Birmingham City 2023-24 Review: Six Managers, 50 Points, One Relegation

For all the good work done off the field, Birmingham City were an unmitigated disaster on it and will play third tier football for the first time in three decades.

May 07, 2024

I’ve known for some time that I’d be sitting down to write this end of season blog. Far too much has happened and writing gives me the time to reflect and get my feelings off my chest.

I hoped that I would be reflecting on a season that ended with Birmingham City managing to escape the drop one last time. It wasn’t to be.

Over the last ten years we have avoided the drop on the final day three times, avoided the drop after finishing a campaign winless in 14, avoided the drop three times thanks to late season managerial changes, avoided the drop despite having nine points deducted and avoided the drop because other clubs were deducted points. For the last seven years, we have finished between 17th and 20th in the Championship table.

This year was supposed to be different.

A new owner. New CEO. A recruitment team having their first summer and overseeing what appeared a very positive summer.

Instead, we endured a season like no other. One that would see Blues make 15 signings, use 32 footballers, name at least seven different players as captain and have six men manage the team from the dugout. One that would see us win three and draw two of our first five matches only to win ten of the next 41. One that would see Blues enter the final day needing a victory and knowing not even three points would be enough.

We did our job. Paik Seung-Ho was on route to becoming the latest in a long line of players down the years to play hero of the hour.

But Sheffield Wednesday raced ahead at a Sunderland side with nothing to play for. Plymouth Argyle led and never let it go against a Hull City side that knew their play-off hopes were gone with West Bromwich Albion comfortable winners elsewhere. Blackburn Rovers beat a Leicester City side already named Champions thanks to two late breakaway goals.

For the first time since 1994-95, Birmingham City will play in the third tier of English football.

Tell Them!

The journey to that final game against Norwich City has been a long one.

Going back to the summer of 2023 and it was an exciting time. The new owners came in with big promises and thanks to people like Dan Ivery, we had every reason to believe they were legit. And the transfer window was great fun as a fan, watching new signings with good pedigrees enter the building. Pre-season was excellent too, Blues needing to manage players but winning the first four games before a positive response to a poor start at Peterborough that felt like the warning shot everybody needed ahead of the new season.

The first month of the league campaign could not have gone better either. Blues won three and drew two, seeing off Leeds in the first home game of the new era and scoring a late winner against Plymouth Argyle with a new hero born before our eyes in Jay Stansfield. We went into the first international break sat 4th in the table and dreaming of what could be.

Then came the first set of news that would destabilise our campaign.

Few expected John Eustace to be Blues’ leader for the long term – even Eustace appeared to suspect as much dating back to pre-season interviews – but the rumours surrounding Wayne Rooney came somewhat out of the blue. It deflated fans, who were clearly apprehensive about the impending appointment, and a poor performance and loss against Watford did little to help. That Blues followed it up with a loss at Preston, somehow conceding twice in the second half despite giving up only one chance at goal, a goalless draw with a QPR side struggling under Gareth Ainsworth and their worst performance of the season to date at Norwich City didn’t help.

Something felt off.

For the first time Eustace, who was almost robotic in his interviews, was going off-piste. There were a couple of excuses, a demanding of players and references to how “my” team plays when he so often stuck to speaking about a no-excuse culture or the collective. Even during the run of 10 defeats in 12 the previous campaign, Eustace remained consistent with his message – concerns, feelings or issues beneath the surface were spoken about and dealt with behind closed doors.

But a stable situation was no more. The unity, consistency and stability that Eustace provided during his tenure was breaking. Fans were busy discussing who his replacement could be – because few would allow themselves to believe the club were seriously considering appointing Wayne Rooney – and what the “new” Blues would look like or what this current squad were capable of.

Something clearly changed between Norwich City and Huddersfield Town. Eustace returned to his usual self but with an extra edge about him. He came out fighting. His team came out fighting. It felt like Eustace had some clarity. He made a couple of changes to his starting XI and they battered Huddersfield Town 4-1 before putting West Bromwich Albion to the sword in a 3-1 win. Gary Gardner put a free-kick into the top corner and ran towards the dugout to celebrate while his head coach was slapping the badge, getting the fans involved and appearing to shout “tell them” as he pointed to the directors area. Post-match, there were a couple of nods towards “my” team.

He knew.

Three days later, the news broke. John Eustace had been sacked.

