So long, Juke: Thank you for proving me wrong
After a 20-year career and 9 years at Birmingham City, Lukas Jutkiewicz is hanging up his boots. Here's a look back at his time with the club.
In football, a cult hero is a player who gains immense affection from a specific fanbase, often despite not being widely recognised or considered one of the best players in the world. These players are cherished for their personality, memorable moments, unique quirks, or how they embody the spirit of their club, rather than purely for their on-field brilliance.
We love a cult hero at Birmingham City.
We pride ourselves on being a working class club. A club that loves a big personality and shows respects to people that are honest, hard working, give what they can for the badge and don’t shy away when the going gets tough. The players that create those memorable moments and back it up time and again.
Geoff Horsfield, the brickie who turned pro and helped us win promotion and loved scoring against the Villa. Stephen Carr, the full-back famed for calling the North Stand wankers & giving a legendary speech before our cup final. Paul Caddis, one of few shining lights under Lee Clark and scorer of that equaliser. Michael Johnson, Martin Grainger, David Davis, Nikola Zigic and so many more, remembered fondly and always welcome back to St.Andrews.
Lukas Jutkiewicz is the latest in a long line of cult heroes.
The guy from the south who feels like he’s from the north with the Lithuanian surname eligible for Poland and Republic of Ireland too. The big man with the less than delicate touch but a willing and strength to make his presence felt at all times. The striker that made heading a football look like an art form. The man that almost relegated the club he would go on to save time and again. The footballer who taught me a lesson about writing people off before I had seen them in action.
Lukas Jutkiewicz officially announced his retirement on Saturday 26th April, the day before lifting the League One trophy as club captain, and it felt inappropriate to share my feelings on him as a footnote in a match report. He deserves more than that.
There's always a tweet, right? Well, for me, there tends to be a blog.
Here I am, searching for something that evidences my less informed opinions from back in the day and instead, I come across a blog written at the age of 22 discussing Lukas Jutkiewicz, mocking 17-year-old me for being less informed.
https://afootballblogbyryandeeney.blogspot.com/2016/09/underwhelmingly-brilliant-lukas.html?m=1
It's amused me first thing on a Monday morning. A key basis for writing this piece was going to be about how I was so naive a near decade ago and now I'm just plagiarising my own ideas from that time.
And yet, writing two pieces nine years apart about how I wrote off the man they call the Juke feels like such an appropriate way to sum up the qualities of a man who proved me and so many others wrong time and again.
You may notice that I don’t write off new signings upon arrival and always try to find a positive (something that even extended to Oli Burke). Jutkiewicz is the reason for that.
As outlined in the above post, we signed Jutkiewicz at a rough point in his career. He was 27, had missed most of the previous campaign due to injury and was a striker that hadn’t found the net for two years. We knew as a fanbase that we needed cover / competition for Clayton Donaldson but I wasn’t alone in thinking this wasn’t the answer.
I was kinder than I remember publicly, suggesting it was “underwhelming". I know I said worse private, and I’m aware of that because a close friend likes to remind of it whenever he comes up in conversation. Sorry, Juke.
Within a month, I had my tail between my legs, grateful for being proven wrong as a fan but also embarrassed and finding myself writing the words "Lukas Jutkiewicz is quickly becoming the season-by-season reminder that you should never judge a footballer before he has been given time to prove his manager right.”
Lukas Jutkiewicz made me look a right mug. I wasn’t doing that again.
Jutkiewicz signed at what appeared to be a decent time.
Gary Rowett was entering his second full season in charge, the club finally had a little bit of money to play with after years of cost-cutting owing and a takeover had effectively been announced ahead of time. We were somewhat settled and it no doubt helped Juke, who broke his duck a couple of weeks after signing with a gorgeous header against Sheffield Wednesday and would score eight times over the next three and a half months before his move was made permanent.
The problem was that his move would be made permanent after Rowett was controversially sacked by the new ownership in favour of Gianfranco Zola, who had signed autographs in the boardroom according to one of many stories told by Dan Ivery. Like most of the squad, Juke was ill-fitted to the job he was being asked to do and though he scored the only goal against Fulham in one of two Blues wins under the Italian, his biggest contribution would come on final day when he assisted strike partner Che Adams to secure the first of many survivals during his time at the club.
Safety secured. We had the great Harry Redknapp in charge. All good, right? Not quite. The future I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here winner would, in conjunction with Jeff Vetere and David Dein, spend an absolute fortune the following summer, get sacked in September and be replaced by Steve Cotterill. Between August and March, Jutkiewicz would be used sparingly, scoring one goal, a lovely stooping header at Derby County, under the caretaker stewardship of Lee Carsley.
Garry Monk arrived in March and quickly set about creating a programme for survival. He needed somebody to rely on and Jutkiewicz returned to the XI, starting each of the final 11 games and scoring four goals, including the winner at Bolton Wanderers in front of 5k travelling fans and the opener on final day against a Fulham side that hadn’t lost since Boxing Day on the way to a 3-1 win to stay up.
