Six different managers picking the team, one disastrously ill-conceived appointment by ambitious new owners – and a daily ongoing social media debate as to where it all went wrong.
The lifeblood of any good club is the strength of its youth section – and the Blues youngsters have done themselves proud.
This weekend the club that, not so long ago, produced Jude Bellingham – and before that Trevor Francis – have two teams through to the Professional Development League National Finals, at both under-21 and under-18 level, a first for the second-city club.
Steve Spooner’s under-21s will face Sheffield United at Bramall Lane on Friday night before Martyn Olorenshaw’s under-18s host Charlton Athletic at Ray Hall Lane – the Birmingham County Football Association headquarters in Great Barr – the following lunchtime.
And under-21s boss Spooner, briefly one of those six first-team bosses when Wayne Rooney was sacked in January, is the ideal man to say just how much success at youth level means to the club.
“It’s a first for us,” he said.
“Especially for me in a season when I’ve tasted all aspects of the football club. But, for a club like Blues, this is what it’s all about – giving young players the chance of becoming first-team players.
“We might not have the budget and facilities of other teams but our aim is always to try to bring through one or two a year.”
Without going back as far as the great Francis, over the past two decades or so, Blues have produced England striker Andrew Johnson and Darren Carter – the man who fired them to the Premier League for the first time in 2002.
Then there was England keeper Jack Butland, Nathan Redmond and Demarai Gray before the emergence of the two Bellingham brothers – Jude and Jobe – and this season Jordan James, the one stand-out player in a failing team and already now an established Wales international.
: Birmingham City key player found dead some few minutes ago…..
