December 2009 Archives

The decade will be remembered as a significant period in Blues history.

It was when they rejoined the party.

The 1980s were grim, desolate times. In the mid-1990s, the club perked up.

In 2001 Blues reached a major domestic final for the first time in 38 years. A little further down the line and it was back into the top flight, a Premier League debut.

As the decade draws to a close, a new owner in Carson Yeung is here to lead Blues ahead into the future.

So quite a time, the Noughties, all told for Blues.

But what of the players who represented them? Who stood out, who stank the place out?

Tasked with picking a best XI of the last 10 years, it seemed straightforward at first. But it wasn't.

I've seen genius (Christophe Dugarry), jokers (Ferdinand Coly), those who came somewhere in between and Robbie Savage.

Blues first game in 2000 was against Steve Bruce's Huddersfield Town, when Bryan Hughes ushered the new decade in with the first goal - after just 12 seconds.

That year Blues lost in the play-off semi-finals, as they did so in 2001, following-up the unlucky Worthington Cup final defeat by Liverpool (Stephane Henchoz foul on Andrew Johnson, anyone?).

But only two players from those early days of the decade make my starting side.

Unsurprisingly, the main body of the team is made up of stalwarts of Blues initial Premier League campaigns, between 2002-06. Many of them also provided sterling service in the Championship during the interim periods.

So let's start at the beginning or, rather, at the back.

Ian Bennett's best work for Blues was in the 1990s. Nico Vaesen was a play-off hero of 2002 in the penalty shoot-out against Norwich City. Joe Hart's time is to come, possibly at Blues.

Goalkeeper, it has to be Maik Taylor. Signed on loan from Fulham, the move was made permanent and the Northern Ireland international's outstanding performances in 2003-04 made him arguably the Premier League's best in the position. Taylor also deserved more credit than he got for last season's consistency, when he often kept Blues in games that were in the balance by making a superb save.

As for the back four, the Kenny Cunningham-Matthew Upson partnership, when both were fresh and fit, takes some beating.

Cunningham's shrewd, vacuuming-like play - the Dublin Baresi - and Upson's coltish dominance made for a perfect bedrock.

Cunningham was named David Sullivan's 'player-of-the-decade' in 2005, and received a huge trophy (pictured). Cunningham was so embarrassed he passed it on to office staff at Wast Hills and left it there.

It was a shame that it went sour for both Cunningham and Upson, but that was a signpost of the problems to come for the club until the current resurgence.

Honourable mentions go to Darren Purse, the ice cool scorer of stoppage time equalising penalty in the Worthington Cup final, Radhi Jaidi and the reliable and underrated Martin Taylor.

At full-back, a little bit of cheating. Stan Lazaridis gets the nod for the left berth, a position where he did play for a period, very decently too.

More recognisable as a winger, a Lazaridis-type player has been sorely missed by Blues since his seven years at the club ended in 2006. He was deceptively quick and could carry the ball up field to stretch the play and make Blues less predictable. And, when on song, he produced a stream of decent crosses.

For right-back, hold your breath - non other than Olivier Tebily. Yes, that's right. Jeff Kenna was an excellent servant, a model pro and more reliable.

I've not seen Didier Drogba battered into submission before; well done Roger Johnson. He's like the Grim Reaper on your back all the time.

Big Rog gets a lot of the plaudits, deservedly so, but Scott Dann's a man, too. The pair are turning into a Bruce-Pallister type of combination.

Joe Hart made the point that he hadn't had that much to do, before Chelsea and Stoke City. The mark of a good goalkeeper is one who can come out of cold storage and make stops like he has when required.

Blues would be barmy if they didn't make Manchester City an offer for Hart in January. However, both player and his parent club are likely to keep their options open.

James McFadden dreads the substitutes' board going up. Keith Fahey replaced him in three straight games before the trip to Stoke. He begged Alex McLeish not to can him at the Britannia Stadium when the change came . . . Sebastian Larsson was taken off.

I've not heard a crowd cheer and roar so loudly when their team gets a throw-in or a corner like the Stoke lot.

Yes, Stephen Carr fouled Robert Huth, but the free-kick that led to the incident should have gone to Blues, for a foul on Carr. Swings and roundabouts . . .

