Proper Preparation Prevents Pretty Poor Performance

July 2, 2009 by KevB8ll · 3 Comments
Filed under: Articles by Kaje

Here is an article by Kaje, one of our forum Admins.

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I’ve been having a little think recently. Not that it’s out of the ordinary….thinking, that is….but something has got me rather excited about the coming season. Preparation.

Every previous season, we’ve seemed sluggish to move for players. We haven’t really done any business, with the board stating time and time again in the Press (along with Bruce) that the most work is done in August.

Shove August!

In August, a player joins you after pre-season. You have no idea how well the pre-season training was at his old club, if he has had one at all! This leaves you with a sluggish, tired, lethargic player who invariably ends up injured for most of the season, if he even passes the medical.

But this season…..we seem to have figured that out, or at least McLeish knows it to be poppycock. We seem to be preparing well. We’re bidding for players, signing players, ready to take them with us on our pre-season tour and give them the time to integrate themselves into the side and work on any language or fitness barriers they may have.

How many clubs have practically wrapped up their summer dealings within a month of the season finishing? From close of play in May to the end of June we’ve recruited FIVE new bodies. Practically a whole new back like in Danns, Espinoza, Johnson, one of the country’s most highly rated young ‘keepers in Joe Hart and an exciting forward prospect in Benitez.

We actually seem to have a management team who know how to build a football club. You know the sort, an enthusiastic, driven, determined bunch with foresight and that invaluable quality of being able to ‘take a punt’.

I mean, it’s not just the scouting team and McLeish; our board seem to have jumped on the enthusiasm bandwagon. I genuinely can’t remember a time they’ve backed a manager to the hilt in the transfer market as much as they’ve backed McLeish. The excitement on David Sullivan’s face as we signed Christian Benitez said it all for me. They’ve got their enthusiasm, their drive, their ambition back.

All of this excites me.

I don’t know about you, but for me McLeish and his crew seem a world apart from previous management teams in terms of preparation. They also seem to know how to motivate the board, too. Especially in removing money from Mr. Sullivan’s wallet, something which previously required a large amount of anaesthetic and one of the surgery teams from Selly Oak Hospital!

I’m thrilled to bits that we seem to be making the right moves and long may it continue. Good times ahead I think!

Of course, knowing Blues on the pitch……

Kaje

Tags: Alex McLeish, Birmingham City, Players, Premier League, Signing, The Board, Transfers

What a difference four years make……..

May 13, 2009 by Kaje · 4 Comments
Filed under: Articles by Kaje, Blues News

June, 2005. A web petition is circulating around most of the Birmingham City fan sites and in boxes of fans. It’s mission? To ensure that a payer, touted by many as a ‘racist thug’, is prevented from signing his name on a contract for the club. The move collapses and the manager at the time, Steve Bruce, personally calls the press from his holiday in Portugal to express his anguish and disappointment.

May, 2009. Blues fans in their thousands cross their fingers as one of the most influential players in the second half of their promotion season discusses, with his agent and club representatives, a deal to turn his loan into a permanent move. Fans have praised his work rate, his ability and his desire. He has been instrumental in their promotion.

It’s a world apart.

Or is it?

The player I’m talking about is, Lee Bowyer and four years ago I was one of the minority that looked on helpless and bemused as thousands of Bluenoses complained and 271 of the congregation signed the petition that ultimately blew his move out of the water.

For me, Lee Bowyer has demonstrated an amazing commitment to the cause whilst he’s been with us, he has genuinely made me forget why people went as far as they did all that time ago.

But, looking back on the events, what has changed in four years? Lee Bowyer hasn’t yet managed to fit a flux capacitor to the back of a DeLorean, hit 88 miles per hour and change his past with the help of a fuzzy white haired professor. If he had I’d have been in touch and be writing this from a mansion in Sorrento whilst in a bath of the EuroMillions winnings.

He still has the same history as three years ago, he is still the same person and the same player.

Yet this time around, his loan move happened without hassle and he got the same chance he would have been given four years ago. No petition, no protest, no worries. We’re now even hoping he signs for us permanently.

It’s a fickle game, isn’t it?

Kaje

Tags: Birmingham City, Kaje, Players