Birmingham U18

English Championship U18
28 Mar 2027
Sunday
Process
34 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

22 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

No mercy from Birmingham

Queens Park Rangers will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Birmingham were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Match

The view from the top for Birmingham

66 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.

Squad

Savinho is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.66 with 19 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Squad

3 goals for Savinho

The match ball belongs to Savinho, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Match

Nobody wants to play Birmingham right now

6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from James Beadle

There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Squad

Words exchanged at Birmingham

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.

Player ratings

One of those days for Savinho

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.87, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

The terraces

One of their own: James Beadle

He is 22 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.

In brief

  • Match Another one collected away from home
  • Player ratings Jhon Solís shuts the door
  • Player ratings Liam Millar beats them one at a time
Back issues
33 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

15 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

Savinho takes the match ball home

5 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Match

No mercy from Birmingham

Sheffield United will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Birmingham were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Match

Birmingham cannot stop winning

5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Savinho

16 goals and a season average of 7.55 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Player ratings

Myles Lewis-Skelly, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.90

A mark of 7.90 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Squad

A falling-out at Birmingham

Max Bird and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Savinho was on a different afternoon to everybody else

10.00. 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.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Birmingham and Sheffield United in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Squad

Bautista Caviglia arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Bautista Caviglia has, at Birmingham, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

In brief

32 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

8 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

4 goals for Savinho

The match ball belongs to Savinho, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Match

Savinho leads the rout of Sheffield Wednesday

5‑1, and Savinho took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Birmingham tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Match

Birmingham cannot stop winning

4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Squad

A falling-out at Birmingham

Ibrahim Osman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

A hand in 2 of them from Ibrahim Osman — 7.91

Marked 7.91. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.

Player ratings

Savinho was on a different afternoon to everybody else

10.00. 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.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Savinho

11 goals and a season average of 7.41 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Birmingham and Sheffield Wednesday in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Squad

A row about effort at Birmingham

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Myles Lewis-Skelly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

31 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

1 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

The knee: Jack Quirk out for 19 days

19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Birmingham lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Match

Birmingham up to position 3

57 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Player ratings

Myles Lewis-Skelly, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.76

A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Squad

At 20, Myles Lewis-Skelly is already the best thing here

An average of 7.16 in a first team he is several years too young for. Birmingham have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.

Match

Birmingham make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Birmingham have 3 straight wins of it.

Squad

Words exchanged at Birmingham

Ibrahim Osman 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Birmingham

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Savinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Birmingham see off Southampton

Three points for Birmingham, 1‑0 the final word against Southampton in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Player ratings

Savinho in the eights

A performance of 8.27 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

30 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

22 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Birmingham tear Stoke City apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 7‑3 against Stoke City, and it could have been more.

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Jack Quirk

28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Birmingham lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Player ratings

A brace, and Savinho takes the afternoon — 9.57

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Savinho provided it, and the 9.57 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Player ratings

Both of them Luis Vázquez's — 9.16

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.16, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from James Beadle

There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Market

Luis Vázquez has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Birmingham can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Savinho in a row with a teammate

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.

Match

Luis Vázquez among the goals in a wild afternoon

10 goals in one match, Luis Vázquez on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Birmingham and Stoke City.

Match

Whatever happens, Birmingham do not lose

6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

In brief

  • The terraces The crowd has taken to Savinho
  • Player ratings Liam Millar ran the middle of the pitch — 7.57
  • The dugout The manager makes an example of Craig Dawson
29 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

15 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Ibrahim Osman beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 36. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Jack Quirk damages knee ligaments — 36 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 36 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Squad

Tempers go at Birmingham

Savinho 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.

Transfer targets

Birmingham rebuffed over Wyll Stanway

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. West Bromwich Albion have kept their man, and Birmingham go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Words at Birmingham training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Myles Lewis-Skelly 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.

Squad

Birmingham lose Lee Gregory

23 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Match

Birmingham find a way past Swansea City

Swansea City made Birmingham work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Savinho at his very best

Marked 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Birmingham.

The dugout

Stephen Reid: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.

In brief

28 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

8 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Jack Quirk out for 44 days

44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Birmingham lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

The dugout

Myles Hippolyte: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Birmingham have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Max Bird in a row with a teammate

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.

Squad

Savinho 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 ratings

A masterclass from Savinho

Marked 9.09 — 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.

Player ratings

One of those days for Luis Vázquez

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.63, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Player ratings

Ibrahim Osman runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Late, late show earns Birmingham a point

Minute 88, against Watford, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.

