Arguably 2 major trophies in 61 years though, but point taken!
Got something to say or just want fewer pesky ads? Join us... 😊
[Other Sport] Birmingham City Football Club
- Thread starter crodonilson
- Start date
BRIGHT ON Q
Well-known member
- Jul 5, 2003
- 9,406
Currently 1 up at Mansfield, if they win that's 31 points from 12 games, surely they will take out Reading's 106 points record this season .
League One though, rather than Reading in the Championship, but yes they should smash it
BRIGHT ON Q
Well-known member
- Jul 5, 2003
- 9,406
I think that is a FL record for all divisions playing 46 games which makes Readings points tally even more impressive.
Promoted last night with 6 games to spare, and on course to smash the EFL points record.
The Blues fans I know are really happy about the club from top to bottom after 10+ years of mismanagement and decline. They could be strong again next season in the Championship, although doing an Ipswich might be beyond them and maybe best avoided given what will likely happen to Ipswich this season!
Well done Blues.
Edit - Cochrane has had a great season there apparently.
GT49er
Well-known member
Cochrane pretty much ever-present. Not so good for Leonard though - he was doing great, and the fans were delighted with him - then the club went out and spent a lot of money on Iwata, and Leonard has hardly played since. He had a rare start last night - got an assist, and was running the game according to posters on the fans forum; still got pulled after an hour though.
Nobby Cybergoat
Well-known member
- Jul 19, 2021
- 9,832
It's incredible that relegation can sometimes be the best thing that can happen to a club
GT49er
Well-known member
So is being taken over by a good owner with deep pockets!
Exactly. It's got nothing to do with relegation, and everything to do with being able to jizz £25m on players- including £11m on Jay Stansfield. In League One FFS!
They are also talking about building a 62,000 stadium. It'll be interesting to see how close they ever get to filling it if that ever gets built.
They have never been a small club for sure, but I'm 53 and I can't think of a single season where you could make a case for them being any bigger than say, Manchester City (which is a pretty fair comparison when you think about it) - yet even City have at times struggled to fill their 55,000 stadium in a period when they have been dominant and won loads of trophies. (City are also expanding to 60,000 soon)
f*** ‘em all!
Last edited:
medwayseagull reborn
Well-known member
- Oct 12, 2022
- 560
Thanks for your concise contribution.
The exact quote, as used by the owner Tom Wagner, is FEA = f*** ‘em all, so you were pretty close.
crodonilson
He/Him
- Thread starter
- #114
A true sleeping giant. Will be great for them back in the Championship. The Second City Derby is one of the great derbies worldwide, would be great to see them do a double promotion and back where they deserve in the EPL.
Many clubs buy players and don’t get them to gel - United, Everton, Chelsea just to quickly think of recent examples. The spending did create its own pressure where to do anything else other than storm the league would have been seen as a failure, and there was an element of buying players suitable not just for League 1 but for the Championship too. Many said playing possession football would fail but credit where credit’s due:
https://www.skysports.com/football/...nship-rebirth-just-the-start-for-these-owners
I think the 60k stadium thing is really just to ensure they can get the NFL team there via the Tom Brady link. Obviously they won’t fill that every week for football and most likely would have to be creative with ticket prices or not use the upper tier, but there’s always the big game that will attract a few more. They used to regularly get 50k in the 70s and more that that in previous years when my Dad watched them, but they have lived on hard times since winning the Carling Cup in 2011. Taking 50k to Wembley for the Mickey Mouse Cup on Sunday though, and apparently could have sold many more than that.
I'm not suggesting for one minute that Birmingham have ever been a small club, but a lot of what you say needs fact checking.
"They used to regularly get 50k in the 70s". Not really - that is like saying we regularly used to get 30k in the 70s. We (and they) had a handful of gates over those numbers. Their highest average gate for a season (by a clear 3,000) is 36,500 (1972/3) and their highest gate that season and the season after were 51,300 and 50,500. Since 1960, they've had as many seasons averaging over 30,000 as we have.
"Taking 50k to Wembley". Again, not quite true. The number is 44k which is still a good following, and obviously they might have sold more.
Agreed about the 50k gates, I was remembering from my Dad and grandparents but actually more accurate to say a lot between 40k -50k for bigger games and some over 50k. The stadium hasn’t held more than 29k since the late 80s so that might hinder them getting gates over 30k somewhat (last one over 30k was in 1988)!
The 50k to Wembley is the club’s own figure. It includes a lot of hospitality and Club Wembley tickets sold to Blues fans on top of the official 44k allocation.
Last edited:
Ooops. I’ve edited my post.
I was quoting the owner, slightly incorrectly it seems. I have corrected my post.