Birmingham City has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past year. More than 20,000 season tickets have already been sold for the upcoming Championship campaign, and a further 14,000 supporters are waiting their turn on the waiting list.
Fan zones now ring St Andrew's, and the atmosphere around the stadium is electric. Club officials have unveiled ambitious plans to re‑link England’s second city with the football team that bears its name, hoping to unlock the full potential of the brand. Supporter groups are popping up across the globe, a phenomenon that can be traced back to the excitement generated by Tom Brady’s brief involvement with the club. Everywhere you look, the conversation is centred on preparing the Blues for a possible return to the Premier League.
In this climate of high expectations, an ownership group that is eager to succeed and a fan base that has grown weary of mediocrity, it is no surprise that Birmingham are moving quickly. The buzz creates pressure not only from within the club but also from the wider football community, which now views the Blues as a side on the rise. Yet, as any seasoned manager will tell you, progress takes time.
Looking back, last season may have been more of a breather for the club than a sign of lost momentum. To put the recent performance in perspective, you have to travel back to the 2011‑12 season, when Birmingham were competing in European competition and finished higher than the 10th‑place finish recorded in 2025‑26.
That historical reference highlights how far the club has fallen and how much work remains. "It was our first season back, which people found hard to remember at times," Birmingham manager Chris Davies told Sky Sports ahead of the opening league match against Sheffield United.
He was not referring to the supporters – "they have been great" – but to everyone involved in the club’s daily grind. Davies carries a heavy load of hope and ambition on his shoulders. "One thing I learned is that I can handle the ups and downs," he continued. "I can handle the pressure." The downside was limited because Birmingham had just clinched the League One title with a record‑breaking 111 points, their possession‑based style dominating opponents throughout the season.
The step up to the Championship proved far more demanding. "You can read about the Championship, but living it is a completely different experience," Davies admitted. The second tier of English football posed new questions, and the manager’s original game plan – what he calls Plan A – only worked intermittently. In League One, Birmingham played a brand of total football, keeping the ball 80 percent of the time and circulating it with relentless precision.
That approach worked brilliantly because it allowed the team to control games from start to finish. However, the Championship demanded a different blend of technical ability and physical robustness.
"In the Championship we were very technical in our recruitment of some smaller, more technical players, and we tried to use that style. It had really good days and it had days where we just didn't have enough punch, especially away from home," Davies explained.
The early signs that the squad is adapting came in the Carabao Cup, where Birmingham earned a hard‑fought victory over Swansea. The Blues scored the only goal of the match while holding just 39 percent of possession, demonstrating that they can add a more direct edge to their game when needed.
The goal‑scorer, 22‑year‑old Danish striker August Priske, was a January signing who has already begun to reap the benefits of a half‑season in the Championship. Priske also found the net against Barcelona in a packed St Andrew's a month earlier, underscoring his growing importance. "Jhon Solis, Carlos Vicente and August arrived at the same time, and that six‑month period was their initiation to English football and the Championship.
They are now ready to go. They have all done very well," Davies said. Vicente, a combative Spanish winger, supplied the assist for Priske’s Swansea goal, while Solis – a Colombian midfielder who also scored against Barcelona – adds physical presence in the middle of the park.
Their rapid integration shows how quickly new signings can adapt when the coaching staff provides clear guidance. When Davies reflected on the previous campaign, he concluded that physicality would be a decisive factor for the next step. "The game now is a lot of man‑to‑man pressing and set‑piece emphasis. You need the physical capacity to deal with it," he noted.
That philosophy has already shaped the summer transfer window. In addition to the winter arrivals, the club have signed centre‑back Dael Fry, a 6‑ft‑4‑in defender with close to 300 Championship appearances.
The expectation is that his experience will help the Blues become more resilient at the back while still allowing them to play their possession game. Davies is not looking to abandon the style he has built, but rather to augment it. "When a team can keep the ball, it is a lot easier to shift to a more pragmatic or direct style than a team that only knows how to play pragmatic football," he explained.
The shift towards a more direct approach actually began toward the end of last season. Birmingham were sitting in 17th place in mid‑April, but Davies used the brief international break to tweak the team’s shape, focusing on quicker transitions and set‑piece opportunities.
The changes paid off, as the Blues finished the season with a five‑game unbeaten run, securing a respectable top‑10 finish and a boost in confidence heading into the off‑season. "It is a fine balance because we don’t want to lose what we’re good at. What I won’t come away from is the pressing. I don’t think any team last season in the Championship really played through our press consistently.
I thought it was really effective for us," Davies said. Going forward, the manager expects to fine‑tune the team’s ability to win the ball back and transition quickly. "When we get the ball, we want to go forward a little bit quicker, win more set‑pieces, and use that as a weapon," he added.
To that end, Birmingham have hired a specialist set‑piece coach, Scott Fry. Davies believes that dead‑ball situations could be the key to turning the Blues into genuine promotion contenders. The impact is already evident: Solis scored from a set‑piece against Barcelona, and Priske’s winner at Swansea came after a corner that Vicente delivered. "We have a set‑piece coach and the idea is to score more from them.
We needed to hit around 70 goals to be among the top teams last season. Birmingham scored 57," Davies explained. The target now is to add roughly 13 more goals, and he believes a combination of set‑pieces, counter‑attacks, and a modest increase in open‑play scoring will get them there. "If six or seven of those can come from set‑pieces and two or three from counter‑attacks, then you only need another two or three from general play.
So it is absolutely doable," he said. The optimism in the camp is palpable.
Players who were newcomers to the Championship now have over 40 games of experience, having learned what it feels like to play at venues like Millwall. At the training ground, Davies has stripped away the buzzwords that once adorned the walls, opting for a leaner, more pragmatic mindset that mirrors the squad’s evolution. While director of football Craig Gardner has departed, the club leans on the seasoned Mike Rigg to maintain continuity. Commercially, Birmingham continues to grow, boasting the highest revenue of any Championship side without relying on parachute payments.
Having weathered a turbulent period and now stabilising, the next chapter for Birmingham City is poised to begin. Davies sums up the mood succinctly: "I am confident that we can keep progressing. That is the big thing. We just need to keep moving forward and getting stronger."