Stephen Gleeson believes that the new boss Gary Rowett has come with a good game plan that is benefitting Birmingham City big time.

Since Rowett’s arrival, Birmingham has been unbeaten. Out of the three games they have played, they have drawn two and have won one.

According to Gleeson, Rowett is trying to build the team around a strong defence which is the right approach.

Speaking in an interview earlier today, the Irishman said, “We are focussing on being solid at the back because it gives the attackers that much more freedom.”

“Gary has been very clear about what kind of game he wants us to play. He has made the players know about his role and everyone has responded beautifully. Right since that game against the Wolves, we have been executing our game plan to perfection.”

“The idea is to frustrate the opposition players and make them commit errors. We try to control the game from the back. We look to make sure they don’t have too much of possession when the ball comes in our half.”

Rowett has been appointed as boss at St. Andrew’s after the sacking of Lee Clark who could not produce enough positive outcomes in the first couple of months in the season.

Rowett was in charge of Burton Albion, a League Two side, before being given this job.

Burton is the only club that Rowett has managed so far. He had been an assistant there for 3 years before being elevated to the head coach position in 2012.

The 40-year old has an impressive start at Birmingham, but, he has a long way to go as the Blues are still at the 23rd position in the Championship table. They are, however, 9 points ahead of the last positioned Blackpool.

The plethora of financial problems at Birmingham City appears to have forced to manager Lee Clark into relying upon the youngsters, who he says that have been brilliant in the last few weeks. Players like Demarai Gray and Koby Arthur, who are still in the teens, have been able to keep out much more experienced players out of the starting line-up. Clark has the ability to call up experienced American Internationals like Brek Shea, but he has so far rejected the opportunity due to the performances of these players. He has said that the attack minded youngsters can propel Birmingham out of relegation trouble once and for all.
The club are just a few places above the relegation zone after having managed just two wins throughout the campaign. Scoring goals has been a problem for the club, who have averaged just one goal per game. On the other hand, they have allowed teams to score almost two goals per game against them. This deficit sees them just a few points about Fulham, who occupy the final relegation spot. However, the fact that Fulham have started picking up points could be a worrying factor for Clark. After the recent international break, Birmingham have a home match against Bolton, who are bottom of the Championship table.
“They are forcing me to pick them, simple. They are exciting me, I love watching them. I am looking forward to when I can get them both on the pitch together from the start. Demarai has that ankle problem, but hopefully he will be OK for Bolton Wanderers. That will be good for us because when you have got the ability to go past people at such speed, it’s difficult to defend against. The two of them are so brave, as well,” said Clark about his youngsters.

Birmingham City’s poor form at the start of the new Championship season continued after they suffered a 2-0 defeat against Sheffield Wednesday in the latest league match. The performance of the players disappointed manager Lee Clark, who said that the club stand no chance of recovering if the players continued with this kind of a performance especially in the second half. Clark was extremely happy with the performance in the first half, but there was complete capitulation in the second period. May scored the opening goal of the match in the 67th minute, while Helan’s goal just one minute before injury time sealed three points for the away team.
The defeat means that Birmingham have taken only one victory this season and have suffered three defeats from the seven matches. They lie just two places above the relegation zone. After having avoided relegation only narrowly in the last two seasons, Clark does not seem to be faring much better this time around. He has been struggling to make changes to the squad due to the financial restrictions, but the manager says that it is not an excuse for current players to perform poorly. The manager has recalled that Birmingham allowed Leeds United to get back into the game in the a similar fashion after dominating in the first half.
“You cannot play so well in the first half and be so different in the second period. This is something we’ve got to address very quickly. We allowed Leeds back into the game in the closing stages and it occurred again against Wednesday. We were the dominant team in the first half and then the second half things changed too dramatically for us,” said the Birmingham boss. The club with no wins in the last five matches travel to Norwich, who are second in the table, this weekend.

Birmingham City has made yet another signing this summer in the form of the youth sensation Denny Johnstone.

Johnstone is a product of Celtic academy. He had been featuring for the junior team of the Hoops on a regular basis in the last couple of years, but, did not get to play on a senior level even once. He was looking for a team where he could get the first team playing time and thus, he opted to sign for Birmingham.

A few Scottish sides also had their eyes on Johnstone, but, eventually, it’s Birmingham which succeeded in securing the services of the teenaged striker.

Talking to the reporters after completing the signing of Johnstone, the Birmingham manager Lee Clarke was quoted as saying, “We had been in touch with them (Celtic) for a long time and eventually, we got it done. I believe Denny has got a lot to offer in the coming years.”

“Celtic was not willing to let him go, but, the bloke himself wanted the transfer. There were interest for him from other places too, but, we were able to seal the deal.”

“”Denny is a different sort of a forward. He’s got fantastic holding skills and his movement inside the box is pretty smooth as well. It’s great to have versatile players like him around.”

Earlier, it was thought that Birmingham might not be able to pay as much of a compensation amount as Celtic wants for Johnstone and thus, the deal would not materialize, but, that wasn’t the case to be. The Blues agreed to meet Celtic’s demands at the end.

The exact compensation fee has not been revealed yet, but, it’s believed to be in six figures.

Johnstone is just 19 years of age at the moment.

The manager of Liverpool, Brendan Rodgers, is trying hard to reach an agreement with Bayern Munich over the transfer of the Switzerland international Xherdan Shaqiri.

