DE.

Don't think we'll have a choice tbh, as even if we shopped him around for free I'm not sure he'd have many takers. Haven't heard anything about interest in Pears either. Need to get someone at Man Utd to remind Amorim to get that one done soonish.

Interesting. Massive mistake from Mowbray to sign him then, in your view?

I would take a look at the senior leadership and wonder why costs were increasing but our goals were not being achieved. With that said, this assumes the goal is to get promoted. Waggott already said during JDT's time that the aim is to develop players and plod along in the division.

Hedges might be a decent pickup as a squad player for a team at the lower end of the division. Probably wouldn't be able to afford him until his contract expires next year though, as one imagines whatever he's getting at Rovers are unlikely to be matched by the type of club he's likely to attract.

A bunch of cheapos from relegated clubs in minor foreign leagues. I'm sure that'll work out just fine.

Ominous reading this after one league game 😅 it does somehow already feel like we're in a months long spiral though.

Fair play to Trav if he can get that kind of money - frankly even if it was only a few thousand difference it'd make sense for him to pursue a move to a genuinely ambitious club where he knows (and presumably gets on well with) the manager. I've always found it difficult to blame any player (or manager) for wanting to leave the club under the current ownership. As long as they're professional about it until they leave, it's not a problem for me.

£30k pw for Travis seems a bit extreme for this division. I like Trav and have generally stuck up for him, but it's not like he's a PL player stuck in the Championship. He's at the right level, and £30k is far north of the wage for a solid if unspectacular Championship midfielder. Bizarre if true - even if Derby can afford to offer him that, it would presumably massively unbalance their wage structure. I am dubious on the figure, to say the least.

Hedges' deficiencies are less obvious when he's got a decent team around him, simply because he works hard and therefore looks like he's contributing. When he's increasingly surrounded by limited players then it becomes more obvious that he's not much use. He was brought in initially as a cheap option to come off the bench. The fact he's now a starter is emblematic of our on pitch decline.

I think attacking wise Brittain was a game changer at times and could have been yesterday. Obviously nobody is saying he's a world class player. Silly comment.

Alebiosu was quite alright, especially considering it was his debut, but against a very average WBA side just OK is a downgrade on what we would have had. I think Brittain would have really troubled that WBA team yesterday.

Gueye doesn't have history of being prolific in front of goal, so if we want to make use of Miller's long throw capability we're probably going to need to spend money on a proper striker. Love Big Mak but for me he's a rotational option, not someone we can pin our hopes on as the main man.

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.

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.

RW and ST are bare minimum requirements. I think LW is an underestimated problem as well. De Neve is a seriously questionable signing imo. I have serious doubts over his ability to play at this level. Kargbo meanwhile has only made a handful of appearances, and only ever played more than 45 minutes once. Usually a lot less. There no suggestion he's the answer to anything and I'm not sure what is up with him - fitness issues or he just has some major flaw which managers see in training but isn't obvious on the pitch?

For the majority of our signings it's a big step up from where they were playing. It's why there's no point rushing to praise Gestede for simply getting bodies in. Most of them are cheap gambles we seemed to have little to no competition for. They may do the business for us, but until they do it's fair to be very worried.

He's not the only one tbf.

First 30 mins they had 7 shots we had had 0. I don't know, it's early days but I don't like the look of this team. Feels like a relegation side. You can only downgrade for so long before the bottom falls out, and I think we might be there. At the very least we need Cantwell back asap and we need him to perform. There's going to be a lot on his shoulders this season. Well at least the snake crew will be happy, as Derby lost 3-1.

Most frustrating thing is that WBA don't even look very good. Bang average. We're just worse.

Don't think we've had a shot yet in this half, have we?

Pears' issue isn't so much with his fundamentals as his tendency to have at least one absolute clanger per game. When he went through that period where he wasn't doing that he looked decent. Seemed to have just been a purple patch of confidence though. Not saying Pears is particularly good for the record, but it's his concentration which makes him a liability.

From what I've seen from Kargbo I'm surprised he's behind De Neve in the pecking order, unless it's a fitness issue.

I'd say functional at best. Didn't make any glaring errors but a clear downgrade on Brittain.

Terrible first half, but the fact we could have had a penalty (rightly or wrongly) shows we've still got a chance. Concede again and it's game over though, and I can't see us getting any more than an undeserved scabby draw at best.

We look about as shit as you'd expect from a team cobbled together on a minimal budget with Ryan Hedges as a first eleven player.