Birmingham City F.C. in 2005-06
| 5
|
by user Bobo
This hasn't been the greatest of years for Midlands teams. Villa have badly underachieved, and their derby teams, West Bromwich Albion and these boys, have both been relegated. The lads from Birmingham have never been out of the top two football divisions, having joined Division Two over 110 years ago. And sadly now, their four-season long Premier League tenure is at an end. Back then Steve Bruce was in his first full season at the club. And with a personal stake in the club, that being his Manchester-born son Alex, I don't see him leaving, despite the poor season.
Bruce's team includes several promising players, including Kosovo-born Finnish international Njazi Kuqi, formerly Finland's Under-21 player of the year, who will be returning at the beginning of the new season, and the very hard-working Mustafa İzzet, former top-scorer with Leicester City, who will doubtless will be of good use, as long as he stays with the club and is satisfied with First Division football. He suffered a torrid first season and deserved the good form he achieved during some of this one.
With the obvious lack of communication between the players, relegation followed at the end of this season, but with one of the strongest squads in next year's Championship, they will be looking to bounce back with fairly immediate impact. Nothing is stopping them and their first-team squad from doing so. One player looking for a place in this year's World Cup is the Czech Jiří Jarošík, but as the team's top-scorer this year, his place is not looking in doubt despite his team's downward motion.
Which I suppose brings up the point of having some of the best players for a particular international team in any country's second division. Jarošík, however, is one of the very very best within both the Birmingham team, and the Czech national side, where he plays alongside superstars like Petr Čech, Tomáš Rosický, and former Liverpool player Vladimír Šmicer. Though with some players ready to impress in the World Cup, burnout will not occur, and hopefully a return to the Premiership will be forthcoming.
<pageTools></pageTools>