The club’s decision to part ways with a statement that spoke of a winning mentality and no fear football not only came across as tactless towards the man exiting the club but also split fans. There were those that backed the ownership and agreed that change was needed if we wanted to act like the ambitious club we were pining to be while others couldn’t understand why we were making the change while 6th in the league table and their resentment grew further as Blues’ performances and results dropped under the next incumbent.

It became a battle of realism vs optimism. In football, we all want the next best thing. We wanted the big name. We wanted the nice football. We wanted to be challenging towards the top end of the division as soon as possible. The club had made noises aligning with those wishes from the off so anything less was never going to be enough.

Eustace was realistic, knowing that there had been big change and he wanted to develop the culture to build upon, keeping the football simple, the structure strong and opting for gradual improvement rather than completely overhauling what was generally working for the time being. But when rumours of a change surfaced, fan sentiment began to change as many wondered who his replacement would be, including talk of some big names.

And that is fine. It’s how football works. Eustace already had one foot in the door by the time Lee Bowyer was given his marching orders. What goes around comes around.

What I can’t understand is some of the discussion becoming personal at his expense.

This is a guy that was first in and last out for 15 months and on the training ground every session. He worked hard to build bridges between players, management, fans and club staff. He kept the noise, rumours, harsh words about performances and drama behind closed doors as much as possible. He gave leaders autonomy to set up things such as fine systems and trusted them to run things. He had no say in recruitment, not even knowing one or two players before they arrived and being denied players he wanted in or wanted to keep. He had goalposts continually moved from above him but he did what was asked, trying to gradually improve the style of football and have the club competing towards a higher league position. He didn’t use his position or results as an excuse to attack the things he didn’t like and instead tried to put a positive spin on everything, happy to front up and make himself look the idiot.

People may not rate Eustace as a manager. They may like him but not believe he was suited to driving the club’s long-term success. They may think he’s too boring as a personality. And that is okay. But as a man and a manager, he gave everything he had to the club and only left when he was told to leave.

Good luck to him.

No Fear

It’s the day after Eustace has been sacked and the club announce what has already been reported everywhere in advance – Wayne Rooney will be Birmingham City’s new manager.

In some respects, it was exciting. A man of his name and stature managing our football club. Press conferences on Sky Sports and major outlets reporting on us was weird but it gave us a taste of what is to come long-term if we get things right.

But many had doubts. What had Wayne Rooney done in management to suggest he was able to coach the desired style of football and take the club into the Premier League, all while being given the title of manager? Was the cynical view of this being important for off-field factors such as increased revenue and exposure true? Was this all about Garry Cook doing a friend a favour?

Fans had time to digest and get their heads around the change thanks to the international break while the club pushed him hard on socials, everything geared towards this being a positive change for the football club with “no fear” and “winning mentality” the buzz phrases of the hour.

One game and the positivity had drained. The 4-4-2/4-2-3-1 was swapped for a 4-3-3 that would turn to 2-3-5 in possession and Middlesbrough murdered us, capitalising on the myriad of mistakes made in and out possession and the only surprise was that they scored just one goal. The follow up at home to Hull City wasn’t much better, Blues giving away a goal early on and offering nothing in response. Having remarked in a jokey manner that the players forgot what they were supposed to do against Middlesbrough, he chucked the players firmly under the bus after Hull.

Uh oh.

Having questioned the players’ ability to adopt the new style, Rooney opted for a deep 4-5-1 shape at Southampton and were passed off the park. A return to 4-4-2 worked for an hour against Ipswich Town only for Blues to drop a two-goal lead amid various tactical changes in the second half and we were seen off comfortably by Sunderland.

Up and down displays and more tactical switches followed. We beat Sheffield Wednesday despite being penned in for most of the first half then turned up to attack Blackburn only to concede four in the second half. We were pitiful against Rotherham and toothless at Coventry. A rare win at Cardiff provided hope despite the poor quality of the match and the feeling improved with a brave yet unsuccessful display against Leicester. Attempts to build on that ended with Krystian Bielik’s red card at Plymouth before an awful performance and result against Stoke City.

Boos had rung out post-match against Hull City with abuse hurled the way of Rooney as he entered the tunnel. Fans banded together to get behind Rooney across the weeks that followed. Chants of “Rooney, Rooney, Rooney” were sung home and away as fans either genuinely believed this was going to work or buried their feelings to get behind the team and the man in the dugout. Every positive performance or result was looked at through a positive lens, bringing hope that it could be the turning point and evidence that the owners had made the right call.

