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Zola's not a high-flier

By Colin Tattum on Jul 15, 08 11:42 AM

His bright yellow boots and diminutive size marks Zola Matumona out from the rest.

The Congolese trialist from FC Brussels has shown some nice touches in pre-season training.

He's obviously happy with a ball at his feet - far happier than he is flying.

Blues supporter Martin Smallwood was chuffed when he found himself booked on the same flight to Munich as the Blues squad when they came out for their camp.

Matumona sat next to him and was absolute bag of nerves.

Martin, who is from Marston Green, recounts: " We didn't have much of a conversation because he speaks no English, and he was quite quiet.

"But as soon as we were about to take off he was shaking. He was absolutely petrified and when we got airborne he pulled his tracksuit top right over his head and stayed like that for ages. I felt sorry for him but I couldn't stop laughing!"

Smallwood, an 'unemployed property developer' who now lives in Warwick, is one of the few hardy souls who regularly makes a point of clearing a week in July to follow Blues abroad in pre-season.

And the 52-year-old, who acts as physio for the Blues Old Stars charity side, discovered by accident where they were working out.

"I was in my guest house having breakfast when this big group of people went past the window on their bikes. I had to look again and then I realised it was the whole team and staff, so I followed them to the training ground."

Smallwood was there at training again this morning at the SV Westendorf Waldstadion that was turned into a bog by heavy rain, causing the postponement of the opening friendly against Kirchberg.

James McFadden oozed class and in general hasn't been carrying himself like a man desperate to be sold.

Kevin Phillips stuck one chance away in a short practice match - one touch, bang, no messing - the sort of finish that made those watching look at one another and nod in approval.

During the session, Alex McLeish came over to the touchline to check on the latest transfer news back home via my laptop Internet connection and confirmed that the way had been cleared for Blues to wrap-up the signature of Marcus Bent from Charlton Athletic.

He would bring to five the number of senior strikers, the sort of competition that McLeish noted Championship winners Albion had last season and one less than Blues ended with the season before when they won promotion.

Work in Austria and in Birmingham continues on other deals, with Olivier Kapo's exit to Wigan Athletic set to be completed.

Oh, and yes, the Lee Hendrie reference in the previous blog was indeed a joke . . .

7 Comments

Brendan O'Connell said:

Forsell gone, Muamba gone, Kapo iminently gone, one of McFadden or Larson soon gone.

A couple of old has been frees in.

Board staying, fans gone.......

Bacon Slicer said:

Yeh yeh, I bet it wasn't just transfer news you and McLeish were looking at on your internet laptop connection.....

Bacon Slicer said:

Yeh yeh, I bet it wasn't just transfer news you and McLeish were looking at on your internet laptop connection.....

DirtDevil said:

"During the session, Alex McLeish came over to the touchline to check on the latest transfer news back home via my laptop Internet connection"

No doubt on the Birmingham Mail forums checking DuggarryDen's latest post! lol

Davie boy said:

Bacon Slicer is right. Eck checking on jocksrus.co.uk for more players to bring in and looking at fixtures for Blues reserves aka Wigan

Jason said:

DirtDevil - just pleased Dugarryden is not the clubs press officer ! Colin Tattum is streets ahead. Dugarry aka Bluechip is Mr. News Now and Guess The Rest. It is a good job the accuracy of CT has been proven over time. What happened to replacing like for like on the field ???

andyblue said:

Glad to read that Mcfadden is getting on with the job and hopefully he will stay.He is a quality player and will be invaluable to us in the coming season.We will come under pressure to sell no doubt and I just hope we resist at least until christmas.Sorry to see Kapo go.Another quality player.Maybe not in the mould of your typical Blues player but streets ahead of most in terms of ability.Still can't help thinking that if those two had stayed injury free towards the end of last season we would still be a Premeirship club.Sadly that is gone now and we look certain to lose one if not both of them this summer!Just another day in paradise for blues fans!

Let your heart beat strong and all that.

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