Andy Munro reports on the imminent departure of Aitor Karanka at St Andrews.
Or, what a relief. I thought the wind was blowing up a gale but it was merely a sigh of relief emanating from Bluenoses across Birmingham at the news that Aitor Karanka was being sacked on Monday. Why it has to wait until then I don’t know 
Certainly, the fat lady has become hoarse practising her singing for such a long-awaited and extremely overdue event. Of course, all this may well be too late but hope springs eternal, even though Karanka has held on grimly in his bid to collect his jackpot, irrespective of the club’s freefall and our financial circumstances. It seems unfair because in any other job, he would have been sacked a long time ago for non-performance.
Anyway, I have already said that I would like a no-nonsense manager such as Paul Cook, although the concern is that the Chinese hierarchy will be scouring a list of ‘big’ names. It needs to be an initial one year contract at a modest salary but with a massive bonus if we stay up. Hopefully the manager will adopt a high tempo pressing game (as per Barnsley’s current success) and give us a bit of hope but most of all some long overdue excitement by playing on the front foot. I still think there’s enough quality in the Blues squad to survive but it’s going to be very tight.
Incidentally, I won’t be saying ‘Adios’ to Karanka as that means ‘Until the next time’ but rather ‘Nos vemos’ which means ‘See ya’!