That all changed when Bristol City arrived. The reason fans were able to remain onside was because there was at least some attacking intent on display. On this day, Rooney set his team up to defend. We had 36% of the ball, five shots at goal and barely a touch in the Bristol City box. The fanbase turned almost unanimously as the team were booed off following a goalless draw. And the follow up at Leeds was worse, a 3-0 loss that saw even the uber-supportive away following turn.

Fifteen games. Two wins. Nine defeats. Thirty goals conceded. Just ten points accrued. Blues sliding down the table towards a relegation fight. Fans turned. There was no coming back and fortunately, the owners knew it too. On January 2nd, Rooney was gone. Happy Birthday, Ryan.

It’s a tough one to reflect back on. Like most, I wanted it to work but the first game at Boro broke any optimism I had and nothing after that gave me confidence that this was going to end positively. He killed the players after Hull. He completely disregarded what he set out to do in his third game in charge. He made numerous tactical and personnel changes, never managing to strike the right balance. When the team was set up to attack, they were a danger to themselves and when he tried the opposite approach, we were toothless. The players looked confused, unsure of what they were being asked to do, highlighted when Rooney told his players off post-match one game for not going longer having spent weeks demanding they play out from the back.

There were positives. The improvement of Jordan James as a goalscoring midfielder and emergence of Romelle Donovan were genuinely exciting. And some of the attacking intent was fun to watch – the Leicester game especially.

But he had alienated players and managed to alienate fans in the process while failing to take responsibility, something that has continued post-sacking, using major news outlets and punditry gigs to tow the line that he wasn’t a success because the fans never took to him.

Good riddance.

Tony Magnifico

Steve Spooner’s last spell in the Birmingham City dugout wasn’t remembered fondly.

It wasn’t on him, per se. The team were winless in a number of games pre and post-COVID and Pep Clotet had departed earlier than initially anticipated with the team nosediving towards relegation having started the campaign quite positively. Spooner and Craig Gardner worked together and managed one point from four matches, the prevailing memory being the selection of Wes Harding and Nico Gordon as a left centre-back and wing-back combo.

Spooner received his next call up ahead of January's FA Cup Third Round game with Hull City and his honesty in the pre-match presser struck a chord with fans. The performance and draw were fine as Spooner brought back a bit of belief and clarity, setting things up nicely for manager number four.

Tony Mowbray.

Everything about this appointment felt perfect.

Fearless style of play? Proven. Good man? Nobody has a bad word to say about him. Capable of developing footballers and humans? You only have to look at his track record. Capable of being somebody Birmingham City fans could get behind? 100%.

It didn’t take long for fans to get on board. Old clips of him talking about food, in particular Revels, surfaced and his demeanour in press conferences, the way he spoke about players as humans and talked up the football club and the crowd made him popular before a ball was kicked.

On the pitch, the players looked like they were being coached again and all that was being asked in return was they put the work in. He quickly shifted Krystian Bielik from midfield to centre half to help the side begin playing from the back. He demanded more from Siriki Dembele and Juninho Bacuna, asking that as the most talented players in the squad, they needed to work harder than anybody else but he was able to communicate this in a fatherly tone rather than writing them off – it was easy to see why he was referred to as Uncle Tony.

Results were good. An opening draw with Swansea, who were also under new management, was seen as positive thanks to the late, late equaliser and we won the battle of two weakened sides in the FA Cup replay with Hull before seeing off Stoke City. The Stoke game was fascinating because it showcased so many aspects of this group and our new manager, scoring twice and playing some good football at times but being far too loose, riding our luck and also lacking the belief that they could continue to play while ahead. Mowbray read the situation and moved to a 5-4-1 to get the result because he felt the game called for it, but he was honest post-match that he didn’t like doing it.

A largely full strength Blues side popped an under-strength Leicester City side off the park for a half but failed to take chances and were punished before back-to-back away defeats at West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield Wednesday showed how much work still needed to be done.

