May 2008 Archives

Although at the time of writing, the news hasn't been broken by the club yet, it would appear from the Finnish news and Hannover96's website that Mikael Forssell has signed a three-year contract with them.

If confirmed, this marks the end of Forssell's association of just under five years with Birmingham City. He joined us at the beginning of our second campaign in the Premier League in August 2003 as a loanee from Chelsea.

That season, rather embarrassingly for them, he was their top scorer as he scored seventeen goals in our best showing in the top flight.

God forbid, I don't want my club to "do a Leeds". When I first heard about David Gold's latest media interview it was a link to an article in one of the tabloids that made rather depressing reading.

Luckily, I have now read one or two other versions (including the Post's!) that makes for more balanced reading. It does indeed sound as though he has picked himself up and wants to do something proactive to lead us forward into next season.

The signing of Lee Carsley has been a positive step; although he is in footballing terms a veteran, the ex-Everton man could provide decent leadership in the middle of the field, something we have been sadly lacking since the days of Robbie Savage.

I mentioned here in my first contribution that I was curious to find out just who reads The Birmingham Post's sports pages.
It's a topic I expect to develop much further in the coming weeks but after the first few weeks of the season, I'd love to know if Warwickshire's cricketers do.

"Beware of chasing away your best friend"; David Sullivan has quoted business hardman Alan Sugar in order to put his point across to the fans he believes have turned against him. In a lengthy article he has taken up his right to reply to the protesters.

I'm not going to dwell on the figures; there are plenty of other people around who can do that and in any case, I am a firm believer in the old saying about "lies, damn lies and statistics"; in other words, numbers can be made to mean anything, but deeds are another matter.

Hello. I'm not new to the gentle art of whinging about Birmingham City; I've done it for a few years in sundry other places, so if I've irritated you in an alternate incarnation, please forgive me.

I chose Blues at the tender age of ten as I wanted to support the team that bore the name of my city and I have followed their ups and downs (mostly downs, it sometimes seems) ever since.

This season has proved to be no exception and like thousands of other fans I am now wondering at what became of our return to the Premier League.

I was at the recent replay of the Sam Doble Memorial Match at Billesley Common and - accuse me of naivety - I was pretty disappointed with what I saw.

I didn't expect the star-studded British Lions XV that turned up for the first game in 1977 and didn't go thinking it'd be anything other than a knockabout in the sun.

In fact I left feeling it hadn't been too bad an afternoon with some entertaining rugby, excellent performances and more old faces than an early edition of a Who's Who.

But having bought a DVD of the original match my sense of loss became acute. Forget the fact Phil Bennett, Gareth Edwards, Gerald Davies and JPR Williams weren't present on the Common, by comparison the modern version was still sterile.