The 2017–18 season is Birmingham City Football Clubs 115th season in the English football league system and seventh consecutive season in the second-tier Championship. For the second season running, they finished in 19th place after going into the final day still in danger of relegation. As with all English Football League clubs, the first team also competed in the FA Cup, in which they lost in a fourth-round replay to Huddersfield Town, and in the EFL Cup, from which they were eliminated by AFC Bournemouth in the second round.
After a poor start to the season, with only one win from the first eight matches, and only two weeks after the close of the transfer window, during which he was allowed to bring in 13 new players, Harry Redknapp was sacked as manager. He was succeeded by Steve Cotterill, who was dismissed after five months, having failed to take the team clear of potential relegation. Garry Monk was appointed on 4 March to become Birmingham's fifth permanent manager in 15 months.
Thirty-five players made at least one appearance in first-team competition, of whom five were loan signings; there were thirteen different goalscorers. Winger Jacques Maghoma appeared in 44 of the club's 51 fixtures over the season Che Adams was top scorer overall, with 9 goals in all competitions, and in league matches, Sam Gallagher top scored with just 6. The average league attendance, of 21,041, was some 12% up on 2016–17.
The season covers the period from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018.
Background and pre-season Having led the team to tenth-place finishes in the previous two seasons, with the team lying just outside the play-off positions, and two days after three new directors had joined the board, manager Gary Rowett and his backroom staff were sacked on 14 December 2016. Later that day, former West Ham United and Watford manager Gianfranco Zola was announced as Rowett's successor. After four months, during which the team won just twice and dropped to 20th place, three points outside the relegation zone with three matches remaining, Zola resigned, to be replaced by Harry Redknapp, initially to the end of the season. Needing to win their final match if Blackburn Rovers and Nottingham Forest both won their final fixturewhich they didBirmingham won 1–0 away to Bristol City to avoid relegation and finish in 19th place.
The club appointed Jeff Vetere as director of football, and Redknapp agreed to stay on as manager for another year. His backroom staff included Kevin Bond as assistant manager, Paul Groves as first-team coach, Kevin Hitchcock as goalkeeping coach, and former Birmingham player Lee Carsley as head professional development coach. Summer signings for 2017–18 included goalkeeper David Stockdale, whose part in Brighton & Hove Albion's promotion to the Premier League earned him selection for the PFA Championship Team of the Year, Barnsley's captain and centre back Marc Roberts, and midfielder Craig Gardner, whose loan from West Bromwich Albion was made permanent. Five attacking midfielders left: Kerim Frei returned to Turkey with Süper Lig runners-up İstanbul Başakşehir, Greg Stewart, Andrew Shinnie and Diego Fabbrini left on season-long loans, and Viv Solomon-Otabor left on loan until January.
The home kit consists of a blue shirt with white trim at the neck and white stripes down the side seams, white shorts with blue trim and blue stripes down the side seams, and blue socks with white trim at the turnover. The away kit reverses the colours of the home kit. The kits are supplied by Adidas and bear the logo of the club's principal sponsor, online bookmaker 888sport.
After a training camp in Stegersbach, Austria, during which they played friendly matches against German second-tier club 1. FC Union Berlin and Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona of the Israeli Premier League, Birmingham City's first-team pre-season programme continued with visits to Oxford United and Kidderminster Harriers and a home fixture against Swansea City.
+ Pre-season match detailsDateOpponentsVenueResultScoreF–AScorersAttendance11 July 20171. FC Union BerlinNL0–145015 July 2017Hapoel Ironi Kiryat ShmonaNW2–0Maghoma 18', Frei 60'22 July 2017Oxford UnitedAW2–0Davis 9', Adams 29'3,50726 July 2017Kidderminster HarriersAD1–1Donaldson 32'2,38729 July 2017Swansea CityHL0–26,188
Month-by-month season review
August Birmingham City opened their 2017–18 EFL Championship season away to Ipswich Town, without injured striker Lukas Jutkiewicz, unsettled centre-back Ryan Shotton, and club captain Paul Robinson, who was serving the final instalment of a three-match ban. The team lined up in a 4–4–2 formation with David Stockdale in goal, Emilio Nsue and Jonathan Grounds at full back, Michael Morrison (captain) and Marc Roberts at centre back, Cheikh Ndoye alongside Craig Gardner in central midfield, David Davis and Jacques Maghoma as wide midfielders, and Che Adams and Clayton Donaldson in the forward line. Birmingham had the better of the first half, but early in the second, Ipswich were "perhaps fortunate" that Jordan Spence was not sent off for a professional foul on Donaldson and promptly broke forward for Joe Garner to score the only goal of the match. Without centre-back Aden Flint, a transfer target for Birmingham, Bristol City took the lead in the second minute of their visit to St Andrew's; Gardner equalised after half an hour. Davis, who was suffering from a virus, and the injured Grounds were replaced at half-time by Maikel Kieftenbeld and Robinson; 15 minutes later, Adams' hamstring injury gave winger David Cotterill a first league appearance for Birmingham since January. Maghoma "displayed a brilliant piece of individual finishing", and despite Kieftenbeld's sending off for a mistimed tacklewhich was rescinded on appealthe ten men held on for the win.
