Is it time for a Blues Shankly-type fifties revolution?
Way back in the late fifties Bill Shankly arrived at Liverpool and was shocked by what he saw. Liverpool was languishing near the foot of the old second division table having been a pretty poor second team to Everton for decades. Sound familiar? What did he do? He got rid of almost the entire team he inherited and brought in his own people. And we all know what happened to Liverpool shortly after that. They became and still are one of the top teams in Europe.
It must have been galling for Lee Bowyer to eventually admit what Blues fans have known for the last four years and that is some of the players this team has been built around do not come up to the mark. Bowyer has inherited a football team that needs serious surgery if it is ever to get back to the Premier League.
Naming individuals is never helpful but I recently suggested that a change of captaincy was necessary and according to the poll it came out 99% against changing from Harlee Dean. Yes, I wondered about that too, as I only see one natural leader out there and it is not Dean.
If Blues are to emulate anything like the Shankly miracle that’s exactly what Bowyer needs to do. Get rid of the old school and bring in his own men. It might take a season or two but that is what is needed.
He’s already bought in several new players, in Sarkic, Sanderson, Woods, Deeney, Graham, Aneke, Castillo, and Chong. Bowyer should use those players as the backbone for HIS team, then pick the bones out of what’s left until he can replace them.
If that fails, he will only have himself to blame. Our City is massive, bigger in size than Manchester and yet just look at the state of the club that carries the proud name of Birmingham.
He needs to listen to what the fans are telling him. I sat in my fourth consecutive new seat in the main stand on Saturday and it was an eye-opener. Most of the fans were a mixed bunch of regulars and were saying exactly the same thing. Why was Sanderson dropped? Why was the best player of the day, Sunjic, taken off? Why was there such a big gap in midfield when Grabben scored? And it goes on and on.
This team is disjointed and is not fit for use. The fans are tired of seeing substandard football from highly overpaid players and want change.
It only needs a few of yesterday’s men playing relegation level football to spread around a team faster than Covid and the Forest game was a sharp reminder to all Blues fans that there is still a long way to go before Birmingham City can even dream about mounting a serious campaign for promotion, except they are now closing in on yet another relegation battle.
The home results are desperate and there lies another problem. How is it that with such a vocal crowd behind them they serve us up such a dire menu?
Just a little side issue; My mate Graham was sitting on the other side of one of the main support beams in the same row as me and disappeared fifteen minutes before halftime.
There was a spare seat beside me so he moved there before the second half. He had two packages of something that’s supposed to resemble a beef pie and a large plate of chips. Now Graham doesn’t usually buy food except for soup so it was a surprise. The wife was preparing a nice Thai curry at home (She is Thai by the way) so I was saving myself for a fine feast.”What’ s this?” I asked. “A bit of comfort eating.” Was the reply. I scoffed the lot.
Just a little reminder from the article that was published before the Forest match.
“The opportunity will be there on Saturday to put things right against Nottingham Forest who now have Steve Cooper in charge. He will have been watching the game last night and telling his team this is one they can definitely win. If the manager wants to use wing backs use them, but for that you need three at the back plus Colin and either Friend, Pederson or preferably Graham. Midfield Sunjic (Again Blues best player) Chong and probably try McGree as Woods looked slow last night. Take your pick up front as none of them have looked liked scoring over the last four games.”
Castillo and Aneke are not going to solve much
hi, when i was 26 years old i came off a 12 hour shift, 4 hours later im playing football , then the next day playing a match again, no fatigue , also no wages , lb says his players are suffering with fatigue, we need amanager who knows and understands the basics like us supporters do.
Castillo can’t even get in the u23’s. Woods is too slow, cosy us at least 3 goals this season and signing Deeney was a mistake. Their wages could been used to get some young pacey players in.
Dean and Roberts were awful and should be dropped for allowing Grabban to score,both past it.We should have kept Seddon as he was a true wing back,Bela is not and opponents know this.
What we are witnessing right now is a direct result of the past four/five years. Too many managers have come and gone. No consistent player recruitment strategy has ever been put into place. What we are left with is a group of players recruited under different managers, who are fragile in character and collectively are not good enough or consistent enough no matter what system they play in. – Time for Gardner and Bowyer now to sort this mess out, starting with a complete rebuild of the back line defenders….. KRO
Not sure if this has been mentioned previously but there seems to be one word that links players not performing for us. Brentford.
I feel like the boy in the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes. Chong is another Leko, flatters to deceive. I think Bowyer has a faulty eye with both of them.
Absolutely – some players have had automatic selection however badly they play. We need an inspirational captain on the pitch not one who is always perfect but certainly not error prone. We have 3 Dad’s Army up front who don’t know what the words “clinical finishing” mean – but are automatically selected despite their misses. LB has been sucked in to believing players are “true Blues” – they have been the cause but it is the managers who have been discarded. Tear up all contracts in January and start again!!
Didnt here you lot moaning v sheff utd, v luton, v derby back them and stop whinging on it is what it is, the owners wont even get the ground fit for use the the squad has no chace its as simple as that !