Do we need a striker, Chaddy?

Some people have Yuki down to get 15 this season. Won't be anywhere near that if he's leading the line.

No point taking Neil Yardley too seriously, he’s in-house media. Asking him to critically analyse a match or ask probing questions is akin to asking Russian State Media to pull up Putin on invading Ukraine.

Miyoshi and Baradji it is then Ohashi first half and that is it

Really frustrated with today's performance. Their goal was soft and Travis not marking his man and allowing Price to score. I expected better from him. Deffo pen not given when it was clear Penalty and disappointed for it not to be given. The last 15 minutes we looked better. Ohashi had our best chance. Second Half, we huff and puff but never produced one clear cut chance which isn't good enough, few half chances but nowhere good enough. Toth made a couple of good saves but had 2 dodgy moments. On the debutants today, Alebiosu looked ok on his debut, McLoughin did well at centre back, De Neve one or two moment but nothing to note, got a nasty cut to his face first half, Hendriksson look lost at times and at times I think Mokenna was playing with his tackling Miller looks decent enough but short of fitness. Tavares didn't have enough time to make an impact. disappointed result but 45 games to go and we need to improve now.

"Not that dangerous in the last third. Same situation as when I came in." Why hasn't he/Gestede addressed it then? Already lamenting not getting players in early enough. He knows we are well short up top. Clearly we only have the money to buy 1 attacking player... unless there are outgoings. It won't take long for the blame game to start if we don't improve that front line.

Just to clarify, I was highlighting his stupidity rather than agreeing 😉

He does realise you need to shoot if you hope to draw a game when you’re 1-0 down, let alone win it. Right?

Would have to create a reasonable chance at goal surely?

The interviewer said we should possibly have come away with at least a point.

This 'transitional period' nonsense is just another dressing up of 'the journey' or the 'three/five year plan'. Never any ambitions for now, just in the distant future. The only thing we're transitioning into is a lower table Championship team - optimistically - or more realistically a League 1 team. There is absolutely zero evidence to suggest a bunch of players brought in from average to poor teams in leagues incomparable to the Championship are going to transition us into something better. At least when Mowbray and JDT were talking about it, their signings suggested the possibility was there even if reality always came along to bite us on the arse in the end. Eustace was the only manager in recent times who wanted to plan for the now, and his ambitions were swiftly wrecked by those above him. Not only that, but his desire to bring in players he believed could push us forward now as opposed to some magical time in the future was derided as "bringing in Eustace's mates" or "lacking resale value", as if we're a club who doesn't consistently allow valuable players to either leave for nothing or well below their true value. Venky's had a somewhat canny operator in Waggott who was willing and able to keep us bobbing along in the Championship. Zero ambition beyond that, but it was a target he could meet. I don't think the Pasha/Gestede combo have that same ability, and unless they get an experienced CEO in very quickly we could be looking at 2016/17 all over again.

Ismael said it was a good away performance. Id hate to see a bad one.

Sammy says hi.

He was brought in by Rudy from the scrap heap and now has 3 years still on his contract. Big Val will tow the party line a bit longer IMO.

No quality in the final 3rd according to Ismael. No change there then. Been like that for several seasons!

DONT TELL RUDY!

Make it 2.5 and you have a deal.

Wasn’t having a go at you pal, thankfully you understood what I meant buddy.

Ismael “we were not that dangerous, I expected it” brilliant, tells you all you need to know. Essentially, the manager himself doesn’t believe in the team.

Strewth, that would be generous !

I got same vibe. Shades of JDT in that interview. Didn't sound happy about the window at all, resigned to Travis going.

can we just give everyone around a 5.5 and be done

I’m not wanting him replaced I think he’s clocked out. So I’d rather someone who committed

I finally got around to watching the Birmingham promotional series on Prime. It was a decent fluff piece, but not much more than that. The Sunderland doc was much better and more detailed. I thought the emphasis on Birmingham being a 'cursed' club was a bit exaggerated. I'm sure there are a lot of uncursed clubs who wouldn't have minded spending most of the 2000s in the PL. I get it makes for a better story to make out Brum are this massive club who had been under a brutal curse before Brady and Wagner came along, though. They zoomed through the first season in a single episode. In a serious documentary that would have spanned two, if not three episodes. I get why they did it - the aim was to promote Brady and Wagner in a good light, so they wanted to get the rocky start out of the way quickly. Still, I thought it was lacking. Little insight from either of them on why they sacked Eustace nor any real contrition beyond Brady admitting they made too many changes too soon. No real insight as to why they chose Rooney. No real insight into what it was specifically that caused Birmingham to struggle under Rooney, beyond Brady briefly mentioning he didn't like Rooney's work ethic. Thought Rooney came across as really awkward when in Brady and Wagner's presence. They completely ignored Mowbray's hiring, as far as I recall it wasn't even mentioned. If you didn't know any better you'd assume they just didn't have a manager after Rooney was sacked. I know Mowbray wasn't there long due to his unexpected health issue, and maybe they glossed over the entire thing out of respect for that, but I was still surprised it wasn't brought up that he was there at all. The League 1 part wasn't hugely interesting due to Brum's eventual domination of the league. They made a big deal of the brief wobble they had, but then just skipped ahead because, well, there wasn't much to say. They tried to spin it as a monumental achievement, but with the amount they spent it would have been one of the biggest sporting failures of all time not to go up. Their spend was 30x the next closest team - and whilst they did mention the spending, I don't think it highlighted just how egregious it was in comparison to the other teams in the division or indeed in comparison to any historical spending in that division. Regardless, you can't doubt Wagner and Brady's commitment to the club. They're all in, at the moment at least, and that was obvious. It remains to be seen for how long they retain their interest if further success doesn't follow quickly. Will they be so passionate if in two or three seasons Birmingham are still a Championship club? We'll see.

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