Birmingham City had been in relatively poor form for a number of weeks amid a whole boat load of injuries to contend with, but John Eustace’s side got back to winning ways this week against Huddersfield Town.
The Terriers were dispatched of with considerable ease, with the Blues recording a 4-1 success at St Andrew’s on Tuesday night.
It snapped a streak of five league matches in succession without a win for City, and they go into this weekend’s fixtures sitting in 12th position in the table.
Let’s take a look at the latest news coming out of the blue half of Birmingham ahead of a Midlands derby with West Brom on Friday night.
Whilst John Eustace was able to guide his side to a much-needed win this week, question marks remain over his future.
Sky Sports have reported that Eustace has showed an interest in the new managerial vacancy at Rangers following the departure of Mick Beale at the weekend, and there have been reports of him being replaced anyway since last month.
The Telegraph reported in early September that Wayne Rooney was a manager of interest for the new Blues ownership should they want to let Eustace go, and back in 2022 Rooney was in charge of Derby when new Birmingham CEO Garry Cook was set to be appointed to the same position at the Rams if Chris Kirchner’s takeover went through
That of course didn’t happen, but it is clear that Cook has close links to Rooney, who is currently in charge at MLS outfit D.C. United, and an update has emerged on Birmingham’s apparent interest.
Per Football Insider, Birmingham are still keen on Rooney in the event of a Eustace departure, so it appears that the current City head coach will have to be looking over his shoulder for the considerable future
Coming up against Birmingham on Friday night is West Bromwich Albion, and their boss Carlos Corberan has issued considerable praise to City summer signings in the form of Siriki Dembele and Jay Stansfield.
“The result talks. I don’t need to say any words,” Corberan said of Eustace’s side, per BirminghamLive.
“They have players who can make a difference in the Championship.
“Dembele was in the Premier League and, after moving to France, he was with Peterborough and then helped Bournemouth win promotion to the Premier League.
Stansfield was in Fulham making a good season in League One, now he is here and scoring goals.
“They have possibilities in attack. They have a very good squad in general, one squad which they’ve now played together and they competed really, really, really well
Injuries have really hampered Eustace’s selection process in recent weeks, and he is set to be without several players ahead of the visit of Albion.
Ethan Laird, Lee Buchanan, Keshi Anderson, George Hall, Tyler Roberts and Alfie Chang are all sidelined for Friday’s match, with four of those being summer signings.
Eustace expects Hall and Laird back in the squad after the international break though, with the West Brom clash being Birmingham’s last for 15 days.
