The 2020–21 season is Birmingham City Football Club's 118th season in the English football league system and 10th consecutive season in the second-tier Championship. As with all English Football League clubs, the first team competed in the EFL Cup, in which they lost to Cambridge United in the first round, and in the FA Cup, in which they lost to Manchester City in the third round. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, all of Birmingham's home matches were played behind closed doors.
Aitor Karanka was appointed head coach on 31 July 2020, and was replaced by Lee Bowyer on 16 March 2021, with the team 21st in the table with ten matches left. With five wins and two draws from the next eight, Birmingham avoided relegation with two matches to spare, and eventually finished 18th.
The season covers the period from July 2020 to 30 June 2021.
Background and pre-season
With nine matches of the 2019–20 season still to play and Birmingham lying 16th in the table, football was interrupted for three months because of the COVID-19 pandemic. On 8 June12 days before the Championship resumed behind closed doorsthe club confirmed that head coach Pep Clotet would leave at the end of the season to "explore other coaching opportunities"; after a series of poor results, he left by mutual consent on 8 July. Steve Spooner and Craig Gardner acted as caretakers for the last four matches. Birmingham accrued just three points after the resumption, extending a winless run to 14 league matches, and finished 20th, avoiding relegation on the final day thanks to favourable results elsewhere and a 12-point deduction because of Wigan Athletic's entering administration. On 31 July, former Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest manager Aitor Karanka was appointed as head coach on a three-year contract.
Of the senior players, goalkeeper David Stockdale, defenders Jonathan Grounds and Cheick Keita, and wingers Jacques Maghoma and Kerim Mrabti were released at the end of their contracts; Lee Camp extended his contract to cover the last nine games of the season, and then left; and midfielder Craig Gardner retired to concentrate on coaching. Forward Álvaro Giménez' loan at Cádiz was converted to a permanent move after that club were promoted. Jude Bellingham, who became Birmingham's youngest first-team debutant at the age of 16 years 38 days and youngest goalscorer 25 days later, set more records, for transfer fee received by the club and as the world's most expensive 17-year-old, when he joined Borussia Dortmund for a fee reported as an initial £25 million.
Karanka's first signing was defender George Friend, who rejected a contract extension at Middlesbrough in favour of rejoining his former manager. He was followed by midfielder Jon Toral, who was Birmingham's Player of the Season when on loan from Arsenal in 2015–16, wingers Iván Sánchez, fresh from helping Elche gain promotion to the Spanish top flight, and West Bromwich Albion's Jonathan Leko, the first signing for whom a feereported as £1 millionwas paid, goalkeepers Andrés Prieto and Neil Etheridge, and another former Middlesbrough player, midfielder Adam Clayton. After a loan spell in 2019–20 during which he scored seven goals in eight league games before lockdown but none after, Scott Hogan arrived from Aston Villa on a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee, and Mikel San José, a Spanish international midfielder or defender released after eleven years with Athletic Bilbao, signed for two years.
In June 2020, the club announced a four-year partnership with Nike as supplier of kits, which carry the logo of the club's principal sponsor, Irish bookmaker BoyleSports. The home kit consists of a blue shirt with white collar, sleeves and trim, white shorts and blue socks.
Birmingham played four pre-season friendlies: at home to Charlton Athletic, Leicester City and Walsall, and away to Tottenham Hotspur.
+ Pre-season friendly match detailsDateOpponentsVenueResultScoreF–AScorers22 August 2020Charlton AthleticHD1–1Boyd-Munce 45'26 August 2020Leicester CityHL0–229 August 2020Tottenham HotspurAL0–11 September 2020WalsallHW3–0Medina 44', Miller 56', Bailey 87'
EFL Championship
September–October After 16 winless matches in all competitions, Birmingham City's Championship campaign began at home to Brentford on 12 September. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, no fans were present. The team lined up in new head coach Aitor Karanka's preferred 4–2–3–1 formation. In goal, making his Football League debut, was the 19-year-old Zach Jeacock, selected in place of the injured Andrés Prieto and ahead of the newly arrived Neil Etheridge. Captain Harlee Dean partnered George Friend in central defence, with Maxime Colin and Kristian Pedersen at full back. Ivan Šunjić and newcomer Adam Clayton occupied central midfield, with Jérémie Bela wide left and Iván Sánchez, making his first appearance in English football, wide right. Jon Toral played behind last season's Player of the Season and top scorer Lukas Jutkiewicz, who had been injured throughout pre-season. Although the visitors hit the woodwork twice and might well have been awarded a penalty when Pedersen appeared to pull down Pontus Jansson, Birmingham's organisation and apparent team spirit were much improved from the 2019–20 version, and the only goal came after 37 minutes when Sánchez whipped in a corner and Bela, unmarked in the six-yard box, glanced a header past the goalkeeper at his near post. Etheridge made his debut in a solid defensive performance in a goalless draw at Swansea City, marred by Swansea coach Alan Tate "raising his arm to the neck area of Toral before shoving him to the ground" at half-time, for which the Football Association gave him a four-match touchline ban and a fine. At home to Rotherham United, Birmingham switched to a 4–4–2 formation to accommodate the debut of Scott Hogan. Neither side were effective in attack, and after 87 minutes, Bela's clumsy tackle gave away a penalty from which the visitors scored. Minutes later, Toral won a penalty, and Bela showed what Karanka called "personality" to fulfil his role as designated taker and secure the draw.
