Chapter 4

The fortunes of his former club were miles away from the two which he had joined since then. The club had entered the season with optimism under the leadership of former player Lee Bowyer, who had managed to right the ship at the end of last season to keep them in the league. The current season though had not gone to plan at all, and they had limped to a twentieth-place finish. Bowyer was a figure he was familiar with having come across him a few times at the end of his time there and he could tell from all the interviews that he was passionate about the club, but the pairing hadn't worked well. Yusuf didn't believe the situation was squarely the fault of the manager and like many of the supporters thought primarily that the owners were to blame. The whole atmosphere around the club had become toxic and the fans wanted BSHL (Birmingham Sports Holding Ltd ) to leave. The day the fans dreams would come through was finally here and the owners were ready to sell which had bought a few suitors flocking. The most promising offer was a consortium led by a Paul Richardson, Maxi Lopez, Christian Codoma & Sammy Yu. The nature of the consortium was interesting as they seemed to bring different attributes to the table with Paul Richardson having been on the chair of many large corporations allowing him to bring his business understanding, most importantly he had been a director at Gymshark in the past which could be useful to Yusufs plans. Maxi Lopez was a former forward who played at Barcelona and won honours. A further businessman in Christan Codoma and former blues vice chairman Sammy Yu.

He had made his interest clear to the consortium and on account of his glowing recommendations and history they had offered him an interview. The interview had gone well with him presenting a coherent plan for how he would move the club forward and answer the fans hopes. The talks had turned to the brand of football he would like to play, and he clearly articulated the philosophy he had crystalised in his time in the game.

He explained to the group that fundamentally, the sport of football is an irrational game which has few actual restrictions. The lack of restrictions that are present in many different games allows for a wide breadth of different tactics which are what is referred to when the style of play is being talked about. Some managers set out their teams to frustrate and that is a common feature among the underdog team but that is to accept inferiority before the game has even begun. The players are intelligent and will read that they are not expected to win and internalise that reality, so in the event that they do concede it will be difficult to turn that game around. The better strategy is to instil a winning mentality in the team and show them instead how they will go about beating the opposition. The pinnacle of football I would like to play has a heavy positional focus without requirement for maintaining high possession. The team would be tactically fluid and able to adapt to different opposition we come across each week and even make changes within a game. By equipping the players with numerous solutions to problems that occur in a game they would be able to overcome any opponent. This requires footballers who are mentally very capable, the work rate to apply themselves to the training required and also able to understand the larger picture of the pitch rather than tunnel visioning the role they have. The aim would be to generate overloads in possession but not in such a way to allow the opposition to adapt but for the overload to occur a moment before the goal is scored. Training should have the fundamental goal of preparing individuals for matches and should mimic the myriad situations that occur during a match. Recruitment for the team will be aimed around young players who are technically adept and who can improve under our coaching. This will be financially a benefit to the team as well, since we will be able to sign talented players who are currently undervalued and potentially turn a transfer market profit if we need to sell on. The overall goal for the team is to return to the premier league and then break the monopoly of the top six, but those would be long term goals the current aim is promotion. The interview went well the only sticking point being when the consortium suggested bringing players who were currently free agents such as Diego Costa to help the team. In this Yusuf could not compromise team decisions would be his and his alone, to accommodate the views of the owners would only make team recruitment more difficult and he would need the power to make his own appointments.

The consortium really liked his interview, his technical knowledge was clear but the main reason why they offered him the position was due to his clear and straightforward idea of how he wanted to play. A manager who can't explain what his plan is will fail every time but that wasn't the case here. The point about having complete control was taken much more negatively but cooler heads proceeded that the previous ownership had intervened in many ways and that had become unpopular with the fanbase. If they were to act in a similar way, they would quickly lose the good will they had gained from buying the club off them. In this way, Yusuf had become the manager of Birmingham City Football Club and immediately turned up to a depleted backroom staff. Bowyer was offered a different position but decided to seek head coaches' opportunities elsewhere. Mark Kennedy, his assistant coach had already left his position to accept the role as Lincoln City's new boss. The uncertainty around the club meant that a few of the backroom staff had decided to accompany him there as well. The kit manager Jon Pearce and physio Dave Singleton had also decided their futures were elsewhere. Craig Gardner was the only staff member to be removed from his position of which Yusuf was both grateful and regrettable. The relationship between the technical director and head coach was principally important to what he was trying to build here, and he felt that he would need someone who was willing to work in a completely new way rather than someone who was steeped in the system already there. This meant that the first order of business was to repopulate the inner circle before trying to find the right players and this was a job he was looking forward to.