Chris Davies has revealed that he has held talks with some of Birmingham City’s top players, and said what his sales pitch to them to convince them to stay with the club will be.
Birmingham’s relegation to League One was one that was as perfect a representation of the domino and snowball effects as you can imagine.
John Eustace got the club off to a good start, but the bewildering decision to sack him when they were in the play-offs, in order to appoint Wayne Rooney, was the motion that knocked over the first domino.
Everything from then onwards started to tumble down, and the pressure and embarrassment kept on building until the crescendo on the final day.
A 1-0 win over Norwich City wasn’t enough to keep them up. Joe Edwards’ goal for Plymouth Argyle, who Rooney is now in charge of, against Hull City on that same day was what caused the final domino to fall, and their relegation was confirmed. At that point, it was Gary Rowett in-charge owing to Tony Mowbray’s absence.
So here we are; Knighthead’s vision has taken a proper thumping, and now Davies and the rest of the staff have a lot of work to do to get things back on track, starting with the playing staff.
Chris Davies’ sales pitch to Birmingham stars
The Blues are going to be looked at as a potentially easy target for Championship clubs that are trying to bolster their squads over the summer period.
They have a lot of players whose talents mean that they should be playing in the second tier, and this could lead to a lot of them requesting to leave.
Chief among those who could ask to go are international players like Krystian Bielik, Koji Miyoshi and Paik Seung-ho. All three have pedigrees of representing their countries, but their chances of doing so could be hit because of the league that they are now set to play in.
Davies, Birmingham’s new boss, has said that he has spoken with Bielik, and he has revealed what he’s going to say to try and convince players like him, who may want to leave, to stay.
“I have had a couple of conversations but more will happen in the next few weeks when the players come back in,” said the former Tottenham Hotspur assistant to Birmingham Live.
“My message to the players around that is that I’m a symbol of exactly that. I’m someone who could well be a manager in the Championship now, possibly even higher who knows, but I have chosen to come to a club that’s going somewhere.
“It’s for me to make the vision, the project and where we’re going with this crystal clear to them so they can see that yes, we’re in League One, but we’re going somewhere and you want to be part of that.
“That is exactly the message I’m going to be getting across to those players who are maybe considering where they are at now in relation to where they want to be.”
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