Big decisions were made for the visit of Blackburn Rovers, who had a certain John Eustace in their dugout for the first time. Ethan Laird and Cody Drameh started at full-back. Marc Roberts was back. Namesake Tyler got the nod up top with both Juninho Bacuna and Siriki Dembele dropped. Paik Seung-Ho and Andre Dozzell started at the base of midfield together with Jordan James wide left. Blues got after Blackburn from the off and didn’t let up once ahead either. The positive display continued into Sunderland, a sell out crowd witnessing a comeback victory with fans serenading Tony Mowbray after the final whistle while one fan went as far as to throw a bag of Revels his way as he waved goodbye for the evening.

What we didn’t know then is that it would be the last time we would see Tony Mowbray for the rest of the campaign.

A Lesson in How To Lose

The news that Mowbray would be stepping away for 6-8 weeks for medical treatment was gutting. Not because of the football, but because of the man. It always speaks volumes when somebody as well travelled as Mowbray is universally respected and six weeks as Blues boss was more than enough time to appreciate why that was.

As I write this, his health situation remains unknown – correctly so – and I just hope he his recovering well and enjoying time with his family.

The world of football never stops and days after the announcement, Blues were travelling to promotion chasing Ipswich Town with Mowbray’s long-term assistant Mark Venus taking interim charge.

It felt the sensible decision to make. Ten points from six matches put us in a more favourable league position and with the expectation at the time appearing to be that Mowbray would return after the international break, placing his long time assistant in interim charge made a lot of sense – it was supposed to provide much-needed stability and continuity during a difficult period.

What followed was a number of brutal encounters and misfortune as Blues picked up one point from six matches and dropped right into the relegation mix.

Defeat at Ipswich was expected and though we had to ride our luck, the performance was palatable until we switched off, conceded a second and later a third while chasing the result. A brave performance against Southampton followed but a questionable red card for captain Dion Sanderson and more set-piece woes cost us. A draw with Hull City was overshadowed by the hosts scoring with the use of a hand and Blues would lose the next three 1-0, the games decided by a late set-piece, a worldie from a former player and a defensive error. Everything that could go against us went against us.

However, we hadn’t just struggled to earn a result because of luck or individual errors. The belief that was becoming so evident under Mowbray evaporated and it was hard not to tie it towards both a lack of leadership (on the pitch and the sideline) and the sense that Venus didn’t really want to be the main man. He didn’t look comfortable, he didn’t appear to enjoy the pre and post-match interviews and his in-game decision making was questionable.

It became a very difficult situation. Fans, players and management needed clarity as the final games and a fight for survival loomed but you can’t rush health and Tony Mowbray’s well-being was the priority.

Return of the Gaz

For the second time in six months, an international break brought about change.

Tony Mowbray spoke with the board and agreed to step until the end of season, allowing Venus to depart his role as interim and give the players a new voice for the final eight games.

Enter Gary Rowett.

The response was mixed. Many remembered the excellent work he did during his first rein and the togetherness he brought during tough times while others were quick to point out the way he left first time around and concerns around his style of play. Fortunately, Rowett is very self-assured and did what he needed to do in order to get fans onside. He was backed by the owners too, who allowed him to bring in Paul Robinson and Dave Carolan.

The owners did all they could do. The UB40 concert was already in the offing while reduced ticket prices led to two more sell-outs. Tom Wagner showed his face as much as possible and led the Open House event during which mind-blowing announcements on the club’s future were made.

It was now down to Rowett, his staff and the players to get the job done.

Objectively, Rowett did an okay job. He took on a side that had picked up one point from its previous six and collected 11 points in eight, conceding just six goals and winning three of four at home to leave us on 50 for the season. But the outcome always had to be survival and if he didn’t achieve it, he was going to be viewed as another part of the problem. While our record was solid, so was everybody else’s. Millwall and Queens Park Rangers picked up 16 points, Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke City 15, Swansea City and Blackburn Rovers 11 and Plymouth Argyle 10.

And you look back at those eight games and think of the missed opportunities. The inability to hold on against Huddersfield Town or score against Rotherham United. The pitiful display against Cardiff City. The late goals against Queens Park Rangers and Leicester City. The decision to randomly bring Oli Burke back into the starting XI. But then you cast your mind even further back to those draws we turned into defeats under Venus. The late goal against West Bromwich Albion. Failing to defend the back post against Sheffield Wednesday. The time wasted under Wayne Rooney. The red card and goals conceded at Watford and the own goal against Preston North End.

Just one more result.

I guess we were neither good or bad under Rowett, just the solid mid-table outfit we were expecting to be when the season began. That wasn’t enough because the damage had already been done.

