Birmingham City are as high up the football ladder as they have been for a decade, and yet their solid Championship campaign still ends with what-ifs.
Chris Davies’ side sit 10th in the table heading into the final day of the regular campaign on Saturday, travelling to Portsmouth for what has evolved into a dead-rubber.
Just above them, Wrexham, Hull City, and Derby County will all fight it out for sixth place, with the final play-off spot up for grabs and just one point separating all three sides.
To say Blues fans are jealous is too complicated to say with complete conviction, but undoubtedly Wrexham’s possible shot at reaching the Premier League will sting Birmingham’s owners.
Wrexham and Birmingham came up from League One together, and the former were 18th after 10 Championship games before a turnaround propelled them into play-off contention.
Co-owner Tom Wagner is popular with Birmingham’s supporters (Photo: Getty)The fact Birmingham – seven points adrift – can point towards just a few more results going their way to have been in contention themselves is what has drawn mixed feelings from this campaign among supporters.
It is not lost on Blues fans that 10th is a sign of progress. The club previously circled the Championship drain for seven years before they eventually, and what felt inevitably, went down in 2023-24.
They responded emphatically, buoyed by the backing of co-owner Tom Wagner and spending big to return to the Championship in record fashion as an entirely different beast.
This time around, survival was not the aim. Norwich City, Southampton and Ipswich Town have achieved back-to-back promotions to the Premier League before, and Wagner felt Blues could as well.
There was, though, an understanding.
“This ambition is there to inspire us, but because of what happened last time they know how unforgiving it can be,” Davies said in August.
“The ambition is great but there’s a clear understanding of how hard it is.”
Birmingham manager Chris Davies celebrates the 2-0 win over Wrexham on 12 April (Photo: Getty)The Championship is a field of dreams, with 19 of the 24 second-tier clubs having played Premier League football since 1992, and eight of those clubs playing 10 or more seasons in the top tier in that time.
That does not include Birmingham, who have enjoyed seven Premier League campaigns but none since 2010-11. They are, therefore, one of plenty have-been wannabes bouncing around the Championship and below, although no second-tier club, they would argue, have quite the same vision.
This was marked when plans for their new 62,000-capacity stadium were revealed in November, proof their ambition was as lofty as the 12 chimneys set to surround the ground.
Birmingham were 11th at the time of this unveiling. They had previously been as high as fifth – in August after three games – and as low as 17th in October. They wanted to look up, but they were back in 17th come January as patchy streaks of form made for muddled reading.
It has, therefore, been a funny, see-saw season. A seven-game winless run was followed by eight unbeaten, while more recently two sets of three-straight losses checkered any play-off hopes.
The atmosphere at St Andrew’s turned toxic in their last home defeat, to Blackburn Rovers on 3 April, with frustrations over their style of play and decisions over personnel, sticking with certain favourites and dropping defender Phil Neumann, bubbling over into jeers.
The boos put Davies’ position in the limelight, raising the awkward question of whether the 41-year-old, in his first role in management, has taken them as far as he can, but a late flourish has included a win over Wrexham and soothed some dissenters.
“For the fans to show that kind of appreciation to me on the final game definitely means a lot,” Davies said, having felt the love from the stands after the win over Bristol City.
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Daniel Storey: Birmingham City’s naked ambition is becoming a problem Tom Wagner: My four-year plan for Birmingham CityFour unbeaten at just the right time, and a willingness to adapt that might just have bought Davies a season. This upturn in results has coincided with Neumann being recalled and consistent starts for August Priske, the 6ft 5in striker, and winger Carlos Vicente.
Both Priske and Vicente are January signings, proof Birmingham are forever on the move, and while the identity of the eventual play-off winners may leave them green with envy, supporters will know they are in a far stronger position than where they were two years ago.
They would have taken 10th at the start of the season, and while that did not quite allude to the rollercoaster that followed, this strange hinterland looks to be the foundation for a much stronger push next term.
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