Birmingham City Revival

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LS9193

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Hello all and welcome to my Birmingham Season. Decided to take over as Birmingham boss because of these 3 factors.
  • Recently relegated from the Premier League, and more a less have a whole new squad
  • Looking to take them straight back into the Premier League, which is just step one to the revival
  • Last but not least. The Europa League. Will be interesting to see how we cope with the schedule
Well there's my introduction dealt with. Lets get to business.


Transfer


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A lot of in's and out's at the club this summer. I felt their needed to be a high level of players brought into the team as we had the Europa League (if we qualified) and not to mention the hectic schedule of the Championship.Here are the players i sold/loaned out.View attachment 222168

Only sold two players but racked in a healthy £7 Million. Ridgewell is a very good player, especially at Championship level. So wasn't surprised that Premiership teams would come knocking at the door. Same cant be said about Fahey though, i brought in 2 CM's this summer so tried my luck by offering him to clubs for £2.5 Mill and got rather lucky! All in all decent money brought in and could say my squad is even stronger now. Here are the players which joined us.


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In total 6 players joined us this summer, and these players play from Left and Right back, to a winger n striker. Covered all positions now and believe the squad is defiantly strong enough to gain promotion back to the Premier League at the first time in asking. Also with only spending just under £4 Million the club had made a nice profit.


Europa League​


​In the Fourth round of qualifying we was drawn against FK Austria Wien. Wasn't such a bad draw and could of been a lot worse. We played the first leg at home and surprisingly the Austrian side where favorites to get the win. Here are the two results over the course of the Home and Away ties.


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We made it! A great home win which we completely dominated the match. The Austrian side had a man sent off after the break which gave us even more breathing space, but the game was dead and buried well before that and we had a healthy 2-0 win going into the away leg. In the away league we also performed brilliantly and won it 2-1. Went a goal down early which got me a little worried, but we responded brilliantly and deserved the win. All in all we had won 4-1 on aggregate and booked out place into the Group Stages.


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Our group looks to be a killer one, and i must admit i think qualifying from it is going to be a little too much to ask for from our team. PSV are probably the strongest in the group but its a challenge we relish!
Championship

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In which was a real busy month of football for us having played 6 games in August. We still managed to have a decent start to the League, first 2 games we weren't convincing and was lucky to win at home to Portsmouth. But from then on we have picked up our game and we defiantly look like we can compete for promotion with the performances we have displayed early in the season. Here our the results and how we our sitting in the league come the end of August.


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Match of the Month​

Has to be the 4-3 win away at Blackpool, went 1-0 down within a minute and was playing with our backs to the wall. But then pulled 2 goals back and we started playing really well. Of course we had to let in a goal straight after and went in at the break 2-2. The second half we was fantastic and went 4-2 up and all though they pulled one back right at the end, we never looked like not winning this match.View attachment 222165
Managers view on August

All in all it was a great month for us. Qualifying for Europa League and a nice steady start to the Championship. Hopefully we can bring this form into next months games!​
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From now on im going to start updating every 2 months game time. I tend to fly through seasons so doing it monthly id be updating far too often! anyways here are updates from September and October!


September


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September wasn't as busy compared to the previous month of August and we only played 2 League games, and the Carling Cup 3rd round away at Plymouth through out the month. Here's how we got on.
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A decent month, not much to complain about apart from we dominated the game against Palace but just couldnt finish. The home win against Leeds was a brilliant performance and proved that we had the quality with-in the team to mount as series challenge to the rest of the promotion pack. Also we made it through to the next round of the Carling Cup after thrashing Plymouth 3-0. We drew Preston away in the 4th round.



Game of the Month

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Has to be the thumping of Leeds. 3-0 lead at half time thanks to a great header from Davies and a double from Mouche. Made the second half a walk in the park for us and a game we was never going to lose from then on out.



Europa League


As i told you in the Previous post, out Europa League group didn't turn out to be a decent one of us. Having drawn PSV, Stade Rennais and Sparta Prague, it looked as if we would be crashing out of the competition at the Group stage. Here are the results from September in the Europa League.