Match

Ibrahim Osman rescues a point for Birmingham

It needed Ibrahim Osman to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Watford, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

In brief

27 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

1 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

No mercy from Birmingham

West Bromwich Albion will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Birmingham were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Player ratings

A brace, and Savinho takes the afternoon — 9.40

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Savinho provided it, and the 9.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Match

Birmingham up to position 3

47 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Player ratings

Myles Lewis-Skelly, 20, steals the show — 7.84

Marked 7.84 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone

That is the business done at Birmingham until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.

Squad

Myles Lewis-Skelly is the real thing at 20

A season average of 7.14 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Birmingham know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.

Match

Birmingham make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Birmingham have 3 straight wins of it.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Liam Millar

Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

A falling-out at Birmingham

Savinho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

In brief

26 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

25 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Cruel end for Wrexham as Birmingham pounce

There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Birmingham scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Ibrahim Osman

Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Myles Lewis-Skelly at 20 — 7.68

The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Myles Lewis-Skelly did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

The dugout

Guillermo Bassi: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Birmingham have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Benjamin White rejects the move

Birmingham had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Arsenal, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Squad

Tempers go at Birmingham

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.

Squad

Myles Lewis-Skelly 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.

Transfer targets

Manchester United tell Birmingham: Kobbie Mainoo is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

The terraces

One of their own: Savinho

He is 22 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.

In brief

25 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

18 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Jay Stansfield leads the rout of Blackburn Rovers

3‑0, and Jay Stansfield took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Birmingham tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Market

Christoph Klarer moves on

AFC Wimbledon pay $7.1M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

Player ratings

Myles Lewis-Skelly, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.84

A mark of 7.84 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Market

Dion Pereira asks to leave Birmingham

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

Ibrahim Osman in a row with a teammate

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.

Transfer targets

Birmingham rebuffed over Wyll Stanway

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. West Bromwich Albion have kept their man, and Birmingham go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Savinho arrives on loan

Birmingham have taken Savinho on loan from Tottenham — cover where cover was needed.

Squad

A row about effort at Birmingham

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Myles Lewis-Skelly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Ibrahim Osman was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 20. 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.

In brief

24 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

11 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Transfer targets

George Evans is a medical away from Birmingham

The deal with Millwall 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.

Squad

James Beadle keeps Birmingham in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

Myles Hippolyte asks to leave Birmingham

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Player ratings

Ibrahim Osman was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 24. 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Birmingham

Ibrahim Osman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Birmingham sell Frank Tattum for $500.0K

Frank Tattum has left for Walsall in a $500.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Market

AFC Wimbledon expected to open talks for Christoph Klarer

Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Birmingham will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Benjamin White

Birmingham asked and Arsenal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Match

Bristol City take the points off Birmingham

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

In brief

23 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

4 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Christoph Klarer puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Birmingham, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

James Beadle is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Player ratings

Ibrahim Osman runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Antonín Kinský

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Birmingham have done the hard part with Tottenham, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Squad

At 20, Myles Lewis-Skelly is already the best thing here

An average of 7.06 in a first team he is several years too young for. Birmingham have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.

Squad

Words exchanged at Birmingham

Ibrahim Osman 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.

Squad

Myles Lewis-Skelly 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.

Transfer targets

Birmingham rebuffed over Victor Torp

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Coventry City have kept their man, and Birmingham go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Match

A bad afternoon for Birmingham against Charlton Athletic

1‑2 to Charlton Athletic, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

In brief

22 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

28 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Ibrahim Osman was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 36. 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.

Match

Birmingham up to position 3

38 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Player ratings

Myles Lewis-Skelly, 20, steals the show — 7.93

Marked 7.93 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.

Squad

Words exchanged at Birmingham

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.

Match

7 unbeaten for Birmingham

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Birmingham did not have in the autumn.

Squad

Myles Lewis-Skelly 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 terraces

Birmingham supporters have found a favourite in Myles Lewis-Skelly

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Myles Lewis-Skelly 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.

Match

Birmingham see off Coventry City

Three points for Birmingham, 2‑0 the final word against Coventry City in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Player ratings

Liam Millar in the eights

A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

  • Squad 8 new faces, and Birmingham are still learning each other
  • The dugout A promise honoured for Dael Fry
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
21 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

21 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Jhon Solís settles it late for Birmingham

The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Jhon Solís decided nobody was going anywhere. Derby County had no time left to answer.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from James Beadle

There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Market

Luis Vázquez wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

A falling-out at Birmingham

Max Bird and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Birmingham

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrahim Osman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

6 unbeaten for Birmingham

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Birmingham did not have in the autumn.

