Welcome to Birmingham City, Chris Davies
Birmingham City appointed Chris Davies as their new manager on Thursday. A look at what may lie ahead.
On Thursday 6th June, Birmingham City confirmed that Chris Davies would be the latest man to step into the dugout and attempt to bring short and long-term success to the football club having signed a four-year deal.
Football moves so quickly that the appointment felt a long time coming. As fans, relegation hurt and we all wanted to put that behind us, get behind the man in the dugout and look forward to the new season.
The reality is that Blues found themselves in a difficult, perhaps awkward, predicament and moved quickly in the circumstances.
Relegation was confirmed on Saturday 4th May. On Tuesday 21st May, 17 days later, Tony Mowbray's departure was announced owing to his health with club and manager rightly taking every precaution. It then took 16 days to appoint Davies after a rigorous, data led interview process involving key parties at the club.
Have the club chosen the right man? Who is he? What can we look forward to? What do the club need to do now? There are a lot of questions and very few answers at the time of writing.
However, I'm awake at 20 past 4 in a hotel room after a holiday disaster and figured now is as good of a time as any to dive in to the detail and write.
The Right Man?
One of the surprising aspects about the interview process was the lack of information seeping out of the club.
Chris Davies wasn't even on the radar of 99% of fans. The club claim to have spoken to 40 prospective managers or their representatives for the job but only a handful of names were discussed publicly. It speaks volumes about how leaks were largely closed off - hopefully something that continues in the long run.
As fans, we can only speculate on who the best person for the job would be and I don't know about others, but I found myself really struggling to choose the perfect candidate. Everybody came with a but.
Alex Neil and Paul Heckingbottom are multi-promotion winning managers but question marks remain over some of the jobs they've done. Frank Lampard is personable with great contacts but questions remain around whether he's a genuinely good manager. Liam Rosenior has a fantastic reputation but would fans enjoy such slow build up? Others felt unattainable. The first-time managers matched a potential high ceiling with concerns over how quickly they could hit the ground running while overseeing so many facets beyond just coaching.
The pragmatist and realist in me was leaning towards being more comfortable with what felt a sensible appointment but believing that all we could do was trust the board's decision and get behind the new man.
The process has been taken far more seriously than the ones that saw Wayne Rooney, Tony Mowbray and Gary Rowett appointed, and we have to hope they've made the right call.
Who Are Ya?
So why Chris Davies? Who is he?
Fortunately, we have the Coaches Voice as a big help here:
He's 39. His football career was cut short due to an arthritic condition in his foot. He has since gone on to coach Wales and Leicester's youth, in the USA and New Zealand, as an Opposition Analyst and reserve coach at Swansea, Opposition Analyst at Liverpool, he was a first-team coach at Reading then Assistant Manager at Celtic, Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur, all while completing a Sports Science degree and his UEFA Pro License, which he has held since he was around 30. Much of his work has been done alongside Brendan Rodgers but he worked with Ange Postecoglu last season and previously with Bobby Gould and Brian McDermott. He has coached in three continents, the Champions League, won two trebles.
He talks up the work done with Swansea City and their influence on British football, which perhaps seems a little over the top but those of a certain age will recall how unique Brendan Rodgers' side were when they won promoted to the Premier League.
At Liverpool, he speaks of the team's tactical flexibility with their preference being to dominate but having a strong set-piece record and quality on the break.
At Celtic, he developed his media skills, taking on press duties pre and post-match. At Celtic and Leicester, he talks about leading day-to-day training, managing other coaches and working with the sports science department while continuing with individual development both on and off the pitch.
It's some CV and this opportunity has been more than earned. And it feels as though Rodgers and Postecoglu have groomed him to become the leading man he has wanted to become.
When he talks about what he wants to see from his teams, you can see why the club were attracted.
"Controlling the game with the ball will always be central to my philosophy but, just like the Liverpool and Leicester teams I worked with, I want a degree of tactical flexibility to adapt to different opponents and different situations. I’m a pragmatic person, and I feel that transfers into my coaching. It’s about being an effective team."
He goes on to say he wants to create an environment at a club where there is ambition to improve and be successful. He wants detail and structure but also for players to have creative freedom and enjoy themselves. He wants to win.
And it all sounds great. Exactly what you want to hear and why wouldn't he big himself up given the career he has had to date.
Making the above reality is the big challenge now.
The Challenge Ahead
Tom Wagner and Garry Cook will leave no stone unturned in their bid to provide the football department with everything they need to secure promotion this season.
St.Andrews is once again being spruced up. No doubt changes will be made to the training ground where possible. And the budget for recruitment and facilities will be beyond what any other League One club can offer.
But it doesn't mean that promotion is a given. There is a lot of work to do.