Across the next two seasons, Jutkiewicz would establish himself as a key figure. He played a part in all 92 league matches, starting 86 and contributing to 42 goals – 29 scored and 13 assisted.
It started under Monk, Pep Clotet and James Beattie with the strike partnership of Jutkiewicz and Che Adams managed 36 goals and 14 assists between them. The highlight reel included sumptuous back-post headers across goal against Nottingham Forest and Reading, his first and only hat-trick for the club against Rotherham United and goals against V*lla and the Baggies too.
Monk departed and Clotet stuck with Jutkiewicz, who struck 15 times in a curious season that showed signs of promise early on before the inevitable drop towards relegation following the COVID break. The ever-present back-stick headers, another goal against our Black County friends and bullying two Bristol City defenders before a tidy dink over the keeper. Yet it was his final goal, an injury time poachers finish against Charlton Athletic, that would prove the most important contribution – the point we earned that day was enough to keep Blues in the division and help relegate our opponents, managed by a certain Lee Bowyer.
Yes, Lee Bowyer. The Carling Cup 2011 winner took the reins from Aitor Karanka, who decided the best way to move the club forward was to suck the soul out of everybody involved and leave fans stuck at home watching on their laptops even more depressed than they already were. Jutkiewicz had scored twice leading into March and lost his place in a team that so often played without the ball, and without wingers, and without any kind of attacking intent.
Just don’t complicate the game. You’ve got someone like Jukey... put the ball in the box and he’s gonna score goals.
Bowyer had solved football. His key man would score six times in his final nine matches of the campaign to once again drive Blues to survival, rewarding the outgoing Xuandong Ren for handing him a three-and-a-half-year deal in January - one that went unreported by the club. Strange times.
It's now 2021/22 and things are going okay. Sure, we are still cutting costs following years of mismanagement but Dong has gone, we like our manager, we are still a Championship club and we’ve started the season brightly, humiliating Luton Town along the way.
However, this was the beginning of the end for Jutkiewicz the footballer, who would never quite showcase the same level of form he showed in his early Blues years, but his qualities as a person, as a leader and his willingness to step into battle would shine brighter than ever.
He started the first eight games of the season, scoring just the once. We had mostly moved to a back three and this idea of just crossing the ball for Jutkiewicz because he would score goals went out of the window as Bowyer set his side to go man-for-man across the pitch with minimal evidence that patterns of play to create those crossing opportunities were being coached.
Jutkiewicz’s opportunities became limited from mid-September thanks to the arrival of Troy Deeney, who would be given the captain’s armband by mid-October and was a mainstay in the starting XI. Injury gave Jutkiewicz the chance to earn a spot in January but that lasted a couple of weeks until Bowyer’s golden boy Lyle Taylor arrived on loan.
The team survived comfortably, largely thanks to other clubs receiving huge points deductions, and the season petered out terribly as Blues picked up 15 points from their remaining 18 games, conceding a whopping 33 goals. Bowyer was busy burning every bridge he had internally, rarely speaking to senior personnel and using interviews to tarnish the owners in a bid to hide his own shortcomings. His departure was all but guaranteed and finally came through in early July with John Eustace lined up ready to take over.
Eustace outlined what he wanted to do early doors and it became immediately clear that Deeney was to be entrusted as one of the first names on the team sheet owing to his leadership and organisational qualities. But Juke wasn’t marginalised like he was under Bowyer, his role made clear to him and one he often performed well, be that chasing games or helping see them out. Meanwhile, he took on more of a role off the pitch, supporting Deeney (and George Friend) to help set the tone.
That clarity helped as Deeney suffered an injury that would again rule him out of the second half of the campaign. And even more so when Scott Hogan went down with a groin problem. Jutkiewicz was the man left standing and he stood tall, not quite able to offer the level of goalscoring ability he once provided but throwing himself about to help the likes of Reda Khadra, Tahith Chong and the fast-emerging George Hall thrive around him. He played a key role in helping Blues avoid relegation, scoring in the crazy 4-3 win over Swansea City and in April affairs with Reading (1-1) and Millwall (1-0).
Once again, Lukas Jutkiewicz had answered the call when Birmingham City needed him and he answered it. Arguably for the last time.
The previous two years had been a little tough for me as a Blues and family member.
Troy or Jutkiewicz? Fans split themselves in defence of one side or the other. Ridiculous rumours got spread around. There was a school of thought amongst some that the pair didn’t like each other and while I could have let it be, I exhausted myself at points trying to defend my own blood as somebody who had a small voice on social media.
It was mostly frustrating because the honest truth is that they’re both good guys and they get on well. They got on while they were at the club together. In the second season, they had a manager that respected them both and was clear in the roles he had for them. Honestly, the truth is far more boring than people wanted it to be.
In fact, if Eustace got his way, they would have both remained at the club for the 2023-24 campaign in secondary roles on the pitch but key roles off it. That was put paid to with Eustace having minimal input on the squad that was formed for him to manage.
