"A selling club" - Emile Heskey pinpoints major reasons for Birmingham City's downfall | OneFootball

Birmingham City were relegated to League One last season

Highlights

Emile Heskey has pinpointed the key reasons for what has gone wrong behind the scenes at Birmingham City.

The Blues suffered relegation to League One last season, coming 22nd in the Championship table.

It was a disastrous campaign for the Midlands outfit, who had five different coaches in charge of the first team squad throughout the campaign.

It was Tom Wagner’s first year in charge of the club as the new majority owner, and he oversaw their relegation to the third tier of English football, where they will compete for the first time since 1995.

Chris Davies has since been appointed as manager, and will be tasked with overseeing their rise back to the second division at the first time of asking in 2025.

Heskey highlights major issues at Birmingham City

Heskey believes there are a number of reasons for why Birmingham suffered relegation last season.

He has claimed that the player recruitment needs to improve for the club to grow, suggesting stability will be key to Wagner achieving his ambitions with the Blues.

“There are a number of reasons why this has happened,” said Heskey to FLW via 888Sport.

“The infrastructure of the club hasn’t been right for a while now, recruitment hasn’t been good either.

“Birmingham City have become a selling club over the years, so the good players you have then get sold and not replaced.

“You need stability now, with a clear philosophy of the way you want the club to be on and off the pitch.

“They have had a number of bad transfer windows which then causes setbacks.

“Let’s hope that now they can show stability and progress forward.”

Plans are already in place for Birmingham to build a new stadium, with the new owners purchasing land around a mile away from St. Andrew’s.

It has been proposed that the club will move away from their current home ground in August 2029, with new training facilities also set to be developed on the site.

Birmingham’s summer transfer plans

Birmingham will be hoping to build a team capable of promotion straight back to the Championship at the first attempt.

The League One side have been linked with a number of names, having already signed the likes of Bailey Peacock-Farrell and Ryan Allsop.

Rangers defender Connor Goldson has emerged as a transfer target, along with Brighton’s Marc Leonard.

The club has also completed a £775,000 deal for Charlton Athletic for forward Alfie May.

Big changes needed from Birmingham

Heskey pinpoints a lot of issues that all contributed to the club’s decline to League One.

Improved infrastructure is being worked on, which is a promising sign for the future health of the team and should have supporters optimistic.

But player recruitment is a more immediate challenge that needs to be tackled, which the club is also doing good work to address.

It has been a busy summer at St. Andrew’s already, with new additions coming through the door ahead of a big year in League One, and this is the club showing the right ambition to build a team capable of earning automatic promotion back to the

Championship at the first attempt.