Banishing the blues - how wealthy Birmingham bounced back

Minority shareholder and NFL legend Tom Brady watched Birmingham's home game against Wrexham in September alongside former England captain David Beckham

After spending £25m last summer on 17 new players - including setting a new third-tier transfer record - Birmingham City were everyone's favourites to go up when the 2024-25 League One season began eight months ago.

So there will have been few eyebrows raised when Blues clinched promotion with victory at Peterborough on Tuesday night.

Chris Davies' side - arguably the most expensively assembled at third-tier level - sealed an immediate return to the Championship with six games to spare.

There were wild scenes of celebration at London Road - as there have been at almost every game, goal and point along the road this season - as Blues made it 29 league wins from 40 matches, to complete one of English football's earliest-ever promotion triumphs.

There will be even more glasses raised if they now go on to make it a double by beating Posh again at Wembley in Sunday's Vertu Trophy final - as Barry Fry's Blues side also did 30 years ago.

"It's huge to get to this point so quickly," said BBC Radio WM's Birmingham City commentator Richard Wilford.

"Going into this season so many clubs in League One were warning them that they were in for a shock. It just hasn't been like that. They've only lost three times in 40 games.

"They have been relentless in their desire to just keep on finding a way to win game after game. Promotion was inevitable.

"To get that done before Wembley is a terrific achievement, particularly given that Davies is in his first senior season as a manager."

There is also the matter of clinching the League One title. Blues are now 14 points above fellow American-owned side Wrexham, who have just five games left.

And, if Blues beat Crawley at home on Good Friday - assuming Wrexham do not drop points beforehand - they could have three different celebration parties three games running.

It is precisely the sort of success Blues' owners Knighthead envisaged when they settled on Birmingham as their place to build a new footballing super power two summers ago.

The American dream quickly became one of even greater grandeur when, within a month, new owner Tom Wagner tempted NFL legend Tom Brady, one of the world's great sporting names, to add his extra global lustre to the brand and come on board.

How did Blues end up in League One?

Birmingham have had 73 goals to celebrate in 40 matches as League One's top scorers - and they have also conceded the fewest (29)

Brady was at their first Championship home game of the 2023-24 season to witness a last-gasp Lukas Jutkiewicz penalty beat Leeds United. The feeling of euphoria was almost incalculable.

Yet, by early October, Blues had hit a rocky patch, sacked head coach John Eustace with the side sixth in the table, and the seeds were sown on a season of struggle in which six different bosses at one time or another picked the team.

Wayne Rooney's unhappy three months in charge was followed by Steve Spooner coming in as caretaker boss for one game, Tony Mowbray's hopeful arrival, cut short by illness, his stand-in Mark Venus' brief occupancy of the hot seat and finally Gary Rowett's end-of-season tenure.

While Blues have been busy trying to get back to the level they left, five of those bosses have still been operating in the Championship this season - Mowbray and Venus since mid-January at West Bromwich Albion, while Eustace - now at Derby following a spell at Blackburn - and Rowett, at Oxford, are very much involved in the battle to still be there alongside Blues in the second tier next season.

Rooney started this season at Plymouth Argyle but was sacked almost a year to the day after he was also discarded by Blues.

It was a year ago this week that Blues' new owners announced their plans to build a stadium fit for the Premier League - and, even then, most seasoned football watchers thought they would stay up.

Instead, despite a final-day victory over Norwich City, they were relegated from the Championship by one point and interim boss Rowett departed.

A new, untried manager

Chris Davies is in his first season as a manager

Instead of appointing another household name, or another illustrious CV, they went for a comparative unknown in Davies.

The 40-year-old had no direct managerial experience but a significant coaching background from his time working under Brendan Rodgers at Swansea City, Liverpool, Celtic and Leicester City as well as latterly with Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham.

"He fulfils our goal to appoint an ambitious, progressive coach," said Blues owner and chairman Wagner when Davies was appointed on a four-year contract.

"He is motivated to help redefine the club, the culture, and the playing identity."

And it has worked. Club captain Krystian Bielik declared before the end of September that Blues were "too good for League One" after winning six of their opening seven games. And so it has proved.