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Not a bad start! Considering who we had played. Not sure whether i had given my team enough credit, or i had maybe given the other teams in out group too much, but from our first two games it seemed we could compete with these teams and really give it a good go!. The first match was away against Stade Rennais. We went a goal down within minutes, which had me fearing the worst. But a late goal from Mouche once again salvaged us a point. Most importantly we didn't look out of place against them, and if anything could of won the game!

Secondly we played PSV at home, after drawing away in France i thought we had rode our luck a little so expected a defeat against the Dutch Giants. But once again my team performed very well but a draw was probably the right result. After these first two games it left us 3rd in the table with 2 points from a possibly 6, not a bad foundation to build from.



October


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October was a month in which the Championship was at the full front. In total we played 5 games in the league and the Carling Cup Fourth Round. overall was quiet pleased with the results.


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Having not losing any of these i was very proud of my team and this only made it even clearer that promotion was defiantly possible. One strong point i have found with my team is that when we go 1 down during a game, we show great resilience and always seem to fight our ways back into the games. Against West Ham and Leicester we came from behind to win, and not to mention us being 2-0 down away at Play-Off contenders Doncaster and pulling it back to 2-2! Even though its great we our coming back, i am not happy with the way in which we seem to let in the first goal of the game and its a issue i am trying to address. We also beat Preston 2-0 and will now meet Blackpool away in the Quater-Finals. A great opportunity to reach the Semi's!!!!




Match of the Month
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We may not have dominated the match, but it was an important win as West Ham are also Promotion contenders this year! Showed great character to come back from behind and was a good solid performance all around. Also the winning goal was a 25 yarder from Zigic who had just fully recovered from injury which was also a bonus!

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Europa League
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​All thought only one of these matches was played in October, they played against the same opponent so i will include the second match against them in this months update!

We had Sparta Prague in back to back Europa League games, i knew my boys had to be ready for this and had to go into both games with out tactics spot on if we wanted to gain anything from these matches. As you can now see, it sure payed off.


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Out best performance to date by far was the 3-0 away win in Prague. The boys put in an amazing shift and showed that we could certainly qualify for the knock-out stages. Goals from Zigic, Burke and finally Mouche sealed a famous victory and showed Europe that Birmingham where no push overs!!!! Don't get me wrong i know they aren't Barcelona but still it was a great achievement for our team never the less.


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After these 2 wins, we remain undefeated in Europe and are top of the group with 2 games to be played! Knockouts maybe???


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Also i forgot to show you the Championship's League table. As the table stands i have played to games in November. Just to let you all know! All is going well i must say. With 2 games in hand over our rivals!



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Next update will be soon​










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Interesting story and good start. Massive blues fan so will be following.
 
2 wins with your games in hand and your third like in real life!Unfortunately for me
 

November


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Safe to say, this was out worst month. We where terrible and looked nothing like the team we was in previous months. Having beaten Reading in the first game of the month, i was certain all was going to remain the same for us, especially with Reading leading the way in the League. It almost seemed as if after that game, the other teams figured the out the way we played as my 4-1-2-2-1 formation simply wasn't working. But i stuck with it through out the month as to the success it had brought us early this season. Here are the results.


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Having not lost in all competition for 20 games until the defeat at Hull, we defiantly looked like we could go all the way in the League. But after these string of results, unnecessary pressure to win our games in hand has now come into play if we want to cement our place in the top 2. Most disappointing result by far had to be the 1-3 defeat at Home by rock bottom Coventry. We in this game expecting to bounce back from our last Home game which was a draw to Southampton, but we was completely out played and this had me re-thinking my tactics going into the next month.

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Europa League

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Also with the home lose to Stade Rennais it has made our chances of qualifying from the group look rather slim. With our last game away at PSV, we need a draw to guarantee qualification. But saying that, we out undefeated away in Europe this year. Hopefully my boys can pull through and make it a famous night for Birmingham.



