They like to play welcome in the Jungle by Guns N 'Roses at St. Andrew's, a suitable choice while the club was preparing this season for the Badlands of League One. But promotion is achieved in serene style. Birmingham City looks back on the up.
Under Chris Davies, Birmingham has secured their return to the championship with six games to save. They already have 95 points, the League One -record of 103, except an inevitability. The top scorers with the best defensive record, nobody could live with them.
The way of their dominance is well illustrated by the ownership statistics. Blues have had more than 67 percent of the ball this season, the best since they started collecting such records for League One more than a decade ago. In fact, only Pep Guardiola's large Manchester City parties have once improved the top four layers during this period.
It is a kind of redemption for the owners of the club, the American company Knightthead Capital Management, including NFL legend Tom Brady is a minority investor. Given the resources and ambition, relegation should not have happened in that first season.
Hard lessons were learned. The misstep of throwing John Eustace while he was at a peak was followed by a great judgment of the judgment to turn to Wayne Rooney before serious disease Tony Mowbray forced to step away. Gary Rowett could not keep them on. It was a mess.
Proponents were frustrated but recognized that opportunities remained. They have seen the infrastructure improvements. Not only the big conversation of a 60,000 stadium and a sports quarter that comes up in what a relatively expired part of the city is, but the little things.
More than £ 15 million was spent on infrastructure projects in the summer, with the total expenditure taking more than £ 35 million since the investment of Knighthead in July 2023, after he had only spent £ 1 million on improving the field before. The injection of funds was desperately needed.
There were only two working showers in the dressing room of the home when they arrived. Those details were neglected. It is crucial that it is not only the players who enjoy an improved environment, but also supporters. The MatchDay experience has been transformed.
The newly established fan park can house 1200 supporters and, although free to come in, research shows that the average spending per fan on a matchday is now 700 percent higher, with the area with capacity every home game, queues that are many hours before the kick -off.
Rebranded as St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park, a visit is nowadays a different experience. It is completely open to starters and again offers nearly 30,000. It is the atmosphere, the live music, the fan park, making it all a place where people want to be again.
He asked Davies about this in the summer, said: “It was the level of the organization that fell for me. They are really experienced operators and very ambitious, but they also have a real plan. It is not just a case that they have a pipedream.”
The results on the field have mirrored that improved mood. It is not done cheaply. The signing of Jay Stansfield for £ 15 million more than quadrupled the record of the League One, but packing the popular striker was crucial as a declaration of intent for the club's supporters.
And do not underestimate Davies' work to bring overdue clarity. It was a imaginative but smart choice, the right man at the right time. This is the first job of Davies in management, but he has enormous experience as the old assistant of Brendan Rodgers before promoting his development under Ange Postecoglou in Tottenham.
Speaking with Davies in 2023, he spoke about his time that the passes counted as a child who watch Watford and are sold at the possession game. “People say he is a purist,” he said about Guardiola's style. “I fundamentally disagree with it.” For Davies this was pure pragmatism.
It led his thinking during this season, even while some supporters encouraged him to pursue a more Gung-Ho approach. “I think this is the most effective way to play,” he repeated when he spoke with him on the eve of this campaign. “It's what I believe in.”
He knew the challenge that lay before us. Opponents who were surpassed would make it as difficult as possible as they could. “If the opponent is just in a block, we have to let them run somehow,” he explained. Patience would always be essential.
He added: “The idea is that if you can circulate the ball and stretch the opposition, and do it at a good speed, the holes will eventually open in it. We see it so often, it takes until about the 60th or 70th minute to see those holes open.”
And so this has largely been a controlled demonstration of superiority. Ben Davies, on loan from Rangers, added a cool head on the back next to Christoph Klarer. Tomoki Iwata kept it neat for them. Defensively they are solid.
Perhaps surprisingly, Birmingham won a match with three goals only after the turn of the year and he did not score four in a match until February. But she didn't have to. From August they won seven on the Stuiter for the first time in the competition since 1946.
After the setback of the defeat against Bottom Club Shrewsbury in November, they responded by winning eight in all competitions, with the highlight being the victory over Boxing Day for a sold -out crowd at St. Andrew's. Davies spoke about his team that became another animal.
That feeling of a side that still improves, proven by placing four past Shrewsbury second time and then bashing Barnsley for six, is a source of optimism. Keshi Anderson has opened tight defenses. Kieran Dowell has improved the attacking set pieces. Willum Willumsson, with his deceptively subtle touch, adapts.
It has been a learning experience for them all in these most ruthless seasons. They are already 53 games in, 39 won, and most played with a target on their backs, the team to beat. There is still a Wembley final in the Vertu trophy on Sunday.
The Double is on in the 150 -year anniversary year of Birmingham. And although the heroes of this campaign may not be able to step on a mural to guide the images of Trevor Francis and Jude Bellingham along Cattell Road, the momentum is back at the club.
What will come afterwards? That is the question of everyone's lips in Birmingham. Davies speaks about “Taking the club on a trip” and knows that expectations do not disappear in the championship. “If you are considering slowing down, you're in the wrong club.”
Will they be able to play in this way against a better opposition? “We play a very specific style and I am not in mind wholesalers. We played against Newcastle in the FA Cup and the principles were the same, but I was aware that the game would look different.”
It looked different. Birmingham had their lowest statistics of the season and saw less than 40 percent of the ball. But Iwata still scored a Screamer and St Andrew's roared the team while they pushed the Premier League side all the way into a five-goal thriller.
“There were positional adjustments that we had to make to prepare for that game. So that is an example of opposition at a higher level and the small adjustments. In the future it is a matter of seeing what the challenge is and to ensure that it was set up accordingly.
“The principle for me to try to be aggressive and press. I think that is very important and fundamental to how I want to play the team. And then to try to dominate the possession naturally, is something I think I am never too far away.
“But I never look at it like:” I just want it to look that way “. It is what is most effective, that is all it is. If I thought it was most effective to kick it for a long time or play, I would not have a problem to do it. It's a game. It's about finding the best way to play.”
While the singing of the Tiltton Road Stand said, Davies knew exactly what Birmingham needed this year. The question, as their most famous song goes, is that this club stays straight on. They are from the jungle, but the journey continues.