With the possibility of Luis Suarez making his way away from England this summer, Rodgers is keen to bring in some attacking quality at the Anfield and he is already supposed to have a couple of good deals in the form of Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana.

The official announcement of Lallana deal has not been made though, but, it is believed to be sealed by Liverpool.

In spite of having the above mentioned two guys from Southampton, Rodgers is still not satisfied. He wants to add one or two more strikers to his squad and that’s why he has placed a bid for Shaqiri.

The rumours say that the Reds management have offered 15 million Pounds for the player.

This offer had actually been made to Bayern before the start of the ongoing FIFA World Cup, but, it’s unclear if they accepted or rejected that.

Shaqiri was on Liverpool’s radar in 2012 as well when he was to take an away transfer from FC Basel. But, the Reds weren’t successful in signing him at that time as Bayern managed to grab the player. But, this time around, they are in with a good chance.

However, according to a few reports, Manchester United is also interested in the player.

As far as Shaqiri’s career at Bayern is concerned, he is not a regular starter there. He gets a decent amount of playing time though, but, he is not a certainty in the starting XI.
The 22-year old winger has played 43 league games during his 2-year long tenure at Allianz Arena so far and has found the back of the net 10 times.

Birmingham manager Lee Clark has stated that he is hoping that the club can do a Leicester City and do well over the next few years after only narrowly managing to avoid relegation to the League One. Birmingham escaped the drop on the final day of last season, but he is now hoping that the last day relegation survival will now be a thing of past at the club. Leicester suffered a similar fate a few years ago, but they have now been promoted to the Premier league after winning the Championship with a record points tally.

The former Newcastle United star also said that his former club are struggling after the sale of Yohan Cabaye to PSG for around £ 20 million. Since then, Newcastle United went on a very poor run of form that would have seen them relegated had they played like that for most of the season. Birmingham will be hoping to strengthen the team in the summer despite the financial problems surrounding the club. It would be very important given that the club need to sort out the absence of Federico Macheda, whose goals towards the end of the campaign proved vital. The striker has since signed for Cardiff city on a permanent basis.

“I’m hoping the next five years can be like that. When we survived at Leicester that day and avoided relegation, the next five or six years were like being on the rollercoaster as Kevin called it. We were going up and never came down which was good because I’m not really a fan of rollercoasters going down. You want to progress each year. There wasn’t transfer windows as such then. I wouldn’t mind following that path that’s for sure,” said Clark.
Newcastle are widely expected to sack Alan Pardew after six defeats on the bounce.

Birmingham city manager Lee Clark was delighted man after his Birmingham team managed to avoid relegation by the skin of their teeth. Birmingham came into the final weekend in the championship as one of the teams involved in the relegation dogfight. For long periods of the match against Bolton Wanderers, it looked like they would be relegated to the third division of English football. This was primarily because they were looking totally out of the picture after conceding two goals in the second half.

A defeat would have seen the teams of six consecutive defeats, which would have been a major reason towards their relegation. However, Birmingham completed a remarkable turnaround by scoring two goals in the second half. The second goal especially was much more difficult, as it came into injury time. This meant that Birmingham have been able to survive in the championship on goal difference. Doncaster Rovers also have the same amount of points, but they will be relegated due to an inferior goal difference.

After the match, Clark was delighted man. Relegation would have crippled the club, which has already been suffering with a lot of financial problems. Clark has stated that the club can hope to build for the next season and avoid relegation trouble throughout the campaign.

“You know what, not once could you say that about these players, that they didn’t care. And that’s why fans have stood by them. They have supported them because they see the effort has been there. None of them have ever not tried in the games or on the training pitch. Yes, we have lacked quality at times and have had very disappointing days. We have had too many disappointing days, of course we have. But this group have always given their best,” said the manager after their championship status was confirmed.

Birmingham have appointed former Newcastle manager Chris Hughton as the manager. The 52-year-old is said to have beat Roberto Di Matteo in the battle to be manager of the League Cup winners, who were relegated from the Premier League on the final day of the season.

According to the club’s official website, acting chairman Peter Pannu felt that Hughton was the perfect fit for the job and was impressed by the coach’s vision and theories, in particular his thoughts on developing youth talent and playing attractive football.

London-born Hughton began his coaching career with spells at Tottenham, where he spent 13 years as a player, before being approached by Newcastle United in 2008.

Carson Yeung, Birmingham City’s biggest shareholder has increased his stake in the club to 24.9 percent according to a statement.

Yeung acquired 315,000,000 shares in Birmingham International Holdings in a private transaction for an undisclosed amount from an “independent third party” through his company Great Luck Management Ltd., the statement said.

One fan likened the move to Yeung “taking a gamble on the future of the club – almost like having a free football bet“.

The announcement comes as League Cup winner Birmingham’s long-term financial structure is being examined by the Premier League after auditors for the soccer team cast doubt over its future.

Roger Johnson is set to reject bids from Liverpool and Tottenham to stay with Birmingham City as he is happy there.

The defender, who was signed from Cardiff City for £5 million in 2009, will stay at St Andrew’s after the Blues beat Arsenal 2-1 at Wembley on Sunday.

Birmingham will now play in the Europa League next season as a result of their cup win, and this will apparently be enough to keep the highly rated defender at the club for at least another season.

However, negotiations to extend his current deal have stalled, meaning if Birmingham lose their fight to stay in the Premier League then they may be forced to cash in on the defender to reduce their wage budget.