John Eustace: Birmingham City head coach says no further news on potential takeover
- Published
John Eustace replaced Lee Bowyer as Birmingham boss in July
Birmingham City head coach John Eustace says he has not had any new update over the potential sale of the Championship club.
A consortium fronted by ex-Barcelona striker Maxi Lopez announced it had paid a deposit and exchanged contracts over a 21% stake in Blues last month.
Eustace held talks with the group but has heard "nothing at all" since on how the deal is progressing.
"That's out of my remit," the 42-year-old told BBC Radio WM.
"All I've been focussing on is preparing the team and getting them ready."
Lopez and local businessman Paul Richardson moved into pole position to buy Birmingham after former Watford owner Laurence Bassini failed to move his bid forward despite saying he was "within days" of finalising a deal.
Having had a "positive" meeting with Lopez and Richardson, Eustace says he has not had any further conversations with the pair, who are now waiting for approval from the English Football League ahead of completing their potential takeover.
"No, nothing at all," Eustace said.
Despite the uncertainly surrounding the future of the Chinese-owned club, Eustace has been able to shape his squad with five players coming in on loan since he replaced Lee Bowyer at the start of July.
Dion Sanderson has re-joined from Wolves, Przemyslaw Placheta has arrived from Norwich along with Arsenal's Auston Trusty and Krystian Bielik from Derby while exciting prospect Jobe Bellingham - younger brother of England midfielder Jude Bellingham - has signed his first professional contract.
Team's 'togetherness' will be key
With the transfer window closing at the end of the month, Eustace says he would like to add more but is not expecting anything imminently.
"No, nothing at the moment that I'm aware of," he said.
"I've said it before but if we can bring in players that are going to better the squad - brilliant. We don't want to just bring in just to make the squad bigger and don't improve us so we've got to be very selective with our players.
"Everyone's trying hard and if we don't get anyone in then this is what we've got and we'll be prepared."
Eustace described the two weeks since he became head coach as "pretty hectic" and said he was delighted with the "togetherness" shown in their opening day draw at Luton on Saturday.
Ahead of their first home game of the new campaign against last season's beaten play-off finalists Huddersfield Town on Friday, Eustace says that early spirit will be vital.
"That togetherness is going to be massive this season," he said. "We've got a very difficult challenge ahead of us against Huddersfield - one of the top teams in the league. There will be some low points but it's how we come through them."
Fully open St Andrew's would make 'huge difference'
Blues lost 10 times at St Andrew's last season as they finished 20th in the Championship, 10 points above the relegation zone, and return to a stadium with the lower tiers of the Kop and Tilton Road stands still shut.
Despite the club wanting to get the areas open for the start of this season, they remain unavailable having been closed in December 2020 because of safety concerns.
Eustace says it would make a "huge difference" to get the ground fully open.
"Over the years when I've played and coach teams there, it's one of the most difficult places to go in the Championship," he added.
"Obviously with some of the stands not open, that makes a huge difference but it's up to us to make sure the fans are behind us.
"It's up to us to be hard to break down and be tough to play against. We know how important the fans are and the importance of only having a few stands open. But there are no excuses, it's down to us to make it as tough a place as possible to come to."