Birmingham City
Blues Trust
Blues 4 All
Before we go into the big news of the day i.e., the takeover collapse I want to offer an apology. Gareth Southgate is a long- standing dislike of mine and one of my least likely choices to manage a whelk stall. It is therefore with great humility that I should apologize and congratulate him on ignoring the London media trying to influence his team selection.
Here is how London football writers think. First selection has the obvious choice of Bellingham in midfield coupled with Rice and Mount. While most would say why no Foden or Henderson, they are content that the other two ply their trade in old London town. England win 6-2 and everyone is happy.
Next match v USA no changes. Who can argue with that? Never change a winning team. For Southgate that is the first time he has ever done that. Guess what? It all goes wrong, and the London boys are anonymous, and Jude is starved of the ball, and England look less like winning than a Tory in the Liverpool Docks.
Henderson comes on, Jude goes off, the Liverpool man provides a bit more aggression and its obvious he needs to play in game 3. The London hacks then write endlessly that he is the obvious replacement for Jude and the omission of one of Rice or Mount is unthinkable. I am apoplectic and my twitter and Facebook accounts go into melt down. If Southgate fell for this, then the next plane home would be too good for him. Let him walk!
Thankfully Mr. Southgate did not succumb to pressure and included both Henderson and Bellingham. Jude took up his mastery of midfield while Henderson won tackles and shouted a lot. Rice was removed after an hour and the Taffs caved in 3-0, Foden was excellent and must play the next game.
It has been a feature of English football management that the press hounds the England Manager, ever since they got Ramsey the sack in 1974. Sir Alf disliked the press and stood up to them. So, Gareth I can offer no greater complement than to compare you to the greatest England Manager ever.
BLUES TAKOVER COLLAPSES
This unfortunate news comes at a worst time for the Club. Currently inactive but with signs of progress on and off the field one feels a little helpless. How can fans meaningfully react with no games to go to? I don’t have an answer to that one. I do however feel that this has the EFL’s grubby hand on this. Obviously, the circumstances have changed since the deal was made. One reason could be, that the owners, seeing the club improve, want more cash. I suspect that the EFL have found some details that are not to their liking and the owners will not pay for those things to be addressed.
My only hope that there has been a better offer from a Green-power mega rich, minority friendly, peace-loving mega rich a-political oligarch who recognizes BCFC as potentially the biggest club on earth.
God Bless
THE TILTON TALK SHOW
well for once it was nothing to do with the EFL. Paul Richardson said in his statement that having done due diligence Maxco tried to renegotiate the price of the club, BSHL refused to budge so Maxco pulled the plug, obviously they’ve found even more dirty deeds going on behind the scenes. I’m not sure they really had enough financial backing anyway especially as the club is over £100million in debt.
I didn’t want these chancers anyway but I think there was a danger of points deductions and fines if the shadow ownership was proven. There are two stories one with Maxco trying to renegotiate because of this and the financial implications this would incur. The second is that Maxco only bid for Vech Pochs company ORI with no full ownership deal agreed. According to Dan Ivery BSHL may actually be the ones pulling the plug on the deal.