Hands up who thought the Stoke match, a couple of days after Chelsea, might have been a game too far? The unbeaten run continued to an 11th game, a proud record-equaling achievement.

Fair play to McLeish for keeping the same team. It would have been easy to have made changes, but why muddle a winning formula? Ride the wave until it breaks.

Blues have not selected the same starting XI for eight matches in a row ever before, to my knowledge. They equaled a Premier League best for continuity too.

Are Blues eight points away from avoiding relegation, or 18 points from their highest Premier League total and maybe a possible nibble at Europe? You decide.

Blues have now kept nine clean sheets. In their previous best season in the Premier League, 2003-04, they posted 18 shut-outs all told.

Liam Ridgewell is really a ballboys' best friend. But as for his 'long throw', he would be better off doing it underarm. But then again, that's all part of the plan to make a point and wind up the opposition.

The year 2009 can be looked back on with satisfaction by McLeish and his staff. Promotion from the Championship, Blues got there in the end, despite all the pressures; Premier League participation has been far, far more than just making up the numbers.

Well, are you hanging out your stocking on the wall?

And are you hoping for a road map or a Sat Nav to fill it at Christmas for all those tricky Euro trips next season?

Blues have 28 points points going into Christmas, their best return in the Premier League era.

If they get relegated from here, then we all might as well all pack up and try and buy West Ham United.

I've written it before, and I will write it again: there is no reason why Blues can't dare to dream, so long as there's a dollop of realism too.

Fulham should have gone down in 2007-08. Blues did. They then finished seventh, are playing in the Europa League, and having a ball.

Blues are seventh now. The manager is similar in as much as he's savvy and shrewd as Woy Hodgson (sorry, cheap gag) and there are a group of players at Wast Hills who not only are happy to be there, but are together, dutiful and want to do well.

I remember 2005-06. In 20 years of covering football and Blues mainly, the atmosphere then, the way the players were, the way it all drifted from boadroom to manager's room, was wrong. It was my least enjoyable period writing about the game I love, and the club I am passionate about.

Hopefully lessons will be learned. Eck wasn't there, of course, nor were the new owners. But they have been made aware.

That's part of the reason why you won't get much complacency from the current lot. Every interview is marked by players saying the main aim is to stay up and they won't get carried away.

And that is laudable. Their humility and realism is refreshing. Not that they are content and will switch off, but there is no arrogance in this Blues dressing room. That counts for a lot.

Keeping the same starting XI for six, probably seven, games on the spin has helped. Understanding, partnerships and trust are all built up. And Blues, however badly they may perform - first 20 minutes v Wigan and Everton for example - find a way through. That is innate, that is fate, too, as if it's not their destiny to be relegated again.

A couple of injuries here and there, and it will get tricky. Blues will have a bad spell and things won't go their way.

So that's why the January window will be important.

Despite Carson Yeung's pledge of up to £40 million, that amount is just not going to be spent, for reasons that have been outlined at length.

McLeish has impressed upon Yeung and the board that, at this stage, trophy signings are not the way ahead.

They have spoken face to face about this and Yeung, with his admiration for McLeish high, has agreed.

Inviting a £130,000-a-week striker into the dressing room, would that really be a good idea? No.

I suspect we will see Michel coming to St Andrew's (the Barry Ferguson heir apparent) and a couple of others. Maybe an Aiden McGeady, a mobile wide player. But no galacticos. Just a couple of players who would fit in and help, enhance. Nadir Belhadj neither, from what I can gather, despite the recent links.

January isn't the best time to buy, but at least where Blues are in the Premier League table has negated the need for panic.

The summer could be the really interesting time. Then it's an opportunity to take stock, identify and sell what you are trying to do to whatever player, rather than desperately add.

From me, a personal message: thank you for all your interest and support. It means a lot. This festive season enjoy yourselves and always remember to cherish what's close to you, especially family.

Happy Christmas.

Continuity and stability. You can't knock it when it comes to compiling an unbeaten run.

Blues named the same starting XI for the fifth time in a row for Blackburn Rovers visit.

Some feat. And definitely a great help in cementing the shape, understanding and bond between players.

