What's Behind The Rise of Birmingham City — And What's The End Goal?
Birmingham City's relegation from the Championship in 2023/24, after 13 years spent in the second tier of English football, was a huge blow for supporters, players, and ownership.
However, the atmosphere around the club since that fateful moment has been overwhelmingly positive; the team regained promotion at the first attempt, and did so in incredible style, amassing an English league record 111 points, and losing just three games all season.
This was partly due to their ability to persuade extremely talented players to buy into the project (with many of these stars paid handsomely in exchange).
The Blues are gaining more media attention than ever, and have an American A-lister in the stands to rival even Wrexham's ownership. Crucially, these owners have been vocal about their top-flight ambitions.
But how exactly has the club turned things around so dramatically? In this article, we'll be answering that question by exploring the ongoing rise of Birmingham City, and asking: what's the ultimate goal?
How Did Birmingham Rebuild After Relegation?
After suffering relegation to the third tier, Birmingham wasted no time when it came to assembling a squad capable of achieving promotion.
A huge £25-million-plus summer outlay (which smashed League One records) saw them bring in Fulham striker Jay Stansfield for a fee worth between £12m and £15m with substantial add-ons, obliterating the League One transfer record of £4m (spent on Will Grigg by Sunderland in 2019).
The same summer, Birmingham spent roughly £4m on both defender Christoph Klarer and midfielder Willum Willumsson, while seven-figure fees were also paid for Emil Hansson, Ayumu Yokoyama, Alex Cochrane and Lyndon Dykes, as a total of 18 players joined the club.
According to The Athletic, this led their wage bill to stand at a whopping £16m, an extraordinary total for this level of the English pyramid. The goal was clear: quickly regain promotion and enter the Championship with a squad ready to compete for the play-offs at the very least (in a similar style to Keiran McKenna's back-to-back promotion-winning Ipswich Town).
Understandably, other clubs in League One were not happy with this approach; moves like the £800,000 poaching of Alfie May from Charlton caused other selling clubs to ramp up their prices, inflating transfer fees across the board while also leaving less wealthy clubs at increased risk of losing their prized assets.
For Birmingham fans, this outlay boosted confidence and hope for the season ahead, and season ticket sales increased despite the recent relegation, while club merchandise sales quadrupled: clearly, there was serious appetite for this exciting new project.
Birmingham's ownership recognised the huge untapped potential of this club in England's second-largest city, with its metropolitan area totalling four million, and their investment in the squad seriously paid off.
Promotion was secured in early April with a win against Peterborough; the points tally the Blues ended up on shattered Reading's incredible EFL points record of 106 (set during their 2005/06 Championship-winning campaign).
Lavish spending was essential to this achievement, and Birmingham were seen to have exploited the fact that League One clubs did not operate under the same financial rules as the top two tiers, instead held accountable via a Salary Cost Management Protocol (SCMP) model which allows them to spend 60% of turnover on wages and transfer fees, but 100% of any equity investment.
This meant that anything the ownership pumped in could effectively be spent. So who has funded these substantial recent investments?
Ownership
Much has been made of legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady's involvement with Birmingham City, with the retired athlete becoming a minority owner in August 2023.
The club has benefited massively from the publicity and commercial revenue potential Brady's involvement generates (not least with the launching of a new Amazon Prime series titled Built in Birmingham: Brady & The Blues), but in reality, his role at the club is a minor one.
Brady holds just a 3.3% minority stake in the club, with no voting rights and no day-to-day involvement in operations.
He does chair an advisory board alongside the club's directors and leadership team, and his vast knowledge of health, nutrition, fitness and recovery has led him to aiding the work of the sports science department.
There's also something to be said for the relentless winners' mentality his presence brings to the club (he's won a record seven Super Bowl championships, five Super Bowl MVP awards and various other personal accolades within American Football).
Davies has been on record saying, "It's like having a world-class consultant, one of the greats, that I can speak to at any time… there is an unrelenting drive and passion for excellence."
Despite all Brady's star power, it's the US investment firm Knighthead Capital, co-owned by Tom Wagner, who are really in control.
The investment group took over the club in the summer of 2023, when Wagner told fans his group planned to "commit the resources, in line with EFL guidelines, the skills and the determination needed to deliver transformational improvements for the good of the club and good of the city."
Blues fans were excited, but the early stages of Knighthead's reign were disastrous. The controversial sacking of successful manager John Eustace in October 2024 ushered in a horrific spell with Wayne Rooney at the helm, when the team fell from sixth to 20th and suddenly looked seriously at risk of relegation.
