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.
Ibrahim Osman 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.
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.
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Wrexham; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“I watch every Birmingham game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cambridge United runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Ibrahim Osman 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jhon Solís was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Riquelme Thompson-Jones and Birmingham agree another 5 years.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christoph Klarer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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 1‑2 Jack Green left the room before anybody could ask which.
Ibrahim Osman 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.
A 1‑1 draw with Leicester City leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad30 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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.” Jack Green chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Ibrahim Osman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Birmingham training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jhon Solís 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Demarai Gray, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
7 new faces, and Birmingham are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luis Alberto Márquez and Birmingham agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutTomoki Iwata has become a man the manager trusts
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ibrahim Osman did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Ibrahim Osman 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.50 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Jhon Solís in the middle of it, and Sheffield United unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Birmingham training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liam Millar 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.
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Southampton left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Liam Millar 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.
13 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Carlos Vicente signs something — a contract at Birmingham or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutTommy Doyle knocks on the manager’s door
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Marvin Ducksch had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Max Sanders has, at Birmingham, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Birmingham heard it as anything else.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Birmingham training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liam Millar 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 clubs have shaken hands with Luton Town; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer from Milton Keynes Dons for Bright Osayi-Samuel was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
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.
Birmingham asked and Nottingham Forest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.