Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alex Cochrane will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Birmingham the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birmingham this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Michael Golding has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Three points for Birmingham, 1‑0 the final word against Ipswich Town in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad6 May 2030
Paik Seung-Ho falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Manuel Muzzio commits to Birmingham for another 3 years.
Boardroom6 May 2030
103% of the income goes out in wages at Birmingham
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Enock Agyei
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutJosh Griffiths has become a man the manager trusts
Max Bird and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Ethan Laird falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Birmingham know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Manuel Muzzio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Birmingham the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Max Bird and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Ethan Laird falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Efthymios Fortounis left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Birmingham will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Birmingham they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Max Bird and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Paik Seung-Ho falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Birmingham people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Birmingham is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Max Bird and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ethan Laird was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7.72, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Birmingham had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout25 Feb 2030
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Efthymios Fortounis chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Birmingham asked and Brighton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alex Cochrane will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Birmingham the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Birmingham can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birmingham this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Paik Seung-Ho falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Swansea City had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
The clubs have shaken hands with Sheffield United; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Albirex Niigata waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Birmingham is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Wrexham is saying, and nobody at Birmingham is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ethan Laird was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Birmingham had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Middlesbrough, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The deal with Brighton is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Birmingham is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Demarai Gray was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Ethan Laird falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
Max Bird was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.27. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.24 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birmingham this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ethan Laird was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Max Bird was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Birmingham are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Words at Birmingham training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paik Seung-Ho is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Chris Richards has taken the hint, and Birmingham are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denzil Uchenna, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Efthymios Fortounis was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Birmingham dressing room was either.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Birmingham will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Birmingham can tell you which week it ends in.
Sheffield United left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Birmingham training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paik Seung-Ho is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 John Morris left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Birmingham has been clear about where Dan Sweeney stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Tomoki Iwata