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December

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Going to start December off with the Europa League as it was defiantly the high point of the month! We made it through as winners of the group!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks to a fantastic 2-1 away win at PSV. We went 1-0 through an O.G from a corner which was obviously lucky. PSV replied straight after the kick off of the second half which had me worried, but Murphy who was playing left midfield covering for the injured Beausejour scored the winner from a well crafted set piece. Very proud of the fact we managed to qualify from the group let alone win it by 3 points! Here's the finished group table.



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Now we had qualified i couldn't wait to see who we would come up against in the first Knockout Round. I was hoping for one of the weaker teams, as there are teams such as Sevilla, PSG, Leverkusen and Napoli. Couldn't believe our luck with the draw we got as we would have to play Dinamo Bucharest!!! As we won the group we also get home advantage in the second leg which could end up being crucial!


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We then found that the winner of this tie would go on to face the winner of Stoke or PSG. Two very tough sides, PSG are easily the better footballing team (sorry Stoke fans) but Stoke are very physical and can also knock the ball around well. Who ever it is we may face (if we get through) we are once again up for the challenge!


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Championship

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After the success of us qualifying to for the Knockouts, i was hoping we could bring our European form to the Championship and start to take it by storm. Here's how we managed in the month of December.




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Was an improvement on November but still isn't good enough. We have become soo inconsistent and i can never tell what im going to get from my team. I think some transfers are defiantly going to have to be made in January as maybe the European football has taken its tool on my squad and needs some freshening up.


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Next update coming soon
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cheers! Just about in February now in my save, so next update wont be too far away
 

January


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After the last 2 inconsistent months, i decided to dive into my 15 million transfer budget and bring in four players to help get us back to winning ways. These are the players i brought in.

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  • [*=left]Paddy McCourt - Well known left winger from Celtic. Wasn't in the managers plans so snapped him up for £2.4 Million. With his dribbling and technique being exceptional i feel he can bring a lot to the team.
    [*=left]Jeffrey Gouweleeuw - Promising CB at the age of 21, an all rounder and was brought in for £2 Million. Will be mainly used as back up though.
    [*=left]Glenn Whelean - Also found himself out of favour under Tony Pulis at Stoke, felt our midfield needed a decent ball winner and someone who can pick out a good pass. He ticks both those boxes. Bought for £2.4 Mill
    [*=left]Emanuel Villa - Brilliant target man with great heading, finishing and composure. Cost £4 Mill so looking for him to hit the ground running and repay the fee we paid for him!


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If anyone wants to see screenshots of the new signings let me know and i will add them to the post later on!

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Championship


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The new signings have defiantly had an effect on the squad. We have been playing a lot quicker and attacking football since their arrivals. Whealen has almost transformed Bressan into a new player allowing him to have a free role and since then Bressan has picked up the MOTM award on 3 occasions. They are working very well together in the heart of out midfield. Thats enough of the praising, take a look at the results......


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Undefeated! quite an achievement when you consider out previous form. My two Argentinian strikers are defiantly bringing the best out of each other though, Mouche's form has improved significantly since Villa's arrival and looks to be a partnership in which we can get ourselves back in with a shout at automatic promotion maybe! Will give you a screenshot of Mouche during the February report to show you what im on about.


Bressan also received The Player of the Month award which was well deserved after the Month he had. First time one of my players has won this award and hopefully it isn't the last!

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Game of the Month

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Went into this game on a run of some good performances, but from going 2-0 down i wasn't expecting to get anything out of the game. But 2 goals on either side of HT from Mouche got us back level. It was a classic counter attacking performance and we really showed our killer touch. Well deserved hat-trick for Mouche.

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February coming soon!​







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February


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Last month we finally got ourselves up and running again. Was looking for the form to continue this month. One thing was for certain, and that was Mouche taking the Europa League and the Championship by storm. He's now got himself 23 goals in all competitions. Not bad for a striker bought for 130k.


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Championship

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We was of course trying to build on our results in January, in a month we was undefeated. We managed to do the same this month as well, but just not win as many as we could or should have.


