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| The club's shirts featured a distinctive bold "V" around the time of the First World War. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Badge of Birmingham City (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Some of the great players that I worshipped as a boy such as Trevor Smith, Gil Merrick, Dick Neal and Eddie Brown have, I hope, found their heaven in that great pitch in the sky where the adoring fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers of those still supporting the team today will be chanting their names and marvelling, at their bravado, passion and skill. As for myself I once cherished the hope that one of these friends might sneak into Stan's one night and spread my ashes on the sacred turf but such is the cynicism that I have acquired along the weary way of life that I no longer wish to be dug up and unceremoniously dumped into a digger when the place is converted into some supermarket or casino.
Jack London once wrote, "Stone walls and iron doors are to hold bodies in. They can't hold the spirit in. You are first and foremost spirit outside of your body". The flesh decays but memories live on and some of my greatest and most joyous moments, which equally applies to every supporter of every club all over the world, survive in that spirit, as I recall moments of never to be forgotten skill and breathtaking brilliance. But why waste my half-literate comments on what the game brings to people when J. B. Priestly in "The Good Companions" wrote this, the best piece of literature that I have come across on the beautiful game:-
"To say that these men paid their shillings to watch twenty-two hirelings kick a ball is merely to say that a violin is wood and catgut, that Hamlet is so much paper and ink. For a shilling the Bruddersford United AFC offered you Conflict and Art; it turned you into a critic happy in your judgement of fine points, ready in a second to estimate the worth of a well-judged pass, a run down the touchline, a lightening shot, a clearance by your back or goalkeeper; it turned you into a partisan, holding your breath when the ball came sailing into your own goalmouth, ecstatic when your forwards raced away towards the opposite goal, elated, down cast, bitter, triumphant by turns at the fortunes of your side, watching a ball shaped Iliads and Odysseys for you; and, what is more, it turned you into a member of a new community, all brothers together for an hour and a half, for not only had you escaped from the clanking machinery of this lesser life, from work, wages, rent, doles, sick pay, insurance cards, nagging wives, ailing children, bad bosses, idle workmen, but you had escaped with most of your mates and your neighbours, with half the town, and there you were, cheering together, thumping one another on the shoulders, swopping judgements like lords of the earth, having pushed your way through aturnstile into another and altogether more splendid kind of life, hurtling with Conflict and yet passionate and beautiful in its Art. Moreover it offered you more than a shilling’s worth of material for talk during the rest of the week. A man who had missed the last home match of ‘t’United’ had to enter social life on tiptoe in Bruddersford."
If I recall correctly I paid five shillings to watch my first Blues match in 1957, in the main stand, and the programme is still up in the loft, in a sack, covered in cobwebs and guarded by spiders and the occasional bat. Someone will probably dispute this but I care not for pedants, in my mind it was five bob or even cheaper, because I was still a boy.
I have watched some great players, some of those I have mentioned above but I would add to that list a later generation of Ken Leek, Geoff Vowden, Bob Hatton, Bob Latchford and Trevor Francis, all of whom were prolific goalscorers and I thank them for the memories. Gordon Taylor and Mike Hellawell were flying wingers and the greatest character who has ever played for us was Bertie Auld, who would have a kick around in the streets with the kids on the way from his digs in Small Heath to the ground for a match. He remains a bluenose and at a recent veterans meeting said that the only team that he would leave Blues for was Celtic, to where he returned and masterminded, from midfield, the victory of the "Lisbon Lions" who were the first British club to win the European Cup. About five years ago on "Singing the Blues" a guy who was writing a book on the ex-England captain Johhny Haynes (who thought Bertie was dead, asked if anyone recalled Bertie knocking out Haynes at Stans). Not only did I witness this but told him that Bertie was very much alive and to contact him via the Celtic press office as he still did PR work for the club. I must check, sometime, if the book was ever published to see what Bertie said about the incident - he rarely saw red but that day Haynes clearly upset him and although he was much bigger than Bertie he managed to knock him out with a right hook to the jaw.
Bertie Auld and Mike Helawell at a recent Blues veteran Re-union in 2013
However not to dwell on the past but now to look at the future. Any talented player at Blues is now sold to stop the club from going into administration. In recent years we have been managed by spivs and crooks, and if recent rumours are to be believed that may well be the case sooner rather than later (my source does not have an impeccable record in these things, so who knows)? Our current owners were so naive or stupid that they paid twice what the club was worth and signed Zigic, who has averaged eight goals a season for us, on a four year contract, with no relegation clause which will have cost 12.5 million pounds, at a conservative estimate, by the time he limps back to Serbia at the end of this season. Despite the efforts of the club nobody else wants him or is prepared to match that ludicrous salary.
A a result the manager Lee Clark (more on him later) has seen his best players sold off , and wasn't allowed to pay £250,000 to retain Paul Caddis, who did a decent stint for us on loan from Swindon last season. Of the senior pros Elliott, Burke ( back in Scotland's squad under Gordon Strachan ) and King are probably the best, but the latter is injury prone and any of them could disappear if any offer came in for them. Clark signed Ambrose, Lovenkrands and Mullins at the beginning of last season and all of them have been disappointing. Murphy , if he stays fit is a more than adequate left back and Ferguson, back on loan from Newcastle, will, hopefully continue to develop as a left sided midfielder or winger. Spector although much criticised by some is a useful utility player and can play in several positions. He may not be the most technically gifted player, but he puts in 100% which will do for me, compared with some of the lazy sods in the team.
New goalkeeper Randolph looks useful although I did see him commit one howler for Motherwell last season and Shinne is an attacking midfielder but again I saw him play once for Calle. Thistle last year and he looks a bit lightweight and seemed to disappear for large portions of the match. Eardley has come in at right back and although Blackpool fans were not very complimentary about him let us see what he can do, before passing judgement. Paul Robinson put in a good shift at centre back last season and has been made captain but I have worries about his ability to cope with pacey forwards
Of the youngsters who are left hopefully Reilly and Hancox will continue to develop. Packwood was coming on well last season but had a horrendous break, in several places, to his leg and is still recuperating. I cannot comment on the rest of the new recruits but the results in pre-season friendlies have been disappointing.
We will play Watford, Brighton, Leicester, Ipswich, QPR and Reading by the end of September and these are all tough fixtures against teams who should be going for promotion. Clark has been dealt a lousy hand by the management and will do well to keep the team away from relegation.
Not only has he had the management to cope with but has had to endure some of the most vitriolic and foul personal attacks and accusations from some of the keyboard warriors and these vermin disgrace the club. They wouldn't have lasted two minutes on the Kop in the 50's and 60's when there were massive cheering crowds of supporters and when KRO was sang at a much slower tempo but was a much more noisy anthem than now. It used to start somewhere at the back of the Kop where people stood on the iron gantries, to get a better view, up around the area of the tea shed. It would then roll down and around the terraces until fifty thousand people were singing in union, united in their love of their team and their club and it would bring tears to my eyes.. Then if a player missed a pass or made a mistake there was usually some wag who would make a joke about it but never any booing and the sense of humour was always self depracating and good humoured. The crowds are smaller now and the atmosphere, apart from the odd evening game, has all but disappeared.
For those who were lucky enough to be at Wembley in 2011 you have had the highs and now we are in, sadly and inevitably a low. It doesn't matter, you get behind the team through the good times and the bad. And for the critics remember those fans of teams like Hartlepool or Accrington Stanley, Kidderminster Harriers or Tamworth Town who have never had the glory days but turn up week after week. These good old boys know what that means:-
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