DE.

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.

Welcome to the Championship, Wrexham. Interesting that both they and Birmingham threw away their leads at the death, although at least Birmingham got a point out of their match.

Whilst yes, there's no guarantee higher spending will increase league position, under competent leadership it's reasonable to assume this will happen. That excuse just reads as the owners having zero confidence in the people they employ, and also no confidence in themselves as leaders of the club (rightly so, granted, but still). It's embarrassing to read. Absolutely no ambition whatsoever and, as always, makes you wonder why they own this club.

There is zero point in releasing the minutes at all if they are mostly fiction. As noted previously, it will completely destroy any faith in future minutes being taken seriously and casts suspicion on previously released information too. If the club are not willing to allow a truthful transcription of the meeting to be released then no version should be released, and a statement from the FF should be put out instead confirming the reasons behind this decision. Further meetings with club officials will be pointless if any contentious elements will just be redacted from the minutes or, as is seemingly being alleged, amended to be a fabrication of what actually transpired.

I've always felt public criticism of players is a sign of a manager who is not in control. Unless it's something seriously egregious, those things should be kept private. Doing it after one league game is lunacy.

Regarding Henriksson and Crohn's - I have it as well, and yeah, it's pretty brutal and takes a toll on your body. The main issues for an athlete would be that your body struggles to absorb nutrients and also struggles to deal with inflammation - which obviously happens naturally when using the gym or being involved on physical sport. Crohn's also causes constant fatigue which is mentally taxing to say the least. With that said, Crohn's can be managed and put into a form of remission. It doesn't fix things but it does mean the person can live relatively normally. Unfortunately there's no cure and the medication does eventually stop working (if he's on biologics then it's typically around 5 years). You can switch to a different biologic or start infusions, but there's no guarantee these will work as well as the medication which has put you in remission. The fatigue is the one thing the medication doesn't really do much for, even when in remission, but I'd say it only became noticeable to me in my 30s. At Henriksson's age it wasn't such a problem for me, but then I wasn't a professional athlete either. There are professional athletes with Crohn's (as noted by others, Darren Fletcher is an example) so it's not a total roadblock, but even with careful management a severe flare up can still occur at any time which would mean indeterminate time off for the player, so there would be risk involved.

Considering wages are repeatedly being paid late it may soon not be worth the paper it's written on. Either that or a takeover there is imminent.

Indeed. Everton were a pretty decent standard as well and we did alright there. Shit performance from the whole team today but let's hope it's just the rust being shaken off before the season starts. The situation at the club as a whole is much more of a concern to me than random friendlies.

It was a pre season friendly. Calling them cloggers who need replacing is massively OTT. Our problem is repeatedly letting good players leave and bringing in cheap punts as replacements. Which is exactly what will happen when Travis and/or Tronstad leave.

Travis and Tronstad are not the problem.

Looks like Hackney has rejected the move to Ipswich - wonder if that impacts Boro's offer for Brittain?

Hopefully Taveres will get some minutes.

This silly arguing can stop now - fair warning to all involved. I don't want to see any more of it.

I see Ohashi more as an industrius, hard-working forward who can play across the line. Rhodes was - in some quarters infamously - largely limited to being useful within and around the penalty area. I consider Yuki a more flexible player, but at the same time one who isn't likely to get as many goals. I really only feel I can compare them at surface level though, as the Rovers team Rhodes played in was very different to the current squad. Ohashi doesn't have any player on the level of Ben Marshall, Josh King, David Dunn or Tom Cairney to feed him. For better or worse, our team back then was set up specifically to account for having a fox-in-the-box type striker with an incredible scoring technique. I don't think the same focus will be applied to Ohashi, and nor should it. Ultimately last season was a difficult one in terms of making a judgement call on Ohashi. He came in midway through the Japanese domestic season, so he'd already played 20+ games before the Championship even kicked off. He was either partnered with or in competition with a striker with totally different attributes to him, also new to the club. The entire team had to deal with severe management turbulence which disrupted cohesion. He also missed January through February with an injury. One positive is that 4 of his 9 league goals came under Val's management. Before his injury he had scored just 1 goal in 19 league appearances (his other 4 goals all came in his first 5 appearances). It maybe provides some optimism that Ismael's system could work well for Ohashi. We'll see. As I said, I would be delighted to be proven wrong and to see Ohashi net a hatful this season - because the chances of us having anyone else to rely on is slim to none.