The 2019–20 season was Birmingham City Football Club's 117th season in the English football league system and ninth consecutive season in the second-tier EFL Championship. The team finished 20th in the Championship, having avoided relegation on the final day of the season despite losing their own match, after other results went in their favour and Wigan Athletic suffered a 12-point deduction for entering administration. As with all English Football League clubs, the first team also competed in the FA Cup and EFL Cup. They reached the fifth round of the FA Cup, in which they lost 1–0 away to Premier League club Leicester City, and were eliminated in the first round of the EFL Cup, a match in which an inexperienced Birmingham team lost 3–0 away to Portsmouth of League One.
On 13 March 2020, as an initial response to the coronavirus pandemic, professional football in England was suspended until 3 April at the earliest. The Championship resumed behind closed doors on 20 June.
Pep Clotet confirmed on 8 June that he would leave the club at the end of the season, but after a series of poor results, he left by mutual consent on 8 July with four matches of the season remaining.
The season covered the period from 1 July 2019 to the end of the 2019–20 Championship season.
This season is best known for being the debut season of Jude Bellingham, who has gone on to become one of the best players in world football.
Background and pre-season After a 2018–19 season in which, according to the Birmingham Mail, manager Garry Monk turned the team into "a side vastly superior than the sum of its parts" to keep them in the top half of the table until a run of losses in March and a nine-point deduction for breaches of the EFL's Profitability and Sustainability Rules led to a 17th-place finish. He was sacked on 18 June. CEO Ren Xuandong claimed it was because of "his attempt to use a single agent in transfer deals and his refusal to adapt the team's style of play"; "sources close to Monk" disagreed, and "suggested that Ren's comments were designed to explain the surprise sacking ... that has been badly received by many Birmingham fans." A club statement called for "a fresh and modern footballing philosophy" and committed to improving the squad "sensibly and effectively" while making best use of emerging in-house players. Monk's assistant, Pep Clotet, was appointed caretaker head coach, the remainder of the backroom staff stayed in post, and Craig Gardner was given a role as player-coach.
In response to the financial issues, Birmingham had agreed a business plan with the EFL. When they refused to sell top scorer Ché Adams in January 2019, considering that no offer received was enough to force their hand given that the player could neither be replaced nor loaned back because of the transfer restriction, the Times had suggested that such a refusal might constitute a further breach of the P&S rules. In May 2019, the club was duly charged with failure to adhere to their business plan. In March 2020, 14 months after the alleged breach, it was cleared; the EFL appealed, successfully, but the club received only a reprimand. The decision hinged on whether it was required merely to use its best endeavours to cut spending by a specified amount by the end of the January 2019 transfer window, or to make the cuts regardless of the effect on business efficiency.
The home kit consisted of a royal blue shirt with navy sleeves, white stripes on the shoulders and yellow trim at the collar and cuffs, white shorts with blue stripes down the side seams, and navy socks with white trim at the turnover. The away kit was charcoal, with white stripes on the shoulders, the side seams of the shorts, and the sock turnovers. The team also used the 2018–19 yellow and blue colours as a change kit. The kits were supplied by Adidas and bore the logo of the club's new principal sponsor, Irish bookmaker BoyleSports.
+ Pre-season match detailsDateOpponentsVenueResultScoreF–AScorersAttendance11 July 2019Cova da PiedadeNDRoberts 36'13 July 2019Vitória de SetúbalADJutkiewicz 13', Pedersen 55'19 July 2019Swindon TownNW6–1Crowley 5', Vassell 19', Bailey 29', C. Gardner 33', Bellingham (2) 74', 84' 20 July 2019Bristol RoversAW2–1Pedersen 12', Jutkiewicz 48'2,74327 July 2019Brighton & Hove AlbionHL0–44,846
EFL Championship
August–September Pep Clotet's first competitive match as Birmingham City's head coach was away to Brentford on 3 August 2019. The team lined up in a 3–4–2–1 formation with Lee Camp in goal, Kristian Pedersen, Marc Roberts and newly appointed captain Harlee Dean in central defence, Maxime Colin and debutant Steve Seddon at wing back/wide midfielder, David Davis alongside Gary Gardner in central midfield, and Jacques Maghoma and new arrival Dan Crowley supporting centre forward Lukas Jutkiewicz. According to Sky Sports, "Blues were saved by a combination of the woodworkwhich Brentford hit three times before the breakand keeper Lee Camp", and the only goal was scored by Pedersen, whose header from Seddon's cross "looped powerfully and perfectly" over the goalkeeper from outside the penalty area.
