LeedsCityRam

It’s an interesting take you’ve got, so in the absence of proof that another team wanted him or the club didn’t try and offload him it’s all Anya’s fault, yet you can’t prove he had no interest in playing, how do you know he wasn’t doing all he could to be picked to play? Clubs are likely only going to show an interest in him if he was given an opportunity to show his ability on the pitch right? Can’t earn himself a move if he’s not in the shop window type thing. 
Looking at it objectively it was a massive failure as signings go taking into account the fee and wages, but it’s not on him that we paid the fee, or gave him the wages and contract. To hold such personal blame and dislike against him as a person seems odd to me, chalk it down to bad business by all parties involved and move on. 

I don’t know what you do for a living but if the company you work for gave you a fixed term contract then chose not to assign you any tasks, you would probably not go elsewhere for (let’s say) half the money where you might or might not get assigned tasks. 
If he ever refused to play for Derby that’s a different matter but don’t think there’s evidence of that? In Rowett’s season he was selected in an emergency, came in and did well. 

Derby gave him an X year contract on £Xk per week. That they chose not to pick him to play football in that time is up to them

I genuinely think Warne would’ve loved to work with Anya - at least the Watford version. 

Two or three pages on Keogh and Anya. Can’t we get back to saying how s**** Warne is please.

Chimes with the SBW podcast chat with Gary Rowett a few months back, particularly when talking about Ikechi Anya. Rowett's reason for him not being part of the first team picture was that he didn't really integrate with the group & that the group were quite a social bunch that mixed together. That struck me as a really odd rationale for Anya not playing, especially as I thought he would be an ideal player for a Rowett type side. By all accounts, Anya trained well & was a pleasant individual too.

I was always puzzled by just how little Anya did for us, fairly nippy versatile wide man who could cover both flanks. Never did anything much then just gave up and collected his wages.......I have a vague memory of someone apparently who knew him saying something on twitter amounting to "you guys have ruined a good player, he doesn't even want to play football anymore"

Chimes with the SBW podcast chat with Gary Rowett a few months back, particularly when talking about Ikechi Anya. Rowett's reason for him not being part of the first team picture was that he didn't really integrate with the group & that the group were quite a social bunch that mixed together. That struck me as a really odd rationale for Anya not playing, especially as I thought he would be an ideal player for a Rowett type side. By all accounts, Anya trained well & was a pleasant individual too.

I'd keep Gayle if he isn't on high wages. A fit Gayle scores goals in the championship.
Getting him fit and keeping him fit is the challenge of course.

Fortunately, points per game is not the only metric by which the quality of coach is judged

It's also a surprise how small their crowds are, especially as they've been relatively ok within the last 20 years or so. Bham is a huge place and surely they could make it more welcoming to locals and try and grow a bit.
There always seemed to be a line of supposedly rich people trying to make them successul. Maybe they just look at the name of the City and presume they will have a huge catchment area of fans. They probably don't know how much they are disliked. Wolverhamptom, Coventry and West Bromwich are smaller places, but all with bigger crowds and more history.
Someone should form a club called London Town and wait for some rich fool to invest millions.

I think their catchment area doesn't help them. Birmingham is a huge area, but you have Villa, Wolves, WBA (and others) on the doorstep, and those teams have actually won stuff so it doesn't surprise me that most fans gravitate away from Birmingham City. Plus, they're a bunch of c**ts so I wouldn't want to be associated with them either. Those other teams are all better thought of than Brum.

It was the early 2000s before I realised they weren't just a comedy invention by Jasper carott.

Most of them seem oblivious to the contempt with which a significant section of their fanbase is regarded by fans of many other clubs. They think our p taking over their relegation is purely because of 'that' chant, ignoring the fact that they also bombarded our fans with missiles, ripped out seats and damaged the toilet areas, all on a day on which we held a protest march to which their fans were invited to attend to show their solidarity (and some of them did). I can only imagine those Birmingham fans who did march with us that day were thoroughly ashamed of their brain-dead co-supporters.

The best player they had was on loan, anyone remotely reasonable will leave for the delights of Millwall and they'll be left with 40 yr old Juke as they can't get anyone to play in a stadium that looks like it's been savaged by the Luftwaffe and left unrepaired for 80 years, in front of 12,000 candidates for the missing link.
Lovely.

Over-rated tinpot club in an over-rated tinpot city.

I think a big part of getting out of Lg 1 is acceptance you are there.  Because we were such a basket case, we took it quite well and management appeared humble enough to not feel the big I am.  If you think you are better than it, it will consume - as endless Tuesday night cup ties versus teams like Harrogate Town takes it's toll.
The budget helps, but is not all.  Where BC will have issues is if they don't mentally accept the difference and carry on as though going up is inevitable.  I found that we had the effect of being everyone's cup final: you can defeat anyone if primed for a one off match.  

Living in Uttoxeter i know a few Birmigham fans and on saturday i was lucky enough to be in the same pub as some of them as they got relegated.
I'd done a 15 mile charity walk from 0800 to 1230 and we went to my local, the Three Tuns in Utch for a buffet and drinks. The walk was in memory of a fellow Rams fan who passed last year with proceeds to Macmillan.
As we gathered in the pub some local brummies were there who i knew and their match was on telly. 
I'd done the walk in a Rams shirt so was wearing it in the pub. As the game progressed and we saw that they were going down one of them came over and gave me a bit of stick cos of me Derby shirt. 
I reminded him that my son had given him a good hiding 20 years previously and it would be embarassing for him to receive one from someone his dad's age!
His dad came over and dragged him back with profuse apologies.
 
I have zero reason to be sorry that Birmingham have gone down!

Such a shame.

I'd keep Gayle, he's a proper quality striker.

Ah yes, good old Leeds - couldn't sell out their away allocation at QPR last Friday (half a stand empty if you see the telly pictures) & definite drop off in parking around mine as they're unlikely to go up today. Their support is the biggest myth in English football.
Am interested to see how we get on with away numbers next season. A combination of new grounds to visit, suppressed supply with tiny away ends & a fantastic away record meant demand was as high as I've ever seen it this season just gone. Now we've got bigger away ends & a better spread of clubs in the North/Midlands but telly moving kick off times everywhere & inevitable drop off of away form against better opposition. To be fair, I won't miss the panic of trying to book tickets at 10am along with hundreds of others!

I know lots of factors contribute to things like this but there is a basic fact that the bloke conceded 85 league goals this season
Call me cynical but are we saying that they would have conceded well into the triple figures without him?
We need to be absolutely 100% sure if we're going to let Wildsmith go to sign this guy.
Let 23/24 League One's Golden Glove winner go for nothing, just to sign the statistically worst goalkeeper in the 23/24 Championship??

Kazak you say?

In a statement of intent of his ambitions he’s already outlined plans to expand the club car park to 200 hundred spaces.