Caretaker Steve Spooner, short-term hire Tony Mowbray, and interims Mark Venus and Gary Rowett all struggled to address the decline in a catastrophic season that ended in relegation to the third tier.
Since then, the Birmingham ownership has gone about attempting to rebuild fans' trust, investing heavily and cleverly in the first team, and so far, getting genuine results. As well as the cash injections, it's important to recognise the efforts of the club's directors and executives.
Astute Directorship
"We think the transformation of Birmingham City FC and the city itself is going to be the football story of the next decade," Birmingham City CEO Jeremy Dale told The Athletic ahead of a high-profile FA Cup clash with Newcastle United last season.
Several months on, with Birmingham City taking to the Championship like a duck to water and quickly convincing neutrals that they have what it takes to challenge for promotion to the Premier League in 2025/26, it's increasingly hard to argue with Dale.
Birmingham recently rewarded their CEO's work (he helped broker the original takeover before leading commercial operations on an interim basis) with a permanent contract; Knighthead stated the former Microsoft exec had brought "a dynamic blend of strategic leadership, operational excellence, and lifelong passion for Blues" to the position.
He's been aided in his work by another man who's passionate about Birmingham City Football Club: sporting director Craig Gardner, an ex-player who spent four seasons playing for the Blues in two spells between 2010 and 2020.
As well as leading a major recruitment drive that saw Birmingham sign some of the EFL's most talented players, the club's directors have also hugely expanded the commercial operation, bringing in sponsors like Nike, Undefeated, Heineken, Delta Airlines, as well as automotive retailer Vertu and pub giant Stonegate Group.
These revenue-boosting ventures have helped fund the assembling of one of the EFL's most expensive squads. But all those fresh new signings would mean nothing if there wasn't a capable coach capable of getting performances and results.
Intelligent Coaching
To lead their assault on the League One title in the summer of 2024, Birmingham City turned to a promising young coach who, at the time, was totally unproven at senior level.
Their move for former Tottenham Hotspur assistant Chris Davies may have surprised some supporters hoping for a proven EFL name, but it's turned out to be a huge success. Davies' departure was reportedly a big blow for Ange Postecoglou, who has since said "I really enjoyed working with him. He was a big part of what we built last year."
The Australian isn't the only well-regarded coach to have had plenty of faith in the Englishman's ability. Aged just 39 when he joined Birmingham, Davies had already developed a strong reputation in the game, having spent several years assisting Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool, Leicester City, and Celtic.
That journey started at Swansea City in 2010, when he was brought in as Head of Performance Analysis. Guided closely by mentor Rodgers, he soaked up information and quickly developed his man management skills, as well as improving on analysis and recruitment.
At 30, Rodgers' Liverpool sacking caused Davies to embark on a brief stint at Reading, becoming the club's youngest-ever first-team coach, before a move to Celtic to be reunited with Rodgers in a role that saw him take "a lot of responsibility in training," according to ex-Celtic defender Erik Sviatchenko. "Especially for set-pieces… he was in charge a lot during the 18 months I worked with him."
This valuable first-team experience, which Davies expanded on during his later stints at Leicester and Spurs under Postecoglou, allowed him to transition smoothly into his first senior posting in the West Midlands.
Birmingham won six of their first seven games in League One last season, and by September, defender Krystian Bielik was telling the media "the reality is we're too good for League One".
He wasn't wrong; Davies' side consistently dominated possession and suffocated opposition, pressing with intensity and energy and moving the ball quickly (their average passes per possession in 2024/25 were far higher than any other side).
For much of the season, they were forced to break down opponents and come from behind to win; however, as the campaign progressed, they started swatting teams aside with ease and racking up their goal difference (they ended up scoring 84 goals in 46 games, with a total GD of +53).
Birmingham City earned their place in the Championship, but it's become clear that they're aiming for a short stay in the second tier. Wagner has claimed he wants to return to the top flight as soon as possible, telling the Guardian "it would be great for the city of Birmingham to have an inner-city derby [against Villa in the Premier League]."
He added that their spending matches these ambitions, saying "if we were fortunate enough to get promoted — our first year in the Premier League, I think we'll fall mid-table in total revenues, which is unheard of for a club just entering into the Prem.
That's the way we think about the club and that's what our objectives are aimed towards — not just getting to the Prem, but then being there for good, and then ultimately becoming competitive." Clearly, the Birmingham City story is only just getting started.
If you want to find out about a current Premier League side whose trajectory they could be looking to replicate, check out our in-depth guide to the rise of Brighton & Hove Albion.
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