Match

Jhon Solís the difference as Birmingham beat Derby County

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jhon Solís. 2‑1 against Derby County, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

The terraces

One of their own: Jhon Solís

He is 22 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.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Jhon Solís at his very best

Marked 8.26. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Birmingham.

In brief

  • Squad Jhon Flor signs a new deal
  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
  • The dugout The manager makes an example of Tyler Fredricson
20 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

14 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A fracture rules Joel Tabiner out for 14 days

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.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from James Beadle

There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

The dugout

Nikoli Degtiarev: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Birmingham have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

A falling-out at Birmingham

Ibrahim Osman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Birmingham training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Myles Lewis-Skelly 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.

Player ratings

Luis Vázquez in the eights

A performance of 8.34 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

The dugout

Dael Fry gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Player ratings

Jay Stansfield runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Birmingham caught on 94 minutes

The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Hull City scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.

In brief

19 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

7 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

23 days out for Joel Tabiner after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Birmingham will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Player ratings

Myles Lewis-Skelly, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60

A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Squad

Remember the name: Myles Lewis-Skelly

He is 20, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.

Squad

Words exchanged at Birmingham

Ibrahim Osman 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Birmingham

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Myles Lewis-Skelly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Ibrahim Osman was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 20. 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.

The dugout

Tommy Doyle gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Match

Honours even between Birmingham and Ipswich Town

1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.

The dugout

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.” Stephen Reid chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.

In brief

18 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

30 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules Joel Tabiner out for 31 days

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.

Player ratings

Ibrahim Osman was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 27. 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.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Myles Lewis-Skelly at 20 — 7.79

The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Myles Lewis-Skelly did not need any: 7.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Squad

Tempers go at Birmingham

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.

Match

Birmingham are at home on the road

3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.

Match

Jay Stansfield sends Birmingham past Leicester City

It finished 1‑0, and it was Jay Stansfield’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Birmingham.

Player ratings

One of those days for Jay Stansfield

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Player ratings

Max Bird did the work nobody counts — 6.96

10 combined actions and 6.96. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.

Squad

Birmingham are still strangers to each other

10 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.

In brief

17 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

A brace, and Jay Stansfield takes the afternoon — 9.08

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jay Stansfield provided it, and the 9.08 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Ibrahim Osman in a row with a teammate

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.

Squad

A move Harrison Holgate would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Harrison Holgate is living that version at Birmingham, and it tends to show in the first month.

Squad

Words at Birmingham training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Myles Lewis-Skelly 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.

Squad

Home is on Zé Bruno's mind

“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.

Match

Honours even between Birmingham and Middlesbrough

2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.

The dugout

No hiding place for Willy Boly

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Willy Boly, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Stephen Reid: “We have to be better”

“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.

The dugout

No place in the plan for Craig Dawson

The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.

In brief

16 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Max Bird in a row with a teammate

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.

Player ratings

Liam Millar was unplayable

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.

Squad

Myles Lewis-Skelly 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 terraces

The crowd has taken to Jay Stansfield

At 23 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.

Match

Jay Stansfield sends Birmingham past Millwall

It finished 2‑0, and it was Jay Stansfield’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Birmingham.

Player ratings

Jay Stansfield was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.67. 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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Lee Gregory

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

The dugout

Stephen Reid: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.

Squad

Luis Vázquez scores his first for Birmingham

The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.

In brief

15 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

9 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout

Kanya Fujimoto says Birmingham went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

Tempers go at Birmingham

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.

Squad

Words at Birmingham training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Osman 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of James Beadle

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Match

Birmingham come up short against Norwich City

Norwich City left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Stephen Reid to a room that had heard them before.

Squad

Lautaro Calderón signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lautaro Calderón and Birmingham agree another 4 years.

Squad

Lautaro Calderón is a square peg at Birmingham

The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.

The dugout

No place in the plan for Luis Vázquez

The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.

In brief

14 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

2 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Ryan Allsop keeps Birmingham in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Match

The small margins put Birmingham out

Out, 0‑3 to Ipswich Town, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.

The terraces

Birmingham are taken apart by Ipswich Town — and the town wants answers

It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.

Player ratings

Ibrahim Osman, 21, steals the show — 8.04

Marked 8.04 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.

Squad

Tempers go at Birmingham

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.

Squad

Myles Lewis-Skelly 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.

Match

Jhon Solís sends Birmingham past Oxford United

It finished 3‑2, and it was Jhon Solís’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Birmingham.

