When it comes to writing about the Blues; I like to have the Summer off. If I’m honest I like to almost forget about football altogether in favour of family time, BBQs in the rain and a spot of ruddy good cricket.
In the words of the great Al Pacino in The Godfather Part III: just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!
There’s lots to talk about in terms of transfers and kit launches etc but let’s be honest, we all know the event that’s brought me back here…
Where to begin? Well it all started with a Gary. No, not that one, the Rowett one. The one we now call “snake”.
The football wasn’t pretty. The players weren’t pretty. The financial situation wasn’t pretty. But the system worked. Rowett managed to elevate a very average side to the levels of playoff contention – only to find himself relieved of his duties following a 2-1 win over Ipswich that saw us take the seventh spot in the table.
The standard rhetoric seems to be that Rowett’s head was being turned by potential suitors and fans have convinced themselves that his departure was right for the club.
Obviously hindsight is 20/20 but on this day: 19.06.19, the day after Monk was removed from his post, do we really feel we should be trusting any claims our board makes? Conversely, if Rowett was lining himself up for another job, can anyone really blame him?!
I hate to drag up old memories and since we all know what happened next I’ll keep it brief…
Zola.
Cotterill.
Clusterfuck.
In a period that saw fans confronting both managers and players in car parks and hurling season tickets and abuse onto the pitch, the vibe around the club was at a low. Disbelief and disappointment were swiftly turning into anger and resentment.
Then, like a beacon of light across the dark, misty ocean of despair; a Monk appeared with his two curates.
After a sustained period of absolute disillusion between club and fans, the board seemed to be turning things around somewhat. The appointment of the magic threesome of Monk, Jimmy and the Real Pep brought a touch of excitement and expectation back to fans and forgiveness was on the cards.
Call it naive, call it misplaced optimism, call it delusion but this really felt like a step in the right direction. This felt like the board had finally chosen to listen to the fans and we were willing to put FFP to the back of our minds for a while whilst the best manager we’d had for years built a bare bones squad of fighters.
A starting 11 of blokes willing to give their all for the cause and play through injuries for their leader as well as a skeleton crew of enthusiastic youngsters on the bench.
Monk sifted out the rotten flour and kneaded the remaining ingredients into a playoff contending Birmingham City that we could be proud of.
Garry Monk did that.
And now the board have sacked him.
The selectively present Cheng and Ren swung the axe yesterday for reasons that I fear we’re almost better off NOT knowing.
Our club has been run poorly in the past but TTA are beyond clueless. I used to afford them the benefit of the doubt, but no longer.
Edward Cheng works less days than Santa Claus and Dong Ren is literally named after a phallus and the bad guy from Star Wars. His name is literally Dick StarWars.
But alas, what’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet…. Yeah, and a turd by any other name would smell as shitty too!
So whilst Eddie and the Dick run around St Andrews looking to hire anyone with a Spanish passport like a pair of cartoon villains on a bizarre quest to catch’em all, it’s us fans that suffer YET AGAIN.
I should be surprised, but I’m not. I should be enraged, but I think I’m even beyond that at this point. I’m just… lethargic.
I’m used to this and familiarity breeds contempt.
I shouldn’t be shocked, but I’m a Blues fan and every positive action has a negative reaction.
Win the cup – get relegated.
Sign Gardner – sell Jota.
Have a good season with Monk – sack him.
I’m just so DAMN tired of all of this. I feel like a scorned lover forced to watch their partner cheat on them week in, week out. This club cuckholds me over and over yet I come back for more – ball gag in mouth, whip in hand.
I would ask why we allow these things to go on at our club, but I already know the answer – how can we stop them?!
We could do a Blackpool and refuse to turn up or we could do a Villa and roll out the bedsheets. But we won’t because in the back of our minds there’s still a flickering optimism that what might be around the corner will be slightly positive.
The definition of madness is the repetition of an action whilst expecting different results. That is life as a Blues fan; we’re all mad. We must be.
That’s not to say that protests don’t work of course, but things do tend to get worse before they start to get better and I don’t know if I can put up with many more setbacks.
The best way to hurt the club is the withdrawal of funds. No shirts, no programmes, no nothing. However these things amount to pittance to millionaire businessmen.
In the past fans of other clubs have continued to buy programmes but opted to launch them onto the pitch at kick off as a sign of defiance. I’d welcome a passionate display of distain but with these owners I honestly don’t think it’d make much difference.
TTA, Dick StarWars, Eddie-C and all the other faceless scumbags that choose to hide in the shadows are killing our club and other than dodgy financial possibilities, I honestly can’t think what they stand to gain from doing so.
The great irony of these bunch wanting to remain anonymous is that they’ll now be hearing their own names sung loudly and menacingly at every home game for the foreseeable future. I hope they’re prepared for the tirade of vitriol that’s about to head their way because those of us that are still choosing to attend next season will definitely make our voices heard.
Taking emotion out of the equation, Garry Monk isn’t a tactically brilliant manager.
But what is football without emotion? By removing a manager so close to our hearts that we truly feel we had a personal connection with TTA; have left a void.
That emotional void will be refilled but unfortunately for you, Dick and Eddie that melting pot will be nothing more than a swirling vortex of hatred, resentment and bile – aimed directly at YOU!
I’d love to end this with a hopeful notion of KRO spirit but honestly, I just can’t find it within me right now. I’ll save that for the next article because for now doom and gloom serves me well, as does the pure disgust I feel for the Birmingham City boardroom.