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Alex McLeish, Birmingham's manager, has transformed the team since his arrival in January 2008 after he relinquished his post as Scotland's manager. Relegation at then end of the 2007/2008 season was a disappointment but the club quickly bounced back to the Premiership the following year with automatic promotion at the end of the 2008/2009 season.
In his first season back in the Premiership he set about consolidating the defence by snapping up Roger Johnson and Scott Dann from Championship teams Cardiff City and Coventry respectively. In addition he bought Barry Ferguson from Rangers to take on the role of midfield general. All of these have been spectacularly good signings as was Lee Bowyer who was out of favour at West Ham, to add grit to the team. The signing, on loan for a season, of goalkeeper Joe Hart was also a masterstroke and he is now not only Manchester City's first choice goalkeeper but England's as well. But perhaps his most remarkable coup, as a manager, was to bring Stephen Carr out of retirement after he had been rejected by Shrewsbury Town.
He has been a revaltion at right back and for the last wo sesasons is probably playing the football of his career and is also club captain..
He has been a revaltion at right back and for the last wo sesasons is probably playing the football of his career and is also club captain..
As a result the team gave very few goals away and Blues, despite being favourites for relegation, finished ninth which was their highest ever Premiership position. Other purchases in those early years included David Murphy at left back and James McFadden who can play in attack, wide midfield or just behind a lone striker.
Other additions to the squad included Michel a talented midfielder from Sporting Gijon in Spain and Fahey, yet another midfielder from St. Patricks' in Ireland. Also a young winger, Shroot, was brought to the club from non league football and Jay O'Shea, again from Ireland and Enrico Valles to add to the club's growing Spanish speaking contingent..
Something of a mystery surrounds Michel who Mcleish pursued for over a year but since arriving at the club he has been given very few first team opportunities. Only McLeish knows why this is the case but he has hinted that the player is not ready for the English game. Whether the player will have a long term future at the club or be returned to Gijon, where he was a regular first teamer only time will tell. He must, however, be very frustrated at his lack of first team opportunities.
The summer of 2010 was used largely to add attacking flair to the team who had suffered from a lack of goals during the previous season. Ben Foster came from Manchester United for £6 million on to replace Hart and Serbian International Nikola Zigic came for a similar fee from Valencia where he failed to establish himself in the first team. At this stage I think it is fair to say that question marks hang over his future at the club as so far he has been used sparingly and although a massive 6' 8" seems to lack power in the air although he can pass well but lacks any kind of pace.
Based on his growing development since joining the club and a magnificent performance on Saturday it is hard to see how anyone can currently replace Cameron Jerome as the club's first choice centre forward. He has his critics and has so far not scored a great number of goals although a tally of 11 last season was absolutely vital for the club. He is still young, has terrific pace, which frightens defenders, gives 100%, runs the channels, is selfless and creates chances for others. Matt Derbyshire who has a fine goal scoring record has come in on loan from Olympiakos for a season to add firepower, with a view to joining the club permanently.
The last day of the transfer window saw the arrival of Alexander Hleb from Barcelona on loan who is a world class creative midfielder and Chilean international left sided player Jean Beausejour who had a fine world cup together with Czech international and Moscow Lokomotiv captain Jirasek to provide defensive cover. None of these player have yet made their first team debut.
There is no doubt that Mcleish has performed a superb job with only Murphy, Michel and perhaps Zigic looking doubtful signings at this stage. Blues play an attractive passing game and defend resolutely but by no standards have they yet played exciting attacking football although McLeish appears to be looking to correct that this season. There is much debate amongst supporters that he favours a 4-5-1 formation too much and some of the debate can be seen here at Singing the Blues . Having recognised the outstanding job that he has done the only other criticism that I would level at him is that he fails to tactically adjust the team, during a match - something incidentally that Jose Mourhino is superb at - to combat the opposition when they are exploiting aspects of the game, instead of which he tends to be reactive such as adding a striker after we have gone behind.
He has also vastly improved the scouting network and the youth academy who after a generation finally seem to be producing some potential first class players. I am looking forward to the rest of the season and think that at long last we may not only finish in a high position in the Premier league but also, given reasonable luck in the hat, go on long cup runs and even to a final.
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