Welcome to BirminghamLive’s coverage of all things Royal Blue – let’s start with the state of play.
To do list
We’re entering the final straight of the transfer window and Birmingham City has just over four weeks to polish Lee Bowyer’s squad.
The window closes on Tuesday, August 31st at 11 p.m. – in 29 days – and the Blues head coach has already admitted that he would like to bring in a new player or two.
With seven new faces at the club, three permanent and four on loan – and the retention of Riley McGree, Bowyer knows that it is just as important to relieve his existing squad as to supplement.
This is what awaits you in the coming weeks …
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Forest opens up
Birmingham City midfielder Ryan Woods claims he regained his confidence after working under Lee Bowyer.
The 27-year-old became the Bowyer-era’s first solid signing when he moved to the blues from Stoke City in June.
So he could spend every available minute of preparation with his new teammates and take part in the team’s warm-up games.
Woods will be a key player as Bowyer seeks to improve his team’s possession and use of the ball, a lengthy process that cannot be accomplished overnight.
What has improved quickly, however, is how Woods thinks of himself after a difficult time at the bet365 stadium when he admits he has lost faith after being left on the sidelines so many times.
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“Absolutely, I think it would be strange not to do it,” he told BirminghamLive.
“I’ve been inside and out a lot, more outside than inside – and for someone like me, who is used to playing every week, it was a real eye opener.
“I probably didn’t get on well with it at times, but it’s a learning curve again. All you seem to be doing in football is learning all the time, no matter how old you are.
“I’m really enjoying the process of what the gaffer is trying to do here and hopefully we can show more positives than negatives.”
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Alen talks about the blues
Alen Halilovic spoke for the first time about the circumstances of his departure from Birmingham City.
In an interview with the Croatian press, the 25-year-old described that switching to the blues “helped me a lot” after playing 17 games and scoring once for the championship team.
He arrived last November after being fired from AC Milan, his career at rock bottom and leaving with promising signs – but without tearing the championship or even the team around his neck.
Even so, Blues offered him a deal at the end of last season, but it wasn’t signed, and Lee Bowyer and Craig Gardner seemed to move on when they took Tahith Chong to St. Andrews.
Halilovic remains without a club but claims to have several offers.
“I was happy in Birmingham and there are a lot of inquiries now, but I decided I wasn’t going to rush because I was rushed with decisions a few times earlier in my career,” he told FavBet of tportal.
“I’ve decided to take the time and make the right decision. In the next ten days I could decide where to play.
“There are inquiries from the first English league, from the championship, from Spain.
“I will make a decision in agreement with the manager and the family. In the past two or three years I haven’t done as much as I thought I could. “
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Leave Franz
With the championship season starting this weekend, Fran Villalba stands near the exit door of Birmingham City.
The 23-year-old has not played for the blues since December 2019 and was a marginal figure in the current preseason, with Lee Bowyer using him sparingly in warm-up games.
In fact, Villalba was not in the squad for Saturday’s loss to West Bromwich Albion, nor was it involved in any of the previous weekend’s games against Northampton and an XI from Salford City.
In the course of the three-year contract he signed when he moved from Valencia in the summer of 2019, he only played 17 games.
He’s spent the last season and a half on loan with Almeria, but failure to advance to La Liga meant a permanent contract has been broken.