Chris Davies is about to step out on his own as the main man for the first time and while he will be given everything he needs to get on with the job, managing those resources in the best way will be a huge challenge.
More than anything, Blues lacked leadership and accountability last season.
Davies clearly has ideas of how he sees football and the kind of culture he wants to implement and he needs to get that right from one day one.
He will have to work around what has already been planned for pre-season and utilise that as best he can. He will have to with with existing staff and get them on board quickly to approach things the way he needs them approaches. Recruitment is massive and represents a huge challenge for he, Craig Gardner and Joe Carnall - more on that below. He will need to quickly establish the dressing room leaders he sees fit to implement what he wants to see while showing the pragmatism he speaks of to alter his style to their benefit.
There's no doubt that the scale of the task has been acknowledged on paper and in conversations but the reality is likely to be different. Davies' experience leading analysis, coaching and media duties in various roles will need to come fruition as he becomes the man everybody looks to for guidance.
The Football
Part of the fun with a new manager coming in is working out what we are likely to see next.
It's a bit more difficult when you've only got an interview with fairly vague concepts to go off.
The squad situation hasn't changed since the retained list.
With John Ruddy plausibly not re-signing, the most senior goalkeeper on our books is Brad Mayo. Ethan Laird, Krystian Bielik, Dion Sanderson and Lee Buchanan make up the defence with Josh Williams and Emmanuel Longelo backing them up.
In midfield, we have Jordan James, Juninho Bacuna, Paik Seung-Ho and Alfie Chang with Brandon Khela hoping to have an impact. Ahead of them, we have a plethora of options in Koji Miyoshi, Romelle Donovan, Alex Pritchard, George Hall, Tyler Roberts, Siriki Dembele and Keshi Anderson. Up top, our senior option is Lukas Jutkiewicz, if he re-signs, and Junior Dixon.
We can probably expect James and Bacuna to depart. Expectations are that Paik and Miyoshi leave. The situations with Williams, Longelo, Khela and Pritchard are unclear.
In short, there's a lot of work to do.
Davies has spoken of his preferred style but what shape does that take form in?
My guess is a 4-2-3-1, or a slight variation, for a number of reasons.
Firstly, Gardner has almost exclusively recruited towards this shape (I recall him talking up Chong, Richards, Hernandez and Deeney being a quality front four recruited for Bowyer). Not always perfectly, of course, with Bowyer and Eustace opting for different shapes based on what they had available, but it seems the intent has been there. The current squad contains a number of wingers and attacking midfielders.
Mowbray may have had some influence, and his preferred style has generally been a variation of a style that incorporates two deeper lying midfielders and a front four. We saw that during his and Venus' time in charge.
Davies has spent a lot of time under Rodgers and most recently coached under Postecoglu, both of whom have generally favoured 4-2-3-1, putting this into practice in different forms.
And finally, it's commonly seen as an easier style to coach, allowing the coach to implement structure and width while being able to introduce new concepts and fluidity. Davies talks about being a pragmatist, so this may suit.
However, this is purely guesswork and it all depends on what we can recruit.
With no manager until 6th June, our Head of Recruitment Frank McParland reportedly gone and the club expecting to remain a Championship club, we are likely to be a little behind in our recruitment for League One and it's fortunate that we have the finances to still be able to attract real quality.
Noises have been limited so far. Scott Twine, George Byers and Marc Leonard certainly fit the bill as quality options to improve us but we will no doubt be competing with Championship clubs for signatures of certain players and "the project" will need to do a lot of selling. That said, I’m excited to see some tasty loan signings as the window goes on.
Personally, I see the additions in goal, in CM (or CB depending on where Davies sees Bielik's best position) and up top as key additions early doors. Get the spine right, use them to build the culture and improve upon it as the window continues. Ideally, if players are going to leave, we get those deals sorted sooner rather than later. Clarity and consistency from the first whistle to give us the best chance possible.
As the big fish in League One, our name is going to be associated to a lot of players and we just have to trust that Davies knows what he wants and gets backed to get just that.
It’s hard not to feel like the club have made a smart appointment when you read up on Davies, the honesty with which he speaks about himself and the life he has led up to this point.
I like that he acknowledges the patience of fans when discussing Swansea, the pragmatic element of his personality and knowing you need more than one way to win a football match. He has worked under Celtic-level pressure too. He seems to have an understanding of the situations he finds himself in and adapts accordingly.
But the hard work has only just begun and we need everybody to get on the same page and quick. Allowing Davies to bring in his own staff over the next week or two will be key to give him additional authority and create harmony amongst staff and players. They will be just as important as Davies in creating the culture he wants.
Let the fun commence.
Good stuff Ryan; will we now see a more balanced and pragmatic approach from some of our fellow supporters too? Some seem to think we’ll have it wrapped up by Christmas!
Excellent as ever, Ryan. Sorry about the holiday.