Defensive midfielder Ivan Šunjić made a first start and attacking midfielder Fran Villalba made a lively debut at home to Bristol City. Both sides missed chances before Jutkiewicz scored with a powerful header from Roberts' chipped cross. Late in the game, the defence was caught out of position for the visitors' equaliserlast man Wes Harding apologised afterwards for his part in the proceedings. At Nottingham Forest, an unchanged starting eleven suffered Birmingham's first league defeat since March. After a bright start, they were unable to prevent Joe Lolley reacting quickly to a 15th-minute free kick and running through to score; the same player's run and cross set up Lewis Grabban's header seven minutes later, and Michael Dawson's second-half header completed a 3–0 win. Three days later, Birmingham made amends at home to Barnsley. Harding replaced the injured Colin, Seddon returned to the team, and Álvaro Giménez started alongside Jutkiewicz up front. After a low-key and defensively sound first hour, Jutkiewicz converted Harding's cross, Giménez chested down Seddon's through ball and lobbed the goalkeeper, and loanee winger Jefferson Montero made a lively 10-minute cameo on his debut.
In the televised lunchtime visit to Swansea City, still goalless after an hour despite the hosts' domination, Birmingham conceded three in 12 second-half minutes. Montero, who was contractually unavailable to face his parent club, made his full debut at home to Stoke City; he lasted only half an hour before injury forced his replacement by Jude Bellingham, who had made his first Football League appearance as a late substitute at Swansea. A penalty should have been awarded when Danny Batth hauled Giménez back, forced him to the floor and kicked him in the face, and shortly after Dan Crowley replaced the ineffective Villalba, Stoke opened the scoring. Birmingham livened up, Jutkewicz outjumped Tommy Smith at the far post to equalise, and three minutes later, Bellingham's shot crept into the net via a generous deflection to win the match and make him Birmingham's youngest ever goalscorer at 16 years and 93 days.
September began with the visit to Charlton Athletic unbeaten at home for nearly a year and managed by Birmingham's 2011 League Cup-winner Lee Bowyer. Bellingham scored the only goal of the game after a pinpoint pass from Kerim Mrabti. Towards the end, Bowyer's reaction to a time-wasting incident involving the coaching staff saw him sent off and Birmingham's bench receive a yellow card. An unchanged starting eleven struggled at home to Preston North End, who won the match with a first-half free kick that Camp pushed onto the post from which Sean Maguire tapped in the rebound. Derby County hosted Birmingham just days after two Derby players were charged with drink-driving following a car crash that left their captain badly injured. Derby took a two-goal lead, but within minutes Birmingham had equalised with goals from Gardner and Šunjić, the latter a "rasping rising 20-year shot which flew into the net" and won him the Championship Goal of the Month award. Former Birmingham loanee Krystian Bielik fouled Giménez for a penalty, Jutkiewicz missed it, and Derby secured the win with 15 minutes left.
October–December Loanee Jake Clarke-Salter made his first league appearance for Birmingham, in place of the injured Roberts away to newly promoted Wigan Athletic. Neither side looked like scoring until Camp let a shot from distance go underneath his body. At home to Middlesbrough, Birmingham had most of the play, but the only goal was Villalba's first for the club from the edge of the area. Both Gardner and Pedersen hit the woodwork, and former Birmingham goalkeeper Darren Randolph made what BBC Sport's reporter dubbed a "string of sublime saves", before, with three minutes of normal time remaining, a defensive error led to an equaliser. Two minutes later, the 19-year-old academy product Odin Bailey headed home Crowley's cross to confirm a first win after three consecutive defeats. Birmingham were the visitors as Leeds United celebrated their centenary: they were defensively sound until Colin allowed Jack Harrison to outpace him and cross for Kalvin Phillips to score. Incidents after the match both inside and outside the ground were described by a police spokesman as "the worst trouble we have seen at Elland Road for over a decade." At home to Blackburn Rovers, Colin headed home Crowley's cross for the only goal after half an hour; Birmingham again failed to convert chances but were able to hold on to their lead. October ended with a third consecutive home win, by two goals to one against Luton Town, that took Birmingham to 11th in the table, one point outside the play-off places; the goals both came from headers, Pedersen's on the stroke of half-time and Jutkiewicz from a corner after 82 minutes.
Birmingham went through November without a win. Away to Cardiff City, Pedersen gave them an early lead but they failed to convert their first-half superiority into goals, Dean conceded a penalty for shirt-pulling which according to BBC Sport reporter "was tough to spot", and the momentum changed. At 2–1, Cardiff had a player sent off, but they then increased their lead on the break, Dean was sent off in stoppage time, and the match ended 4–2. At home to Fulham, claims that Roberts had been fouled were to no avail when Camp dropped a cross at the feet of Aleksandar Mitrović. Backup goalkeeper Connal Trueman made his first appearance of the season and Jérémie Bela his first start in a better team performance at Huddersfield Town, in which Birmingham came back from a goal behind when Roberts' header was deflected in off Jutkiewicz's shoulder. Ahead of the visit to Garry Monk's new club, Sheffield Wednesday, the former Birmingham manager claimed he had made an "error of judgment" in working with Clotet, suggested he was untrustworthy, and refused the customary pre-match handshake. Starting instead of Jutkiewicz, Giménez opened the scoring from Bela's cross, but Wednesday equalised with ten minutes left. BBC Sport thought Birmingham "twice unlucky not to be awarded spot-kicks" as Millwall failed to retain a lead thanks to a combination of Clarke-Salter's header and Trueman's performance in goal.