Had it not been for Barry Ferguson's sending-off, giving Teemu Tainio a chance at Liverpool, and Joe Hart's ineligibility for Manchester City, Blues would have been unaltered for the whole of this eight-game unblemished stretch.

Anyone remember the last time Blues fielded the same XI for such a period of time? I had to delve a fair way back into my record books (although I had a hunch it wouldn't have been in Barry Fry's days, which proved correct).

You have to have luck with players staying injury-free, of course, and suspensions. Then managers can tinker with the odd selection or formation, depending on the opposition or form. So it's quite unusual, especially for Blues, to keep a familiar line-up.

In the last four matches of the 2006-07 Championship season Steve Bruce named the same XI as Blues came to within an inch of winning the title.

But it was back in 1998-99, two-and-a-half seasons into Trevor Francis's reign, when the Blues team remained unchanged for six successive matches.

I bumped into two of the members of that side at St Andrew's last night, Jon McCarthy and Martin O'Connor, and asked if they knew who their team mates were. They were stumped on one or two, and no wonder.

The unbroken sequence came the week after the 7-1 drubbing of Oxford United at the Manor Ground in December, 1998.

Martin Grainger got injured and Simon Marsh - remember him? - stepped into the breach at left-back for a 0-0 draw against Sunderland at home.

The team that day, and for the following five games, was:

Kevin Poole;

Gary Rowett, Michael Johnson, Gary Ablett, Simon Marsh;

Jon McCarthy, Martin O'Connor, Steve Robinson, Peter Ndlovu;

Paul Furlong, Dele Adebola.

In that spell, Blues results were Sunderland (h) 0-0; Sheffield United (h) 1-0; Bury (a) 4-2; Leicester City (a, FA Cup 3) 2-4; Port Vale (h) 1-0; Barnsley (a) 0-0.

Grainger, Nicky Forster and Bryan Hughes remained frustrated on-lookers on the substitutes bench.

Furlong scored five goals and in the next match the only changes to the team were Jerry Gill for Rowett and Chris Holland for O'Connor.

At the end of that season Blues reached the (as was) Division One play-offs for the first time and lost 7-6 in a penalty shoot-out to Watford.

Are the good times ready to roll?

Blues went up to eighth in the Premier League, even if it was only for 48 hours, after the defeat of Wigan Athletic.

It was their highest position since April, 2004 ( Blues were seventh in September, 2004, but that was after only three games of the season).

Back in 2003-04, Blues got the ball rolling with eight clean sheets in the first 10 games. They rose as high as fourth and, after 27 games, were still in fifth place.

They tailed off - losing three and drawing five of their last eight matches - and finished 10th.

That campaign, Blues were similar to as they are now.

Maik Taylor was a reliable presence in goal, he was at the top of his game.

Kenny Cunningham and Matthew Upson were the defensive lynchpins, Robbie Savage and Stephen Clemence worked the engine room, Mikael Forssell scored 17 times.

Although Christophe Dugarry was winding down his Blues stint, he still contributed, as did Stan Lazaridis, David Dunn, Clinton Morrison Damien Johnson and Jamie Clapham.

The base of the team was settled. It was well organised, disciplined and although pretty much no frills, Blues were highly effective. There remained a feel good factor too, after the first season in the Premier League.

Even though they ran out of steam, that 10 place finish represented Blues best in 31 years.

Steve Bruce only bought Martin Taylor in the January window and during the summer Mario Melchiot, Emile Heskey, Jesper Gronkjaer, Muzzy Izzet and Julian Gray arrived.

Blues were ready to take the next step, we all thought. The good times were ready to roll.

We all know what happened another year or so down the line.

So Alex McLeish is right when he preaches caution and urges his team not to get carried away. The players are on message too, as Sebastian Larsson has stressed.

However, Blues should not be so modest to think that it's a flash in the pan, that they should be down in the lower reaches where people like, say, Mick McCarthy and Adrian Chiles, expect them to be. I mean, how dare they - Birmingham - think they can have a nibble at Europa Cup qualification.

The good run Blues are enjoying (well spotted, Alan Shearer) in on the way to matching the eight-game unbeaten stretch in January/February of 2004.