"As much as Birmingham City's return to the Championship seemed inevitable, the relentless way in which they have gone about their business has been extremely impressive," said Wilford.

"The imaginative appointment of Davies to his first senior job has paid dividends, along with a recruitment policy that already had one eye on the second tier.

"An identifiable playing style, the return of sell-out crowds at St Andrew's and approaching 40 victories in all competitions this season – that's all combined to create a feel-good factor for a fan base who were warned they were 'in for a shock' this season.

"Once they found their more hard-nosed capability following November's defeat at Shrewsbury, the shocks have been hard to find."

An expensive rebuilding of Blues

Summer signing Tomoki Iwata has impressed in midfield

Birmingham have certainly spent lots of money in their quest to return to the Championship at the first attempt - more than any other side at this level, even Wrexham, could match.

Their spending last summer was understood to have topped £25m to bring in 17 new players, including paying seven-figure fees for Emil Hansson, Ayumu Yokoyama, Alex Cochrane and Lyndon Dykes.

They had also twice come close to breaking the League One transfer record with the arrival of defender Christoph Klarer and midfielder Willum Willumsson, both for around £4m, before they actually did so on August transfer deadline day.

Their biggest deal was to bring in striker Jay Stansfield from Fulham for a jaw-dropping eight-figure fee - smashing the £4m paid by Sunderland to Wigan Athletic for Will Grigg in 2019.

Half of Stansfield's 18 league goals, the joint most in the division, have been penalties, but by being ruthless from the spot it has helped create the hugely efficient way Blues have beaten teams this season.

Until scoring a combined 10 goals in successive home wins over Shrewsbury Town and Barnsley, Birmingham had hardly 'put away' any side.

As Davies has maintained all season, that is largely down to the way so many other sides have raised their game against them and fought so hard to make things difficult.

"Blues supporters have new heroes," said Wilford.

"Austrian centre-back Klarer has brought a mixture of no-nonsense defending and confidence on the ball.

"Tomoki Iwata and Paik Seung-Ho bring class to a midfield that has added goal punch since the January addition of Kieran Dowell.

"Goalkeeper Ryan Allsop's distribution from the back has been a hallmark of the season, as has the quality and productivity of the excellent Keshi Anderson."

How could Birmingham afford it?

Jay Stansfield's 22 league and cup goals for Blues this season have gone a long way to earning Chris Davies such success in his first season in management

Financial rules in League One and League Two are slightly different to the Premier League and Championship.

The two lower tiers operate a Salary Cost Management Protocol (SCMP) model, which allows League One sides to spend 60% of turnover on wages and transfer fees and League Two sides 50% - but 100% of any equity investment.

Effectively, any investment from owners Knighthead could be spent on the team.

From next season, the rules will change slightly when only 60% in League One, and 50%, in League Two, of extra football income - such as prize money, cup earnings or transfer fees received - will be able to spent on player-related expenditure.

It means that should an owner of a League One side invest £100m in their club they could spend just over £60m on players.

Under the Championship's Profit and Sustainability (PSR) rules, clubs are currently allowed to lose £39m over a three-year cycle - providing they have spent all those in the English Football League.

What next for Birmingham?

Birmingham need 15 points from their last seven matches to set a new EFL record total of 107

Birmingham have almost reached the end of this season's road, but not the end of this Blues journey.

After Sunday's Wembley final they will have their eyes set on beating Wolves' League One record of 103 points, and the overall EFL record of 106 points, set by Reading's Championship-winning side of 2005-06.

And backed by the money of Knighthead - who on top of their plans for a new 60,000 stadium and Sports Quarter in the east of city have even turned their attention to cricket and agreed a 49% stake in The Hundred franchise Birmingham Phoenix - their ambition will be much more than to make up the numbers in the Championship next season.

"For the first time in more than a decade there is optimism at St Andrew's, and the very real sense that there are more good days to come," added Wilford.

"Owners Knighthead remain ambitious for the club and the city itself.

"And as for Chris Davies – he would likely tell you that he is only getting started with what he wants to achieve with Birmingham City."