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The game against Leeds was an important one, because at the time we had played the exact same games, and we where sitting 6th and 7th respectively in the table. Once again we went 1-0 down but a great header from Pablo and a late goal from the ever reliable Mouche, we managed to turn it round and cement our place in the play-offs. Played a weaker team for the 2 FA Cup games as my squad has been playing far too man games this year and almost in a way wanted to get knocked out of the competition. We performed well in both the first tie and the replay but Pompey just nicked it.


Here is a look at the league table, don't think I've posted it for the last couple of updates. So this is the league table at the beginning of March.


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Because of the 3 Europa League games we had played this Month we have 3-4 games in hand on our Play-off rivals. Hopefully we can win the majority of them and move ever closer to the automatic promotion places.



Europa League


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As i told everyone in the last post. We was put up against Dinamo Bucharest in the First Knockout Stage of the Europa League. Not going to lie i was very happy about this as i fully believed we could make it through to the Second Knock Stage, which would be either against PSG or Stoke City.

After two hard fought games, we managed to secure our way into the Second Knockout Stage!!!!!!!!
Thanks to a Curtis Davies header, we had won the first leg 1-0 which was away. Davies was an absolute rock at the heart of defense and more a less won us the game in both the attacking and defending department.

The Second leg was a 2-2 draw at home. Mouche scored a brilliantly counter attacking goal, running from his own half after picking the ball up after it was cleared from a Dinamo corner and scoring a wonder goal.


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After securing qualification we found out we would be facing PSG in the next round after they emphatically knocked out Stoke City 6-2 on aggregate. Wasn't sure how i was going to set up my team for the French Giants but i was going to make sure we where going to put up a real battle and give them as good as we would get.


The day finally come it was Birmingham City Vs PSG in the Second Knockout Stage of the Europa League. Here's how we got on in the match up.....


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It was a very brave performance from us and we showed no signs that we where portrayed as the underdogs in this tie. We weren't at the races when it kicked off and Menez scored 30 seconds into the game. Great start.

But as you can see by the amount of cards, both sides really got stuck in with their tackles and i dont think the PSG boys liked that in particular and this could of contributed to that fact that if anything we where the better team! (going by the stats)

Mouche was missing from this game as he had picked up his 5th yellow card in the second leg at home to Dinamo. He was missed infront of goal was Marlon King is no way good enough for this sort of level.




Next update will be soon. Feel free to leave any comments.​
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must be hard with birmingham with the europa league your just out side the play offs so not to bad if you dont go up this year all ways next season
 
Yeah it is hard. Squad isnt good or big enough to play over 60 games a season. Hopefully i can get promoted this year though
 
i think i have to give birmingham ago when am done with spurs looks a good challenge
 
Nice story, with a couple of games in hand I hope you'll manage to atleast get to a play-off spot and challenge for the promotion.

Really doing great in Europe considering your team, PSG will probably prove a good challange back in Paris.

Good Luck!
 
Cheers, and yeah i have a few games in hand thanks to the Europa League. Probably going to go out of it as cant see myself getting anything out of the second leg. But i could then 100% focus on the league then. Not ruling automatic promotion out yet, but id say the odds are against it. Next update will be sometime tomorrow. Make sure to check it out!!!
 

March

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Going to start the month off with the second leg of out Europa League Second Knockout Round. As you all probably guessed from the last update, it was going to be a bit too much to ask for from the team and we battled away, but in the end PSG had to much class and quality for us.


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Like i said, it was a brave show from us but we was helpless to defeat, we could of scored a few but i think Mouche had to right boots on in this match, as he was useless in front of goal. Maybe the occasion got to him but oh well. Hopefully we'll be a force in Europe in years to come and get out payback! Lost 4-2 on aggregate not soo bad.


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Championship


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We has to ​move on from the disappointment of the Europa League, we had crucial league games coming up playing the top 2 and 2 other teams in the play-offs. This month would either make or break our season, i decided to not change much in any of these matches and stuck with the same tactics i have used since the new year. Here is how we got on.