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Self-Afflicted

I guess any post-mortem needs a “who or what is to blame” section and that’s tricky.

The easy response is that it boiled down to two things:

1) The decision to appoint Wayne Rooney as manager

2) Tony Mowbray’s illness, which forced him to step aside

Both things had seismic repercussions on the squad in a number of different ways.

But it goes deeper than that.

How can it be that three managers had points-per-game records that would achieve top-ten finishes if extrapolated over 46 matches while the other two would be competing with Rotherham United for the wooden spoon? How could things be so polarising depending on the man in the dugout leading the team?

Everybody will have their own opinions. For me, it comes back to structure, culture and leadership. And those things are set by the people employing those managers.

Birmingham City Football Club has seen a lot of change over the last year or so and that was always going to continue into this campaign. New ownership. New CEO. New recruitment team. The club made the decision to let Club Captain Troy Deeney, an ambassadorial figure in George Friend, former captain Harlee Dean and the experience Maxime Colin depart, leaving gaping holes as far as leadership in the dressing room was concerned while bringing in 12 new summer signings, many of whom had minimal experience of full Championship seasons or poor injury records.

The only consistency to be found as far as employment for on field matters was concerned was in the dugout where Eustace and his coaching staff resided. He was told he couldn’t keep a couple of the aforementioned leaders so was left with only John Ruddy and Kevin Long as reliable on-field lieutenants with Lukas Jutkiewicz made Club Captain to keep him on board and act as a role model off the field while doing the job when needed on it. Other experienced players included Marc Roberts and Gary Gardner, whose availability has been sketchy, and Scott Hogan, whose confidence goes up and down with his form and playing time. Eustace’s job was to try and improve the culture while developing others so that they could take leadership mantles moving forward, especially with every single one of the players mentioned above was expected to leave the following summer.

When Eustace and his team were removed after two months in search of something more exciting – which was fine as far as ambition was concerned – they had to find a character that was able to quickly establish leadership and structure to help further develop a culture and vision in line with what Tom Wagner and others at the top believed was necessary. Instead, they picked somebody that provided the polar opposite of that and the gamble had disastrous consequences.

The appointment of Rooney not only destabilised the club, the fanbase and the playing squad because of the timing but also because of the way he managed the situation and you only have to listen to John Ruddy’s post-match interview after Norwich City discussing self-afflicted change and how those that made those decisions should be held accountable and take responsibility as an insight into how disastrous the appointment was. Tom Wagner called the timing and the decision the one big mistake made this season. The club know they got it wrong.

Fortunately, Mowbray had the necessary leadership, experience and coaching acumen to right those wrongs and the appointment looked a masterstroke. But six weeks was never going to be enough time to implement a new leadership structure and culture at the club and his enforced departure left another gaping hole where a leader was needed. The same goes for Rowett, who clearly managed to pull something from the players at his disposal but was never going to radically change the future of the club within six weeks, instead hoping to find just enough to get over the line.

We can probably break things down further. The late goals. The inability to drive standards within games. The inconsistent performances of individuals. Not signing a striker. Letting Kevin Long go. Individual errors costing us results. Nobody at the football club can head away on their summer holidays and not believe they could have done more.

But for me, the route cause of our problems this season comes down to the lack of leadership. The football staff needed a leader and spent too much time without one. Tom Wagner can’t do everything.

Do They Care?

All that said, I don’t want to give the players a completely free pass.

This was never a fantastic group and the only difference between the start of the season and the end of it is that the noises were allowed to start creeping out of the dressing room. Things such as a player turning up late, Sanderson’s drink driving charge, rumours of players not wanting to be involved in a matchday squad, suggestions Hogan didn’t turn up as a guest for a lunch with fans and half the squad not attending the end of season awards. These things were always going on because of the players we had in the building but less was leaked out of the club. There’s a world of stuff we won’t be aware of as fans.

But aside from that, let’s look at things on the pitch. How this was a group that stepped up at home under three managers and won in front of all five sell out crowds but failed to similar form on the road or when self-motivation was required and they couldn’t feed off the energy of a St.Andrews crowd. How we needed the team to step up at Huddersfield Town and Rotherham United only to see them fail to do so. How our only three victories came early in the season against a timid Bristol City, a Cardiff City side that, on the night, were genuinely the worst team I’ve seen this season – Blues aside – and Stoke City early in Mowbray’s reign when we conceded 22 shots on goal. Whenever the team needed to find something within themselves, they struggled.