Without Jutkiewicz, who had tested positive for coronavirus, Birmingham failed to score in the three matches after the international break. Their first league defeat of the season came against Sheffield Wednesday via a penalty awarded for what the victim, Callum Paterson, described as "a bit of a nudge in the back" by Clayton. Their second came three days later away to promotion favourites Norwich City: their well-organised defensive shape held out until the last five minutes when Clayton was sent off and Norwich took advantage. A more attacking formation, with Jonathan Leko partnering Hogan up front, achieved a goalless draw at Queens Park Rangers. Gary Gardner's header from Bela's free kick opened the scoring at home to Huddersfield Town, who equalised late on; even later, Leko's shot hit the bar and Jutkiewicz, who had come on after an hour, tapped in the rebound to secure Birmingham's second win of the season via their first goal from open play. They won again at Preston North End, via Riley McGree's first goal for Birmingham, two minutes into his first start, and another Gardner header, to end October in mid-table.
November–December Birmingham went winless through November. At home to Wycombe Wanderers, who had gained their first ever point at Championship level the previous week, Marc Roberts scored his first goal for years while several team-mates failed to take their chances. Wycombe took advantage of their hosts' ineffective second-half performance, first to equalise and then to force a winner via Pedersen's own goal. Karanka said afterwards that Wycombe "showed more determination than us to win the game. But they controlled the second half – we couldn't keep the ball or pass the ball and we didn't create anything." The 3–1 loss to a superior AFC Bournemouth team brought an improvement in attitude and a first goal of the season for Hogan, who said he was feeling fitter and sharper, noting that he'd "always been able to [score] quite consistently in the past when [he'd] played regularly." Despite the new regulations that allowed five changes from a nine-man bench, Hogan was one of eight unused substitutes in the goalless draw with Coventry City, the first league meeting between the clubs since Coventry began their groundshare at St Andrew's. Etheridge's goalkeeping earned Birmingham a draw away to Luton Town, although Šunjić's stoppage-time shot would have secured all three points but for a fine save from his compatriot Simon Sluga, and the month ended with a dull goalless draw with Millwall that left Birmingham 17th in the table.
December opened with a well-worked goal from Hogan at home to Barnsley, but what BBC Sport dubbed a "contentious penalty", when Pedersen was judged to have tripped Callum Brittain, and a late deflected shot extended Birmingham's winless run to six games. The defensive nature of the visit to Bristol City was enlivened by the arrival of Alen Halilović for a 20-minute debut, and Dean's header from a corner gave Birmingham all three points. Uncharacteristically, Karanka made only one (enforced) team change for the next match. In front of 2,000 socially distanced fans at the Madejski Stadium, Jon Toral demonstrated what the Birmingham Mail called "an inexplicable difference to the form he had showed so far this season" to score twice in the first half. After Reading made the score 1–2, Dean received a second yellow card for a foul in the penalty area and was sent off. Etheridge saved the kick, and Birmingham held on for a second consecutive win. Toral remained unused in a defensive setup at home to Watford, it was Pedersen's turn to be sent off for conceding a penalty, and Troy Deeney converted for his fifth goal against Birmingham.
Jake Clarke-Salter's error led to Cardiff City's opening goal, Roberts equalised, and Sánchez "slalomed through three defenders and picked out the far corner with an absolute piledriver" to give Birmingham the lead and join the now seven-way tie for top scorer with two goals. The goal was voted Birmingham's Goal of the Season. Etheridge saved a penalty, awarded for Clarke-Salter's hand-ball, but Cardiff scored twice late on. Colin gave Birmingham an early lead at home to Middlesbrough before the mistakes set in: two half-time substitutions and three more after an hour made little impact and the match ended as a 4–1 loss. A goalless draw at Nottingham Forest was followed by a 4–0 loss at home to Derby County summed up by Karanka as "like going to the cinema and watching the same film. One mistake, one goal. Two mistakes, two goals. Three mistakes, three goals. ... I expected ups and downs this season, but not these same individual mistakes every single game."
January–March Birmingham went into 2021 18th in the table, seven points above the relegation places. A 2–0 loss to Blackburn Roverstheir eighth home defeat of the season, the most in the top four divisionswas followed by George Friend's man-of-the-match performance on his return to Middlesbrough, where a well-worked goal by Hogan gave Birmingham their first win in seven. Two more winless home games, a loss to Preston North End and a draw with Coventry City, left Birmingham 20th in the table, four points above Rotherham United who had two games in hand, and Karanka still talking about mistakes, goals and Groundhog Day.