Author Topic: Anything Birmingham City  (Read 225492 times)

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BaggieJames114

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #150 on: May 22, 2011, 06:43:47 PM »
Im from Solihull. i know one dingle who i barely know and pretty much 95% of people i know are Blues fans. They have been so smug all season long and now its hit them and im delighted

RowleyBaggie2

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #151 on: May 22, 2011, 06:49:42 PM »
Yeung HAS NO MONEY, he's a chancer.
I only go for the beer.

wbako

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #152 on: May 22, 2011, 06:52:17 PM »
Im from Solihull. i know one dingle who i barely know and pretty much 95% of people i know are Blues fans. They have been so smug all season long and now its hit them and im delighted

Bang on kidda. I know a couple of dingles and they are both very objective about football. I know 20+ bloose fans and the majority are completely deluded and look down on "little West Brom".
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jjb0rdell0

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #153 on: May 22, 2011, 07:29:20 PM »
I'm down Solihull way too...

Surrounded by either Villa or Blues fans...not that many baggies fans out there.

Best mate is a Blues fan, I reckon they're my 2nd fave midlands club to be honest - sad to see 'em go down...

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #154 on: May 22, 2011, 07:46:44 PM »
I wonder if they will go into administration. Really see them being in trouble now. Time for Carson to prove he has the money to keep them up.
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wba1993dave

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #155 on: May 22, 2011, 07:51:19 PM »
I think there struggle to make the play offs

Johnson
Foster
Dann
Bowyer
Carr
Larsson
Hleb
Zigic
 
will all leave i think
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WBASPE77

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #156 on: May 22, 2011, 07:56:08 PM »
There squad is far too small, they needed a decent striker as Jerome didnt get enough goals.
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Rich99

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #157 on: May 22, 2011, 07:58:52 PM »
I know 20+ bloose fans and the majority are completely deluded and look down on "little West Brom".

I have to say I've suffered the same. I've had discussions with Blues fans in the past who strangely believe that they are a much bigger club than us and more deserved of Premiership status.  They seriously believe it as well, it's not said tongue in cheek.

Also, the amount of blues fans who suddenly appeared out the woodwork when they got Premiership status annoyed me a little.

If the rumours about their finances are right I guess Blues could well be gone for a long while.  If that's the case, watch the Villa/Albion derby grow again. :D
« Last Edit: May 22, 2011, 08:01:20 PM by Rich99 »

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #158 on: May 22, 2011, 08:13:01 PM »
I think there struggle to make the play offs

Johnson
Foster
Dann
Bowyer
Carr
Larsson
Hleb
Zigic
 
will all leave i think

They wont sell everyone and besides, who would buy Bowyer and Carr at their ages?
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VillafanJack

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #159 on: May 22, 2011, 08:31:25 PM »
Haha got to hate blues and everyone should be happy now.

saml30

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #160 on: May 22, 2011, 10:34:06 PM »
and Curtis 'theres only one greedy *******' Davies is back in the champ!
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Rich99

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #161 on: May 22, 2011, 10:48:23 PM »
They wont sell everyone and besides, who would buy Bowyer and Carr at their ages?

Bowyer is out of contract I think.

wba1993dave

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #162 on: May 22, 2011, 10:58:50 PM »
They wont sell everyone and besides, who would buy Bowyer and Carr at their ages?

Bowyer will go to a Promoted team Norwich perhaps ?

Same goes for Steven Carr
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BaggieJames114

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #163 on: May 23, 2011, 12:43:53 AM »
A blues fan said to me tonight 'we are and always will be a bigger and better club than Albion' They really are a deluded bunch. Hope they rot in the Championship  :D

Rich99

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #164 on: May 23, 2011, 12:51:46 AM »
A blues fan said to me tonight 'we are and always will be a bigger and better club than Albion' They really are a deluded bunch. Hope they rot in the Championship :D

League 1 bound more like. :D

WBASPE77

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #165 on: May 23, 2011, 08:21:36 AM »
They really must be some deluded Blues fans out there, they have won on trophy and they think there bigger than us.
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WBASPE77

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #166 on: May 23, 2011, 01:11:36 PM »
It looks like they will be keeping Alex McLeish as there manager. he taken them up before and he will feel he can do it again.
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Wbamitch

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #167 on: May 23, 2011, 01:42:51 PM »
It doesn't really give me much joy to see them relegated, think they may struggle next season though with a few players leaving.

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #168 on: May 23, 2011, 01:52:00 PM »
There will always be players that will want to go to Birmingham because they know that winthin a year they could be in the Premiership.
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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #169 on: May 23, 2011, 06:18:18 PM »
I wouldn't rule out Blues coming up. There arent too many power houses in that league right now and Blackpool's side will be pulled apart so they will struggle to challenge the top 2 next season. All depends on how much relegation effects their finances and on whether Yeung is prepared to gamble but I think they might come straight back up.
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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #170 on: May 23, 2011, 06:57:53 PM »
A blues fan said to me tonight 'we are and always will be a bigger and better club than Albion' They really are a deluded bunch. Hope they rot in the Championship  :D
does the blues fan in question have to take regular medication!
cant say im overjoyed at their demise to be truthful


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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #171 on: May 24, 2011, 01:26:34 PM »
Blues will never be bigger than us.Watch their crowds slump next season.

Time for Carson to show us what hes made of financially
Born and Bred in Oak Road West Bromwich B71   Est in the swinging sixties

dangerman

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #172 on: May 24, 2011, 04:32:04 PM »
Picked this up from another Baggies forum (think they got it off a Vile forum) but a good read none the less.

Birmingham City set for the blues

Given what happened to Avram Grant and Carlo Ancelotti, Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish was lucky to make it to White Hart Lane's car park on Sunday still in employment.