A goalless draw with Bolton Wanderers at St Andrew's was marked by the inclusion of Ryan Shotton, despite a reportedly imminent transfer to Middlesbrough, first in the matchday squad and then on the field after Morrison suffered a facial injury, and a "quiet" debut for former Luton Town striker Isaac Vassell. Redknapp said afterwards that he couldn't claim to have enjoyed the match, that "it was almost the same team which struggled to stay up last season and that is a big worry", and if the club failed to sign some quality players it would be "another tough season". Wearing a mask to protect his broken nose and damaged cheekbone, Morrison started the televised visit to Burton Albion and Shotton, whose wife had recently given birth, was left out entirely. Donaldson's cross was knocked down by Jutkiewicz for Maghoma to tap in against his former club, but after the break, Birmingham conceded two well-worked goals to lose to Burton for the third time in three attempts. Redknapp was vitriolic afterwards, accusing the players of having "ruined Zola last year", of failing to "win any battles", criticising "four or five of them" for disappearing, and stating that what he needs "is to change a lot of them because that's not good enough." Before the next fixture, three loanees arrived from Premier League clubs: inexperienced full-back Cohen Bramall and England international defender Carl Jenkinson, both from Arsenal, and Southampton striker Sam Gallagher. All three started at home to Reading. Jenkinson dislocated his shoulder after half an hour, and a 2–0 defeat left Birmingham 20th in the table going into the international break.
Six more players joined before the transfer window closed: centre-back Harlee Dean, full-back Maxime Colin andfor a club record feeSpanish winger Jota, all from Brentford, free-agent midfielder Jason Lowe, late of Blackburn Rovers, and two young loanee midfielders, Everton's Liam Walsh and Jérémie Boga, who made his Premier League debut for Chelsea early in the season. An attempt to sign former Arsenal midfielder Alex Song from Rubin Kazan fell through. Robert Tesche and Cheick Keita left the club on season-long loans. In permanent departures, Shotton completed his move to Middlesbrough, Donaldson joined Sheffield United, and, after bids for midfield partner Davis were rejected, Kieftenbeld was reported to have signed for Derby County. However, the league refused to ratify the transfer because of problems with the documentation. After the window closed, the club issued a statement talking up the financial contribution made by the owners to support the manager: "Blues have undergone a major transformation, with the owners showing the ambition and providing resources to help create an exciting, new-look side under Redknapp".
September September began with three more hamstring injuries, to Adams, Jota and Lowe, and three successive defeatsaway to Norwich City with six debutants in the starting eleven, away to Leeds United, a result that took the hosts top of the table, and at home to Preston North End, which left Birmingham 23rd in the table. Just hours after the match, the board issued a statement: Unfortunately due to the poor start to the campaign which sees the club second from bottom of the Championship, we are left with no choice but to terminate the contract of the manager with immediate effect. Redknapp said that, despite the frustrations of the amount of injuries and by the failure to sign some of his primary transfer targets, he was enjoying his work, believed he would have brought success to the club, and was disappointed that he was given no more than a week with the new players to prove it.
Under the caretaker management of development coach and former Birmingham midfielder Lee Carsley, and despite a wrist injury to Stockdale that was expected to keep him out for some weeks, the losing streak ended after a 1–1 draw with Gary Rowett's Derby County; they took a second-half lead via Jutkiewicz's first touch, but could not hold on to the lead. At home to Sheffield Wednesday, Vassell's first goal for Birmingham gave them their second win of the season. On 29 September, Steve Cotterill, who worked with Redknapp in the final three games of the 2016–17 season, signed a two-and-a-half-year contract as Birmingham's fourth permanent manager in ten months. He watched Carsley oversee Hull City end a five-match winless run by beating Birmingham 6–1Gallagher's stoppage-time goal was his first for the clubbefore formally taking charge on 2 October.
October