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What a month it was!!!!! Some real hard fought victories among these matches and a couple absolutely dominate ones as well with the 5-1 win at Home to Doncaster, in which Villa scored 4 goals! also the 1-6 yes, i said 1-6 AWAY win against league leaders Leicester! Only one negative about these wins could be the amount of goals my team let in. I don't think my team no what 'Clean Sheet' means to be honest, but hey we are winning so that's all that matters right?! One bit of bad news also. During the Win at Forest, our leading goal scorer Mouche suffered a broken leg and would be out for 5 to 6 Months.

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I looked at our goal scorers this season and Mouche was clear of others by far in this department. I decided that i needed to bring in a emergency striker on loan, of who is of a similar style to him. Here is who i brought in.

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Not a bad player to have to help push us towards automatic promotion or even win the league. He was out of favour at Sunderland so snapped him up instantly on an initial 3 Month loan deal.

Campbell was a instant success for us and scored on his home debut against Reading, had to be taken off due to injury but was only a minor knock thankfully. He then went on to score a hat-trick away at Leicester and has fitted into our team and style of player instantly! Here is a look at the Leicester result and Campbell.


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After these great results we have put ourselves in a great position and promotion is defiantly in our own hands.


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Only being 4 points off the top with 3 games in hand we are for sure favourites for promotion. Still 9 games to play but with our team not losing in the Championship since the 21st of December, we look like a force to reckon with! Thats a run of 16 games in which we haven't lost. Will be able to keep it up? Find out in the next update!

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Next update coming soon​







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April



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After last months string of results against the top sides in the division, we gave ourselves a real good chance in making the top 2 in the league. All my key players where playing very well and if this stayed the same i was sure we would be celebrating promotion by the end of the season. Here's a look at April's results.


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As you can see we started to become inconsistent with our results again. To be fair though we had to play 9 games in April thanks to our schedule being rearranged due to the Europa League. If we hadn't taken part in the Europa League i feel we would have secured promotion by now but we was still unsure what our future was. Championship or The Premiership? Another factor in our inconsistency was key players needed to rest so i couldn't pick the same starting 11 two games in a row.

Anyways, with the results you see there. They left us second in the league on 81 points. All that was needed from our last game of the season was a point to seal promotion. Our last game was away at London Road against a Peterborough side who had nothing to play for this season and where sitting in the 16th spot in the league. Knew it would be a tough game as Peterborough are a very attacking side and score a lot of goals at home. Would we be promoted......



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OF COURSE WE WOULD! We did it, although we had a dodgy start and let in a great goal by Peterborough and it had be worried if im being honest. But the longer the game went on, the stronger we become and goals from Villa, Zigic and an O.G. where enough to secure us Promotion!!!!!!!!!!


Better yet, if Burnley who where currently sitting top of the division slipped up, we could come in at the last second and win the League! Guess what..... That's exactly what we did!


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Funnily enough, this was the first time ALL SEASON we had been in first position. What a time to do it though! Was very proud of the team. All though we had a dodgy start to April, the last 3 games of the season we won comfortably and this really sealed our promotion back to the big time!


Also West Ham secured promotion via the Play-Off's after a 3-1 win at Wembley against Reading.


Sadly i or none of my players won individual awards at the end of the season which i was quite surprised about.
West Ham's David Bentley won Champions Player of the Year. I also came second in the Manager of the Year award, finishing just behind Burnley's young manager Eddie Howe.

Pablo and Bressan where named in the team of the year though

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Also there has been speculation over my future at Birmingham after Kenny Dalglish was sacked by Liverpool. I decided to stay quite over the speculation, i am committed to Birmingham at this moment in time and am excited to see what the new season offers for us!


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Mean while Pablo was voted Player of the Season for Birmingham​

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Overall this season was off massive success for us, as we achieved our main target which was promotion. We also performed well in Cup competitions, reaching the Quater-Finals of the Carling Cup and our journey in Europe took us to the Second Knockout Round which was a lot more then was expected of us. With reach owners behind the club we definitely have the funds to stay in the Premiership next season but its going to be a **** of a task

Next update regarding the start of next season and transfer activity will be up tonight or tomorrow. Cheers for everyone who has followed my story this season, and hope you can join me next year also.
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