Neil Moxley: Why there should be plenty of reason for Festive cheer at Birmingham City despite recent struggles

The Championship is a killing field... for managers, players and all those aspiring football clubs who have one eye on the big boys’ league!

Reputations won - and lost - along with jobs if you are a manager unlucky enough to have to win your spurs at that level. (Apologies for using the words ‘win’ and ‘Spurs’ in the same sentence)*

However, perhaps nowhere has the focus been more laser-driven on success in the past six months than at Birmingham City.

A record-busting 111-point tally to win League One last term and the announcement of an iconic 62,000-capacity stadium at the heart of a £3bn redevelopment programme does more than hint at ambition.

It screams it from the top of the city’s famous Rotunda!

But while the narrative is clear - ie. That this is a club that’s wants to go places - it is now pertinent to ask a more simple question: When? And how?

There have been plenty of clubs who strive to join the elite and the latest position in which Brum now finds itself suggests the bubble has burst. Or, if not, it’s certainly drifting aimlessly, needing a sense of direction.

Can Birmingham 'compete' for a top six spot this season?

Hopes were high within the club that the club would do more than manager Chris Davies suggested prior to the campaign getting underway - that they would ‘compete.’

But those of a royal blue persuasion are finding out that it’s one thing to produce a blueprint, it’s another one altogether to turn lofty plans into reality.

As former Manchester United boss Ron Atkinson used to say: ‘Don’t tell me, show me.” And the market is having its say on whether Davies and his men can deliver.

Three games into the season, those who took an early plunge on Birmingham being able to reproduce the kind of form that made mugs of the bookies last term - the club was backed off the boards to win promotion - will be hoping that January is significant.

It really needs to be.

Three games in - two won and one drawn - and the trend looked solid enough. After beating Oxford United at St Andrew’s, the prices raced in. The club were 4/7 to be in the top six. Now, they’re 7/4. To finish in the top two was 5/2. They now trade at 20/1 in that market.

Those who really believed the hype took 5/1 on the club chalking up back-to-back title triumphs.

Now? Well, it's a 100/1 shot!

Birmingham City's away day blues proving costly

At the foot of the fall from grace - the club currently lies 14th in the standings but only six points away from the play-offs - has been the softest of underbellies on their travels.

The club is fourth from bottom in the table away from home, averaging 0.67 points per game. And fifth in the home one - averaging 2.2 with boss Davies incredibly only having tasted defeat to Hull City in the league since he arrived at the club 18 months ago.

On their own turf, with St Andrew’s now resembling a modern, functioning stadium thanks to considerable investment, the hosts are a handful.

Portsmouth, Norwich City and Millwall have all been sent packing on the back of four-goal thumpings.

Clearly, however, such a disparity between the two versions is hampering real progress.

What do Birmingham City need in the January transfer window?

Davies has already been bullish ahead of the opening of the transfer window. His words effectively amounted to Birmingham ‘going hard’ during the opening four weeks of 2026.

If they do, there is reason to believe that a six-point gap can be chewed up inside one week.

Having pointed that out, it must be said that over half the Championship will be eyeing the second portion of the season in a similar way. But there is reason to believe.

If they can get it right away from the Second City. Somehow, the overwhelming majority of Brum’s trips have been to teams currently occupying the top spots.

If Davies can add power - certainly up front and in midfield - it should make the club a tougher nut to crack.

He needs more physicality. And a foil for Jay Stansfield who has been used as a No.10 for the majority of the campaign, which should enable the England Under-21 international - currently rated at 14/1 - in a very tight leading goalscorer’s market - to increase his output.

Championship Top Goalscorer Odds

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The Championship is notoriously difficult to predict for a reason.

Several clubs, including the likes of Sheffield United and Southampton, will be gearing up after Christmas to rectify their slow starts. That pair should be in the mix.

As for Birmingham City, there are reasons to be cheerful. But there is also a lot of work which needs to be done.

*It’s just a small Yuletide gag, please don’t be offended, Spurs’ fans…

All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.