The team has a balance, just like back then, it is more or less settled and the esprit de corps among management and players has not been as good since . . . well, those early Premier League days.

Blues great strength lies, again, in a defensive resilience. Not just from the back four, but the conscientious work of the midfield (and yes, that includes James McFadden).

Arguably, Blues are playing more football than they did in 2003-04, they are happy to take and pass the ball with care and construct moves, and up front there is dynamism when Cameron Jerome and Christian Benitez are prodded to remember what they are good at.

Yet Blues do not possess a Forssell, a reliable, regular goalscorer. And the ball doesn't stick up top as well as it might. There isn't a natural wide man, like Lazaridis, or a mercurial Dugarry or Dunn.

And the options, should injuries bite, are not plentiful. That's why Eck has to bring in players in January.

But there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful, to be optimistic.

New owners are in and are desperate - yes, desperate - to spend money on the team.

Look at their enthusiasm and joy in the picture here when the whistle went at Wigan. It shows no sign of letting up. Incidentally, you can see McLeish's wife, Jill and son, John (with beard) just as wrapped up in it all.

There is a good platform to build on and, given the right players, continuation of the current attitude and a bit of luck, Blues should get better.

The Premier League this season isn't one to lose sleep over.

And Blues have never been duffed up or given the impression of being out of their depth.

Remember Fulham two years ago, when they were battling with Blues to avoid relegation? The next season they finished seventh and are now enjoying European nights down at Craven Cottage, as well as relative security as an established top-flight side, under the shrewd guidance of Roy Hodgson, a McLeish-style manager.

Why can't Blues follow the same path? They have to aim higher than being a yo-yo club and continue to be confident about themselves, without being arrogant or complacent.

The manager/director of football dynamic is rarely all sweetness and light in the British game.

Carson Yeung implemented a version after taking on Blues, putting Sammy Yu into the thick of it at Wast Hills.

Having gone down to see Yu this week it was fascinating to gauge how it's stacking up.

I had been at the training ground early into the Yeung era and was chatting to Cameron Jerome when Yu came up and backed himself into Jerome, giving an impromptu coaching session on how to hold your marker off.

Jerome, a bit surprised, took it in good grace.

Yu, like the rest of the Hong Kong entourage, is a football nut. He loves talking about the game, the tactics, players and the people he knows.

And after that experience a few weeks back, I was wondering if I would see him on the top pitches at the West Heath HQ with clipboard, bibs, cones and whistle, treading on Alex McLeish toes.

No, not a bit. It appears that now everything has settled down, there are clear lines of demarcation and Yu isn't the frustrated coach or manager, interfering and busying himself.

We spoke at length and throughout our chat on various topics what prevailed was common sense, and more than a little influence of McLeish.

Yu repeated some things the manager oftens says, suggesting that Eck is quite happy to take Yu into his confidence whilst at the same time gently point him in a direction he feels is the correct one for the smooth running of the playing side.

Yu has worked at every level of football in Hong Kong, and coached the national team. He has been a merchandising and marketing representative for Manchester United, hosted a television football show and acted as agent and fixer.

So although he's not got a background in the game from these isles, he's no mug and it would be insulting to be patronising. In fact, you would find it hard to be so as he is a likeable guy, friendly and approachable.

McLeish has remarked that he tends to know everybody in football and has quite a contact list.

Yu made a good point that he was not an Avram Grant, and not a director of football. He's a vice-chairman, therefore he has no conflict of interest with McLeish, nor does he overrule or call the shots in what is normally the manager's domain.

Yu is more of a conduit between board and the playing side at Wast Hills and although he meets agents and has undergone some scouting missions on behalf of McLeish, he isn't a Machiavellian presence ready to step into the technical area or dug out.

He was not in his tracksuit - as was the case in the first few days - when we met, but all suited and booted. And although he is not a drinker, he likes to sneak the odd crafty fag, office window open, when no-one is looking!

I'm sure Yu would love to help out on the coaching side in some way as, deep down, he's a fan at heart too. But neither is he daft enough to think he should be strutting his stuff just because he's Yeung's pal and it's their club.

You've got to know your limits, and Yu and McLeish appear to have formed a harmonious relationship all for the betterment of the club as a whole.