By Andrew Sloan

On Thursday 6th June, Birmingham City announced the appointment of Chris Davies as Men’s First Team Manager. After heavy media speculation including a host of familiar names, including Alex Neil, Liam Rosenior, Paul Heckingbottom and Frank Lampard, Blues made the rather unexpected move to appoint a young assistant manager into the vacant manager’s spot. Although rumours began circulating on Wednesday, most of us didn’t know much about Davies before Thursday. However, once Blues’s fans have taken a look at his background and history, there has been an overwhelming sense of excitement and optimism amongst the fan base. It would have been very easy for Knighthead to simply appoint an already out-of-work manager with a decent record. But Knighthead do things their way, and were happy to pay Tottenham Hotspur a 2-year compensation package in order to secure their man on a 4-year contract, and release Davies from his position as Senior Assistant Coach to Ange Postecoglu. 

Although only 39 years old, Davies takes his first managerial position with Blues, bringing a wealth of experience throughout the top divisions of British football and beyond. Forced to retire from football at 19 years of age, he embarked on a career in coaching, completing a Sports Science degree at Loughborough University with First Class honours. He has been involved in various success stories including the rise of Brendan Rogers’ Swansea City from the Championship to the Premier League via the Play-offs in 2011, followed by a title charge with Liverpool in 2014. After a short stint at Reading, Davies reunited with Rogers at Celtic, where he won back-to-back trebles. Davies then moved south of the border with Rogers to Leicester City and finished 5th in the Premier League twice in succession, as well as winning the FA Cup. In his last post at Tottenham, Davies helped ensure Spurs were one of the most exciting, attacking forces in English football.

Some may see this appointment as a risk and understandably so. Perhaps though, in following a similar model to Ipswich Town with Kieran McKenna, Blues may have unearthed a young coach who is ready to step into management shoes, whose attacking and tactical ideologies are perfectly aligned with Blues’ owners. It could be the perfect fit for Birmingham City at this time. Davies effectively has a clean slate to build and mould a team into his own vision. This is a brave move by Birmingham City, but one that may well pay off in the long run if he is given the correct amount of time and resources to take Blues forward into the next four to five years. We welcome Chris Davies to the madhouse that is Birmingham City Football Club, and we look to seeing the team develop under his tenure. 

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