So Birmingham City duly secured promotion back to the Championship after just one season in League One, and it’s fair to say that they did this in some style. Their 111 points total was a record for England’s third tier, comfortably overtaking the previous best of 103 points set by Wolves in 2013/14, while the Blues finished 19 points ahead of runners-up Wrexham.

Clearly, Birmingham enjoyed a significant financial advantage over all their rivals, but other teams in a similar position in the past have struggled to get over the line, so promotion was far from a fait accompli.

As manager Chris Davies said, “When you’re the team everyone wants to beat, it’s not easy. Teams do tend to raise their games against us. We have got a target on our back.”

Transfers 2024/25

That said, the huge outlay in the transfer market last summer was quite striking, as they really did splash the cash following relegation, as they tried to boost their chances of an immediate return to the Championship.

The accounts noted that Birmingham had £21m net spend in 2024/25, which was a pretty clear statement of intent from the owners.

To further illustrate their lofty ambitions for the club, their £25m gross spend was more than all the other clubs in League One put together (according to Transfermarkt).

This was another huge new high for League One, more than three times as much as Ipswich Town’s £8.0m in 2022/23 and Sunderland’s £5.3m in 2021/22.

Similarly, the purchase of striker Jay Stansfield from Premier League Fulham for a trasnfer fee of at least £10m was also a new record for a transfer in League One, significantly more than the £4m paid by Sunderland for Will Grigg.

Birmingham made a few more big money signings, including Christop Klarer from Darmstadt, Willum Thor Willumsson from Go Ahead Eagles and Emil Hansson from Heracles Almelo.

Other arrivals included Tomoki Iwata from Celtic, Lyndon Dykes from QPR, Alex Cochrane from Hearts, Ayumu Yokoyama from Sagan Tosu and Alfie May from Charlton Athletic.

As captain Krystian Bielik observed, “We’re League One, but I don’t think there are any players in this team who are League One players”, which was a touch arrogant, but probably fair comment.

Ownership

The catalyst for the club’s improved outlook is the change in ownership in July 2023, when Tom Wagner’s Knighthead Capital Management took over from the deeply unpopular Birmingham Sports Holdings Ltd (BSHL).

This was greeted with delight (and some relief) by Blues fans, who had suffered many trials and tribulations ever since Carson Yeung took full control of the club in 2009. After being arrested on charges of money laundering, the Hong Kong businessman resigned, but the club remained in the hands of Chinese owners.

The transaction was made with Knighthead’s UK affiliate, the wonderfully named Shelby Companies Ltd (SCL), with its reference to the family in the excellent Peaky Blinders, which is of course set in Birmingham.

The club’s majority owners, including Birmingham Sports Holdings Ltd (BSHL) and Oriental Rainbow Investments Ltd (ORIL), approved the sale of 45.98% of Birmingham City Ltd and 100% of the St Andrew’s stadium.

Although this agreement did not give SCL a majority shareholding, with BSHL retaining 51.72%, the announcement said, “SCL has assumed responsibility for all operations of the club and will provide the necessary funding to rebuild and set a new trajectory for the club.”

Wagner emphasised the changing of the guard, “The way that the transaction has been structured, we will assume full operational control over the team from today forward. So, we'll be setting the strategic vision for the club, and, ultimately, we'll be the ones who are responsible for achieving the goals that we set. I think it's fair to say that the buck stops with us from here forward.”

The new owners also brought on board Tom Brady, the legendary NFL quarterback, though his investment is not too large, given that minority investors only hold a negligible 2.3% of the club in total.

That said, Chris Davies is happy with the involvement of the seven-time Super Bowl winner, “It’s like having a world class consultant, one of the greats, that I can speak to at any time.”

League Position

Birmingham had been in the Championship for 13 years, after relegation from the Premier League in 2010/11. Indeed, they spent much of this period languishing at the wrong end of the table, finishing between 17th and 19th seven seasons in a row, before finally being relegated in 2023/24.

2023/24 season

The club described the 2023/24 season as “a transitional year for the football club”, which was a fairly kind way of describing Birmingham’s relegation to the third tier for the first time in nearly three decades.

The club went through four permanent managers, having first taken the decision to dismiss John Eustace, even though he had guided the Blues into the play-off positions (and saved the club from relegation in 2022/23).

He was replaced by a “glamour signing” in the shape of Wayne Rooney, but the former England international lasted less than three months. Tony Mowbray brought some stability, but unfortunately had to take a leave of absence due to ill health, before turning to former manager, Gary Rowett.

Arguably, this shock to the system was the best thing that could have happened, amply demonstrating the need for deep change at St. Andrews. Indeed, Davies commented, “I got the sense pretty early that relegation could be the reset the club needed.”

There have been some dramatic changes on and off the pitch in the last 12 months, but let’s take a look at the most recent accounts from the 2023/24 Championship season, which was the first under the control of Wagner.

Profit/(Loss) 2023/24

Birmingham’s pre-tax loss reduced from £25.3m to £16.1m, which the club said represented a “significant decrease” of 36%.

Revenue rose £9.9m (50%) from £19.7m to £29.6m, while profit from player sales shot up from £2.1m to £15.4m, but this was partially offset by a £12.7m (27%) rise in operating expenses from £47.0m to £59.7m with net interest payable more than doubling from £1.0m to £2.3m.

The main driver of the revenue increase was commercial, which virtually doubled from £7.0m to £13.8m, though there was also decent growth in match receipts, up £2.4m (64%) from £3.7m to £6.1m. Broadcasting also rose £0.6m (6%) from £9.1m to £9.7m.

However, there was steep growth in staff costs, as wages rose £6.9m (24%) from £28.9m to £35.8m, while player amortisation increased £0.9m (26%) from £3.5m to £4.4m. Other expenses also climbed £3.5m (26%) from £13.4m to £16.9m, while depreciation doubled from £1.3m to £2.6m.

Very few clubs make money in the incredibly competitive Championship, so Birmingham’s £16.1m loss was pretty much par for the course for this division.