"Pinch yourself moment" - Claim made on Tom Brady influence at Birmingham City | OneFootball

FLW's Blues fan pundit has spoken on the impact of investor Tom Brady.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Birmingham City are thriving under their American owners, with seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady being one of the investors.

The Blues are currently nine points clear at the top of the League One table following their narrow victory over Charlton Athletic at the weekend, and they are also set for a trip to Wembley as long as they can beat League Two side Bradford City in the semi-final of the Vertu Trophy.

Chris Davies' side have shown their quality on the pitch during the 2024/25 campaign so far, and it seems as though legendary NFL quarterback Brady has contributed to their success with his impact off it.

The 47-year-old has, of course, raised the profile of the club in the United States since he became an investor, but he has also stationed some of his TBRx 'body coaches' at the training ground in order to help with player recovery.

Davies spoke about how those coaches have helped right-back Ethan Laird improve his availability in a recent interview, as per BirminghamLive.

"We've got a very strong recovery, physical, medical department anyway but there's obviously a lot of ideas we have implemented here around the TBRx, Tom Brady method as well.

"We've got some people from America supporting our departments with that.

"For someone like Ethan, recovering from games is almost as important as training for games. He's a finely tuned athlete, a fast-paced player, so we've looked after his body well."

Brady praised for his impact at Birmingham

We asked our Blues fan pundit, Mike Gibbs, whether he still has to pinch himself when he remembers that Tom Brady is involved with Birmingham, especially given where the club has been in recent years.

"Yeah, we do have to sort of pinch ourselves, I think," said Mike.

"We sometimes forget that he is involved as well. He is relatively silent, relatively quiet.

"You can already see the influence he has had on the club, especially in terms of bringing in some of his expertise and some of his team to improve things like recovery and player preparation.

"The awareness that he gives the club, the sort of building of the brand, is just exceptional, and you do really have to pinch yourself.

"I think the big pinch yourself moment for me was the Wrexham game at home when Beckham was there, even though you knew it was a big game with it being the Hollywood derby and all that.

"It is that attraction and that relationship that Tom brings that got the Beckhams there."

Brady will hope to see the Blues rise

While Brady reportedly owns just 3.3% of Birmingham and has no voting rights, he seems to be fully committed to the continued growth of the club, which should perhaps come as no surprise given his level of ambition and previous sporting achievements.

As someone who has consistently performed at the top level of his sport, he will no doubt want to see the Blues competing in the Premier League as soon as possible.

With Brady as the face of Birmingham's ownership group, and given the level of investment that has already been put into the club, there is every chance that they could emulate Ipswich Town and compete for back-to-back promotions.