Player ratings

One of those days for Max Bird

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Jhon Solís

Marked 8.09 — 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.

In brief

13 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

26 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

The dugout

Willy Boly: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Birmingham have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Player ratings

Ibrahim Osman, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.94

A mark of 7.94 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Squad

Ibrahim Osman in a row with a teammate

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.

Squad

A row about effort at Birmingham

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Myles Lewis-Skelly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The terraces

Birmingham supporters have found a favourite in Ibrahim Osman

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ibrahim Osman 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.

Match

Ibrahim Osman the difference as Birmingham beat Portsmouth

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ibrahim Osman. 1‑0 against Portsmouth, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Nikoli Degtiarev

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Squad

Birmingham are still strangers to each other

21 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.

Player ratings

Liam Millar was unplayable

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.

In brief

12 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Liam Millar was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 24. 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.

Market

Luis Vázquez wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

A falling-out at Birmingham

Ibrahim Osman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

A bad afternoon for Birmingham against Preston

1‑2 to Preston, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

No hiding place for Christoph Klarer

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Christoph Klarer, and the manager let it.

The terraces

One of their own: Jhon Solís

He is 22 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.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Jhon Solís

Marked 8.20 — 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.

Match

No time for Preston to settle

The goal that put Preston ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Birmingham equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.

The dugout

Stephen Reid: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

In brief

11 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Birmingham leave it late against Queens Park Rangers

Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Queens Park Rangers spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.

Match

Nobody wants to play Birmingham right now

3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Squad

Words exchanged at Birmingham

Ibrahim Osman 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Birmingham

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Myles Lewis-Skelly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jay Robinson

Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

The terraces

Birmingham supporters have found a favourite in Jay Stansfield

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jay Stansfield 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.

Match

Jay Stansfield sends Birmingham past Queens Park Rangers

It finished 1‑0, and it was Jay Stansfield’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Birmingham.

Player ratings

Jay Stansfield in the eights

A performance of 8.31 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

The dugout

A promise honoured at Birmingham

Something was said to Myles Lewis-Skelly and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.

In brief

  • Squad Guti signs on for more
  • The dugout No hiding place for Tomoki Iwata
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
10 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Ibrahim Osman, 21, steals the show — 8.01

Marked 8.01 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.

Squad

Birmingham lose Dynaeo Martin-Moore

16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Squad

Tempers go at Birmingham

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.

Squad

A row about effort at Birmingham

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Myles Lewis-Skelly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Birmingham find a way past Sheffield United

Sheffield United made Birmingham work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Squad

Phil Neumann makes it 200

200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.

Player ratings

Liam Millar runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Lee Gregory

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Stephen Reid, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.

In brief

9 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Myles Lewis-Skelly at 20 — 7.64

The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Myles Lewis-Skelly did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Squad

Real improvement from James Beadle at Birmingham

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. James Beadle is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Ibrahim Osman in a row with a teammate

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.

The terraces

Birmingham supporters have found a favourite in Ibrahim Osman

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ibrahim Osman 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.

Match

Birmingham find a way past Sheffield Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday made Birmingham work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

One of those days for Jhon Solís

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.47, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Squad

19 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 dugout

Willy Boly gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

Stephen Reid: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.

In brief

8 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Max Bird in a row with a teammate

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.

Squad

Myles Lewis-Skelly 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.

Match

Birmingham come up short against Southampton

Southampton left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

No hiding place for Tommy Doyle

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tommy Doyle, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Stephen Reid faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Stephen Reid after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

Player ratings

Jay Stansfield was unplayable

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.

Squad

Zé Bruno signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Zé Bruno commits to Birmingham for another 3 years.

Market

Birmingham put Christoph Klarer up for sale

The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Christoph Klarer may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.

Squad

No place for Mamadou Camara in the new shape

He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Birmingham are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.

In brief

7 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Birmingham win it in stoppage time

The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Stoke City will replay every second of the added time for a week.

Player ratings

Both of them Liam Millar's — 8.44

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.44, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Player ratings

Jhon Solís, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.42

A mark of 8.42 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Transfer targets

Birmingham baulk at the price for Ben Wilson

Coventry City wanted more than $76.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Squad

Words at Birmingham training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Myles Lewis-Skelly 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.

Match

Liam Millar the difference as Birmingham beat Stoke City

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Liam Millar. 3‑1 against Stoke City, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Squad

Craig Dawson in a row with a teammate

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.