The decision to release Deeney meant that Eustace had to select a new captain and while Dion Sanderson was given the Team Captain position, he deemed Jutkiewicz to be more appropriate as Club Captain. Eustace understood his importance as a figure to fans and staff from players to general club employees, while also knowing it would be a great way to keep a key individual on board at a time when his game time was likely to be cut amid a raft of new signings and new ambition.
What is maybe less known is, and I’ve heard this from a couple of places, Eustace had to fight upwards to make that happen and that it meant an awful lot to Jutkiewicz, who was genuinely honoured to be given that title. He’s kept that title since and the respect he has from his peers has been showcased every time he has entered the pitch this season as the on-field captain hands him the armband upon arrival.
New ownership. New money. New era.
It truly began at St.Andrews on 12th August in the league as a capacity crowd – at least, what was available at the time at St.Andrews - witnessed Blues beat recently relegated Leeds United 1-0. New signings Siriki Dembele and Ethan Laird did the damage and Jutkiewicz stepped up from 12 yards to hammer home the winner.
He scored again a week later, exiting the bench at Bristol City to finish off Ivan Sunjic’s low cross and played a key role in Jay Stansfield’s first Blues goal against Plymouth Argyle. It was some start to the season and then... well, we know what followed.
Wayne Rooney liked him. He and Jordan James were pretty much the only first-team players praised during those months. Juke made his only three starts of the campaign during that spell, being on the losing end in all three. He made a couple of cameos under Tony Mowbray and scored his final goal of the season under Mark Venus against Hull City, the only point Venus would win during his calamitous time in charge.
The appointment of Gary Rowett felt like a wonderful full circle moment to end his time at the club but injury meant he was unlikely to feature. Most footballers would have remained out and accepted their fate. Not Jutkiewicz. He stuck around, made his presence known around the place and did everything he could to get back. He managed it as well, heavily strapped up and nowhere near fit, really, but he put himself through the pain barrier once more for the cause. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. Not even Juke could save us this time.
And that ought to have been that. The end of Jutkiewicz’s time at Birmingham City. The story of a man who saved us and saved us until he physically couldn’t anymore.
Monday 1st July 2024: He’s not leaving. We are delighted to confirm that Lukas Jutkiewicz has signed a new contract with the Club.
It was said that Tony Mowbray had recommended players to remain at the club. Chris Davies will have taken the job and understood the importance of Jutkiewicz. The big man was staying.
Alfie May signed. Then Lyndon Dykes. Then Jay Stansfield. Jutkiewicz was firmly fourth choice but it felt like he knew and understood that. His role was always going to be more important off the pitch than on it. He was the remaining leader from the previous era, an individual fans could identify with and somebody who could help ensure the new leaders could step out of the shadows in their own time.
It’s not been a season in which he has thrived on the pitch. He has played in less than half of our matches in all competitions, making just five starts and playing more than an hour of football just once and more often than not finding himself not named in the matchday squad.
But he still had a role to play. His second half performance away at Barnsley where the storm was blowing, the game was scrappy and the pitch crap was key to helping Blues get over the line thanks to a Stansfield brace. He came off the bench more than once to help see games out as a target man or defending his box from set-pieces. He scored away at Blackpool in the FA Cup.
And then he got his rewards for years and years of service.
The first came against Barnsley on 5th April when he scored his first goal of the season. It was the 6th goal in a 6-2 win but the fans celebrated like it was a league clincher as joy poured out of the stands to see Jutkiewicz score his final goal with every player, including Allsop, sprinting to the corner to celebrate.
Number two was on 13th April when he made his one and only Wembley appearance. And sure, it didn’t go the way he or anybody else of a Blues persuasion planned it. But he got that moment and was so close to finding the net to, forcing a fine stop in injury time.
And number three was 27th April, the day Blues celebrated winning the League One title and breaking the League One points record. A 4-0 win in which the final half hour was spent crossing the ball from all angles in the hope Jutkiewicz would score one last back-post header to top off a perfect day. It didn’t happen, but the announcement the day before meant he got to say a proper goodbye to a sold out St.Andrews crowd on an emotional day.
Sometimes, good things happen to good people. And Jutkiewicz has been a true gentleman throughout his time at Birmingham City. He’s a hugely respected figure on and off the pitch, always happy to give his time to people and it’s lovely knowing that the club will continue to look after him now he has officially retired.
All you can ask is that when you leave somewhere you’ve poured your heart into, you leave it in a better place than you found it.
Jutkiewicz may not have had too much to do with how new and shiny the training ground or stadium looks. He hasn’t provided the money and brought in the sponsorships. But Jutkiewicz has worked tirelessly over the years to give everything for the shirt and has been a shining example to fans and players when it comes to showing what it takes to be a Birmingham City player.
I’m sorry I wrote you off all those years ago and I’m delighted that you’ve proven me wrong time and again.
All the best in your retirement, Jukey. It’s going to be weird without you.
Lovely piece. Throughout the horrors of the last decade, Juke has been the bright light. A constant reminder to keep the faith. His work ethic, commitment and values define us as a club, but he was always a great player too. Defenders will have had restless nights thinking about him.
A beautiful piece, Ryan. Many thanks both to you and Jukey.