LeedsCityRam

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.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/crgy1k89zgko
I don't usually wish ill on other clubs, but I can't stand them or their fans and I hope this blows up in their faces.

I think Warne did a good job in the end. But I have to admit I don’t think he’s some magician just because he had a business plan to adhere too. 
 
Surely the real judgement comes this summer.

I agree, he’s done a good job but not enough to erect a statue in his honour quite yet.
The real judgement will come throughout the upcoming season rather than in the summer.

I'm struggling to get my head round the "get rid of CBT" posts. 
Agreed, he hasn't apart from Pompey and one cameo sub appearance, done much for us, YET. However, the lad was carrying an injury when he joined us. How do you expect a player who's not 100% right, physically, to be brilliant?

I see a lot of people releasing Loach but not sure I would. He's more of a coach at this point, he will be on peanuts. 

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.

Er, Nick Blackman had a good half season at Reading. Albentosa was playing for Eibar in La Liga when we signed him and earning very good reviews. The Clique were well known for making it hard for newcomers to be accepted, particularly if those newcomers threatened their mates' places. I was told that Albentosa was eating alone in the restaurant at the training ground, which is a pretty miserable scenario when you're in a foreign land away from your family and friends. That may explain why he was a flop here.

The telling thing for me is when one of the current players said that apart from a one-night Christmas party, that the trip to Vegas is the first time the players have really socialised together all season because they have all been focused on getting promotion.
That certainly wasn't the case in the Keogh era, and it certainly was him at the centre of some of the in-season does, leading the singing and  sounding absolutely the worse for wear. 
(Some of the WAGS are a bit indiscreet when it comes to sharing things on their insta pages.)
You can think what you want, @G STAR RAM, but I know what I've seen and also heard.

Confirmed from those who are/were in and around players pre and post-match at that time, there was a definite in-crowd, with a cruel streak towards those who didn't "fit".
Most thought it was Keogh's way, or the highway. 
Improvement in team morale and togetherness was apparent after he left, although some of this grew out of the tough times we found ourselves in by then. 

I wish it was a direct indicator.
Bird's there...