Transfer targets

Manchester City tell Birmingham: Pierce Charles is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

The terraces

One of their own: Jhon Solís

He is 21 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.

In brief

6 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Medical ends the Frank Fielding deal

Everything was agreed with Stoke City and then the doctor spoke. Birmingham have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 13 signed and 14 gone

That is the business done at Birmingham until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.

Squad

Tyler Fredricson arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Tyler Fredricson has, at Birmingham, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Squad

Birmingham count the cost of losing Dynaeo Martin-Moore

46 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

Squad

Tempers go at Birmingham

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.

Transfer targets

Birmingham make their move for Ben Wilson

$76.0K on the table at Coventry City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Liam Millar

Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Transfer targets

Birmingham rebuffed over Teden Mengi

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Luton Town have kept their man, and Birmingham go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Christoph Klarer

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

In brief

5 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Player ratings

Ibrahim Osman runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 43. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Birmingham sell Carlos Vicente for $35.4M

Carlos Vicente has left for Tottenham in a $35.4M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Market

Christoph Klarer asks to leave Birmingham

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Birmingham say no — this time

The offer from Brentford for Christoph Klarer 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.

Market

Bright Osayi-Samuel has said yes to Grimsby Town

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Birmingham have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Transfer targets

Frank Fielding due for a Birmingham medical

Everything agreed with Stoke City, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Squad

Ibrahim Osman in a row with a teammate

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.

Transfer targets

Birmingham rebuffed over Lukáš Horníček

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Newcastle United have kept their man, and Birmingham go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Match

A bad afternoon for Birmingham against Watford

0‑1 to Watford, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

In brief

4 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Terms done: Demarai Gray is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bournemouth waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Birmingham is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Match

Birmingham let it slip despite Ibrahim Osman

Ibrahim Osman had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and West Bromwich Albion were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.

Market

August Priske moves on

Aston Villa pay $14.6M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

Market

Paik Seung-Ho moves on

Leeds United pay $8.6M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

Player ratings

Ibrahim Osman, 21, steals the show — 7.84

Marked 7.84 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.

Squad

Ryan Allsop keeps Birmingham in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

Birmingham say no — this time

The offer from Nottingham Forest for Jay Stansfield 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Birmingham

Ibrahim Osman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

Birmingham rebuffed over Mao Hosoya

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kashiwa Reysol have kept their man, and Birmingham go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

In brief

3 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Market

Chelsea come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Birmingham did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Match

Birmingham strike at the death to beat Wrexham

There were 87 minutes on the clock and Wrexham had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Birmingham did not stop to explain themselves.

Market

Brad Mayo agrees terms with Fleetwood Town

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.

Market

Business is business: Alex Cochrane goes

Everton paid $7.6M and Birmingham took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Myles Lewis-Skelly at 19 — 7.72

The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Myles Lewis-Skelly did not need any: 7.72, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Squad

Words exchanged at Birmingham

Ibrahim Osman 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.

Boardroom

5 academy players handed senior numbers at Birmingham

The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.

Transfer targets

Birmingham rebuffed over Pedro de la Vega

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Seattle Sounders have kept their man, and Birmingham go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Words at Birmingham training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denzil Uchenna 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.

In brief

2 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Carlos Vicente signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Carlos Vicente commits to Birmingham for another 4 years.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Julio Soler

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Birmingham have done the hard part with Bournemouth, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Squad

Ibrahim Osman in a row with a teammate

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.

Market

Myles Lewis-Skelly arrives on loan

Birmingham have taken Myles Lewis-Skelly on loan from Arsenal — cover where cover was needed.

Transfer targets

Birmingham rebuffed over Tosin Adarabioyo

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tottenham have kept their man, and Birmingham go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Bright Osayi-Samuel attracts admirers

The name of Bright Osayi-Samuel has come up in conversations Birmingham were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

The dugout

Luis Vázquez gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

A row about effort at Birmingham

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Craig Dawson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

The clock runs on Max Bird's contract

48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.

In brief

1 Edition

The Birmingham Courier

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Birmingham say no — this time

The offer from Ferencvaros for Christoph Klarer 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.

Market

Carlos Vicente wants more than Birmingham are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Max Bird signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Max Bird commits to Birmingham for another 4 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Birmingham

Carlos Vicente 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.

Squad

Christoph Klarer 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.

Transfer targets

New England Revolution tell Birmingham: Ilay Feingold is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Market

Salford City watching Lee Buchanan

The interest is real enough to have reached print. Birmingham have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.

Market

Talks stall between Birmingham and Dael Fry

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

Squad

8 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.

In brief