I’m loathe to name individuals but we had certain players called out by more than one manager for a failure to apply themselves to the same level as their ability, several that couldn’t sustain regular game time, some that would turn up when the going was good but fail to do the right things when it wasn’t going their way, several that made awful mistakes that cost us games or failed to commit themselves to a duel because they were afraid they might get hurt and others that would disappear if we went behind. And it’s a shame that the couple that did give their all in almost every game they played will get tarred with the same brush as others.

The situations they found themselves in this season weren’t ideal. The constant chopping and changing of managers. The lack of leadership from above or the sidelines. The fact that several were signed late in the window and never had full pre-seasons, as well as missing any attempts to bond as a group while out in Spain.

But when push came to shove, they had several opportunities to pick up more points by stepping up themselves and dragging others with them and they didn’t do it enough.

As a fan, I won’t be sorry to see most of them depart this summer.

Big Decisions Ahead

The final question to ask: Where the hell do we go from here?

Long-term, I’m confident we will get to where we need to get to. Too many good things are happening and our financial clout will benefit for us, even it means just getting lucky with the right manager.

Short-term, it’s difficult to answer.

As I write this on May 6th, I don’t know whether Tony Mowbray will return, which makes it difficult to look ahead as far as contract discussions, incomings and outgoings, style of play, culture and everything else is concerned. All we know as fans is that we will have a budget that will dwarf pretty much every other club in League One which gives us a greater chance of success.

The primary decisions over the next month have to concern getting the structure right ahead of next season. Do we have the right CEO? Do we have the right Technical Director? Do we need a Director of Football? Is our Recruitment department up to scratch? Do we have squad leaders we can depend upon or do we need to bring one or two in to help? Do we have enough strength in defence and can we score enough goals?

When I look at those that have come up from League One over the last couple of seasons, the common denominator has been strong cores on the pitch and cultures set up by managers that had been employed either the previous campaign or beforehand. Only Sheffield Wednesday have had instability at the top of the club but in Darren Moore, they had a good leader on the sidelines and bags of experience on the pitch to rely on and solve problems. Derby County have followed a similar route with Paul Warne and a team full of experience while Plymouth Argyle, Ipswich Town and Portsmouth have set things up right at the top of the club which has filtered down and allowed managers the opportunity to build a culture and set things up how they want.

Are we set up for the same on-field success? The jury remains out on that one. My belief as it stands is that any success will be indebted to the man in the dugout, which would seem obvious but given we’re in the age of Head Coaches and club structures, having a manager as responsible for recruitment and longer term planning as much as the coaching and leadership won’t be the norm.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we said goodbye to all of those that are out of contract – Neil Etheridge, John Ruddy, Marc Roberts, Marcel Oakley, Gary Gardner, Ivan Sunjic, Keshi Anderson, Scott Hogan and Lukas Jutkiewicz while all five loanees are unlikely to return. Ruddy, Anderson and Jutkiewicz may stay in some capacity but I'm still expecting them to depart. Tony Mowbray may opt to try and keep Andre Dozzell, but that isn’t guaranteed. Alex Pritchard staying could depend on whether Mowbray stays. Then you have to ask who out of Ethan Laird, Krystian Bielik, Dion Sanderson, Lee Buchanan, Juninho Bacuna, Koji Miyoshi, Jordan James, Emmanuel Longelo, Paik Seung-Ho, Siriki Dembele and Tyler Roberts will stick it out.

We find ourselves in an awkward spot as far as Mowbray and his health are concerned and I’m worried about sounding too dismissive or cruel towards the situation. After all, any person’s well-being means more than football. However, if the club are insistent on winning promotion next season, decisions from all parties need to be made so the club can begin the process of moving forward and preparing properly for a League One scrap.

We will have the biggest budget. We will probably be the biggest club in the league. We will be the team to beat. But Huddersfield Town, Rotherham United, whichever three don’t make it out of the play-offs, Wrexham, Stockport County, Charlton Athletic, Reading (takeover pending), Wigan Athletic, Blackpool and perhaps others will have eyes on a promotion push. It isn’t a foregone conclusion that we go up.

It’s time for the decision makers to prove they’ve learned from the mistakes made this season and begin the journey back towards the top.

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