Relegation is a blow for any club but relegation from the Premier League comes with added recriminations and relegation from the Premier League for a club that was not expecting it can be catastrophic.

There is a firmly-held belief at PL HQ that nobody goes bust on their watch. Pompey were the exception that proved the rule, you see. And they had it coming. But this ignores what has happened to those who crashed into the Championship and kept going until League One and/or administration broke their fall. Some are still tumbling.

This is a bit like a landlord filling a sailor on shore leave full of grog but getting him out of the door just before the furniture starts to fly and of the three relegated clubs it is Birmingham City that stagger into the night in the greatest disarray.

There are three reasons for this bleak prognosis and they can all be found in the most recent set of financial accounts filed by the club.

This time-bomb of a document provides a detailed look at City's financial health as of last summer and it was signed off by majority owner Carson Yeung and his board on 25 October. That was two days after the club had beaten Blackpool 2-0 to move into a comfortable mid-table position after nine league games.

Most of the numbers were commonplace for English football: rising television revenues cancelled out by wage inflation and the drag of debt. That said, none of the figures on their own were terrifying, not by Premier League standards.

What was scary, however, came in the notes under the subhead "going concern". It was in this section the club's precarious hold on solvency was outlined.

In short, City were projected to spend more than they had coming in even after a year that had seen TV income rise from £16m in the Championship to £42m in the Premier League.

The club's forecasts revealed £7.5m would have to be pumped in to keep the Blues inside the terms of their "agreed bank facilities" - accountants' talk for staying on top of the loan and overdraft repayments.

But there was a problem with this forecast: it was based on more of the same. The year under scrutiny had been a stellar one on and off the field. New owners, ninth in the Premier League, turnover up by 105% - if this is mid-table mediocrity could we have more of it, please.

The only concession to more negative thoughts ("the sensitised forecast") was that an additional £3m would be needed if McLeish's men misfired and could only just beat the drop.

Which brings me to the second reason for concern in Small Heath: the board's plan for filling the hole that is actually much bigger than anybody was willing to consider seven months ago.

The deficit problem was supposed to be fixed by two Hong Kong stock exchange share offerings in the club's parent company, Birmingham International Holdings (BIH).

The first placement of 450 million shares was underwritten by Kingston - a brokerage firm with investments in Hong Kong and Macau - and it raised the promised £7.15m. But the second tranche of shares, 1.1 billion of them, was meant to fly off the shelves earlier this year, bringing in £17.5m.

This was a "best efforts" placing and not underwritten, making the shares less attractive and the sale has been postponed. We are expecting some news by Wednesday but no analyst I have spoken to in Hong Kong has heard a whisper about it.

Which brings me back to the mysterious Yeung.

A barber turned entrepreneur, the Hong Kong-based businessman first came to the British football public's attention in 2007 when he bought a 29.9% stake in Birmingham City from David Sullivan and the Gold brothers. The plan was to buy the whole club soon after and build the "Birmingham brand" in China.

But two years, one of which was spent in the Championship, passed before Yeung was able to complete the deal. During this time more than a few fans wondered if this self-proclaimed billionaire was quite as rich as he claimed.

This sense of unease was compounded when the complicated deal actually went through. The new owner was really a Hong Kong-listed, Cayman Islands-registered firm called Grandtop International Holdings. Yeung was the majority shareholder of Grandtop and his actual holding in City was somewhere between 25-20%. This is where it has remained over the last 18 months or so.

While efforts to attract new investment from Asia this year have stalled, Yeung has been active in trading BIH (the holding vehicle that Grandtop became) shares, first increasing his stake to 24.9% and then diluting it to 23.3%. The club's official site currently says he owns 22.5% of the shares.

This last move, which the club said brought in £3.6m, took place earlier this month. It followed news that Yeung, who remortgaged some of his property portfolio earlier this year to raise £12m, had loaned City £4m. This is on top of existing loans of £15m.

So we have money and shares going to and fro between Yeung, his holding company and fellow "third party" investors, but no indication any of it is the fresh investment needed to fill the Premier League-sized hole in the books.

And this is the final worry for City. Relegation from the Premier League, even with parachute payments of £48m over four years, hits the bottom line hard. The Championship TV deal is a paltry £3m for each club (the worst team in the top tier earns £40m) and commercial revenues (already underwhelming at St Andrews) also suffer. You can conservatively wipe £25m from next year's revenue column.

So it is hardly surprising Yeung has told McLeish he can keep his job - it would cost £2m to sack him - but only if he gets them promoted at the first opportunity.

Monday's club statement was straight out of the crisis-control manual. Praise the fans, back the manager but hint it was his fault, remind everybody of how much money you have poured in and then praise the fans again.

But the reality is that the club's wage bill will have risen again (Nikola Zigic's four-year deal alone is worth a reported £20m), the deficit remains and will get worse and now McLeish must turn around a club that has won only two league games since 27 February. He could also lose half of his squad, which may be no bad thing if there was money to replace them but there isn't.

That late winter day, of course, was when they beat Arsenal to win their first major piece of silverware for 48 years, the Carling Cup. What should have been a passport to better and bigger things for McLeish and the Blues will next year be a painful reminder of the type of football their forecasters budgeted for but can no longer afford.

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #173 on: May 24, 2011, 08:26:35 PM »
Yet another club who have stupidly overstretched themselves only to find themselves facing financial meltdown!

But it's not like they haven't got a pot to **** in - they can always use that Mickey Mouse Cup that was so generously gifted to them  ;D
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Jeremy Roland Peace

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Re: Anything Birmingham City
« Reply #174 on: May 25, 2011, 11:08:17 AM »
It looks like they will be keeping Alex McLeish as there manager. he taken them up before and he will feel he can do it again.

he's also got them relegated before. twice