Goal.com Birmingham City Fanview: 'Alex McLeish has worked wonders even though he inherited Steve Bruce's ultra-negative and pretty dire squad'

Fans share their thoughts for the season ahead...

21 Jul 2010 08:18:00

More On :  Birmingham City
With the start of 2010-11 season approaching fast, we asked a supporter of every Premier League club to share with us their hopes, dreams and fears for the season ahead.

Birmingham City Fanview | By Leigh Bosworth, West & South Yorkshire Bluenoses



The target: Survival and stability

We are still at the stage where we must look first to ensure survival. Last season’s exploits saw the bar raised, so our fingers-crossed ambitions should be to better that.

Last season we had been in front of Everton for much of it and, although we finished one place
below them, we were 11 points adrift of them – keeping pace with that level of team as the season draws to a close would be a very good return and a solid platform for continual improvement.

Personally, I would forego the short term delight of a decent Cup run for a deserved reputation of being a strong and seasoned Premier League team.


My thoughts on the gaffer...

Alex McLeish has worked wonders since he arrived and inherited Steve Bruce's ultra-negative and pretty dire squad a couple of years back.

Last season was a very good one in terms of results and Alex displayed his instinctive desire to keep things tight at the back and attempt to introduce the flowing brand of attacking football as we secured safety to fight another season.

He is apparently to renegotiate his contract after the squad get back from the Far East pre-season tour: it makes sense to give him broadly what he is after to keep him onside, personally and in terms of Carson’s Chest of China Chump Change to go out and buy the players he has identified.

Our key man this season

Barry Ferguson was a revelation to me last term. I was sceptical about his signing, but he quickly proved that he has a great footballing brain and motivates those around him.

He may be the fulcrum of the team once more, but I would love to see space made to give Michel an extended run in the middle, also.



Youngster to watch

We have Jordon Mutch who has made a good start in pre-season already in Hong Kong and China and looks very impressive.

Enric Valles, a former Barcelona B team player, has been snapped up. He’s 20, though he is described as versatile, which usually means no-one can decide if he’s actually any good, but we’ll see…

We have, however, shown a reluctance to give home-grown talent a chance in recent seasons.


A player who must deliver

We need goals, goals and more goals, as our defence started to get found out as last season neared an end.

Our very own Peter Crouch, new signing Nikola Zigic will bear the brunt of this expectation, particularly as there was nothing short about his £6 million transfer fee.


Our Achilles' heel

Last season our record read played 38, scored 38. We have to find the back of the net more often to make our way up the Premier League table.







"Personally, I would forego the short term delight of a decent Cup run for a deserved reputation of being a strong and seasoned Premier League team."
Fixture I am looking forward to the most...

Birmingham City v Sunderland 14 August. For the first game of the season the hope and expectation is always ramped up.

Hopefully we will be unbeatable as we take the pitch, plus we owe them for two poor displays there last season in the league and League Cup. It would have been Blackpool away, but a Tuesday night in January is not that much fun.
Our toughest opponents will be...

Last season’s top five are always going to be difficult to get anything from, but discounting those ivory tower dwellers, the Midlands local derbies are always fiercely fought.

We have more of them now West Bromwich Albion have come back for a year – just to show Wolverhampton Wanderers the quick way back to the Championship, probably.


Player we love to hate
Anyone in a claret and blue shirt, the closer to Birmingham the greater the hatred.

Apart from that pink and baby blue shirted group, we don’t do cheating at the Blues so Didier Drogba had better not pirouette on his toes before toppling as though taken out by a sniper as he did last time.


My verdict
I’m too long in the tooth for this question. I’ve suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous expectation before.

I am still expecting us to do well, though, despite the historical warnings of pride preceding a fall.

We finished ninth last season with 50 points so to better that total by at least half a dozen would be a sensible target.

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…brutal honesty? We are still at the stage where we must look first to ensure survival, which must
be a pretty standard response for many supporters and helps little to make this anything like an
interesting read.
However, coupled with that cautionary view, last season’s exploits saw the expectation bar raised, so
our fingers-crossed ambitions should be to better that; probably by maintaining more consistency. As
soon as Sky and MOTD started to mention us in despatches, the form dropped off and we finished
with close to relegation form (7 defeats in the last 8 away games, the only win at doomed Pompey).
We had been in front of Everton for a large part of the season and although we finished one place
below them, we were 11 points adrift of them – keeping pace with that level of team as the season
draws to a close would be a very good return and a solid platform for continual improvement.
The ubiquitous fan hope of a Cup run is too easy to go for – personally, I would forego the short term
delight of a decent Cup run for a deserved reputation of being a strong and seasoned Premier League
team, but then Blues have been letting me down just when I truly start to believe in them for too many
years to mention, so my attitude is no doubt coloured by that.

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