Andy Munro catches up with recent events at St Andrews.

It’s always been hard to be a Blues fan and now even more so with all the speculation over manager replacement, finances and transfer talk with, of course, the Birmingham Mail ever ready to write an obituary and depress us even more.

First of all the managerial talk. Did I want an Alan Curbishley who for several years has been out of work and had been completely disdainful of matters Championship? Would I want Roy Keane, a man whose glittering playing career is a red herring in terms of his track record as a manager without an ounce of man-management skills? Would I want Phil ‘the Clown’ Brown whose al fresco half-time team talks are a legend? Perhaps Lee Clarke is better than any of  the aforementioned evils although it is rumoured that tactically he makes  McLeish look positively gung ho. Personally I would have used  a bit of the Jordan Mutch cash to land Ian Holloway and although he may just be a better class Barry Fry, married to Blues as I have been for many years, I want a bit of fun back in my life. The Carling Cup and European distractions have made me want more.

Meanwhile, on the finance front the wait for the books has not been eased by their submission which apparently made the auditors ‘uncomfortable’ and remember the even bigger tragedy and eye opener is likely to be the books of Birmingham International Holdings. Apparently we lost £11 million in our Premier League season even though our biggest signing was a comparatively modest ,by Premier standards,£5 million for Zigic. Yet we also apparently owe our ‘benefactor’ Yeung circa £10 million. Financial mismanagement on a Greek scale, I would suggest.

There is, of course, talk of a financial consortium waiting in the wings. Is it Jasper Carrott, TF and a consortium of second city millionaires (If cities the size of Stoke can find local benefactors why can’t the Second City?) or is it a better class Venkys in the shape of Tata? In my view it’s probably neither and whoever it is are waiting for just before Blues slip into administration to buy at a snip.

Finally, with Jordan Mutch already gone, there is the worry of losing our footballing future in Jack Butland and Nathan Redmond as the Chinese try to milk the last drop of financial blood from our ailing club. Let’s hope the sale of a quite frankly, over-rated Mutch will solve cash flow problems and the last sale will be Ben Foster to Albion for a minimum of £5 million.

The next chapter of our own footballing tragedy is awaited…