign?

I think we are nailed on for an eighteenth place finish. I don’t expect us to improve and we can’t get much worse.. so yeah eighteenth place comfort zone.

What’s the latest boardroom meltdown/EFL investigation score/details?

As it stands there are two investigations in place. We have the investigation that falls under breaches of ‘owners and directors’ test rules which relates to misconduct during the failed (SHOCK!!) takeover bid by Maxi Lopez and Paul Richardson. The concern here is that this pair and Matt Southall were running the club before anything was close to being sorted and that the club let them. My understanding is that could continue for six months yet.

The other investigation, and the much bigger concern is around the who controls the club and how Birmingham Sports Holdings have mislead the EFL over the current structure. This has been going on for around two years and was originally brought to light long before then by my good friend Daniel Ivery. The belief has been for some time that Wang Yaohui (Mr King) is controlling the club, but despite mountains of evidence from Daniel, the club have continually denied it and even denied he existed at one point. You can find Daniels his excellent work at https://almajir.net and he’s also on twitter @Almajir

Links >>> Birmingham City official website >>> St Andrew’s — Ground Guide >>> Small Heath Alliance — Message Board >>> We Are Birmingham — Podcast >>> Birmingham Mail — Local Press

The Twitter @loftforwords, @MatthewBlue1875

Pictures — Action Images

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TacticalR added 15:44 - Mar 17 Thanks to Matthew. Always interesting at Birmingham, what with the ownership problem and the condition of the ground. Then there's the football: 'The squad is just a mishmash of young loans, academy kids, ageing players and players in the final year of their contract. We are dealing with a number of injuries to key players and I don’t think we have a squad that is capable of playing three games a week or 40+games a season. Eustace has to shoulder some blame for team selection and set-up, but he hasn’t been given the best hand.' This sounds very familiar. Under the circumstances I think Eustace has done pretty well.

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