The football might be on hold in the Championship this week, but that doesn’t stop the soap opera that is Birmingham City from conjuring up another episode for us fans. In what is meant to be a reasonably quiet week for club football has turned into quiet a busy one for everyone concerned at Blues – due to an article being published on the Telegraph via John Percy.
Now I’m sure there’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes at Blues and that’s where it’ll stay…behind the scenes. The club and the EFL will be in constant communications about the upcoming disciplinary hearing for what sanctioning could be imposed on Blues and that won’t be released to the public domain until a final decision is made. So I want to look in between the lines of the recent events.
I’m not saying what Mr Percy is saying simply isn’t true, but let’s be honest all he’s done is write an article about the worse case scenario on what could happen to Blues over the coming months. Why has he done this you might ask? He’s a journalist is the answer. Journalists get paid to write articles/columns that get views and people reading – which is exactly what Mr Percy has done.
When an article is released on twitter that a club is going to receive a 12 point deduction it sends Twitter and football fans into overdrive. The thought of little old Small Heath (who they don’t care about remember) getting a points deduction is like Christmas coming early for those in B6, so there was no surprise where the main audience was coming from when Mr Percy did release his article. Let’s not forget that when it’s an article about them being in real trouble it’s simply paper talk and journalists trying to create unrest, but when it’s us in that situation it’s absolutely gospel and concrete news.
The article in question mentions the signing of Kristian Pedersen being the tipping point of the decision to smack a points deduction on Blues. Again I’m not saying this isn’t true, but it simply doesn’t make sense for this to be the case in my eyes. Why would the EFL and Blues come to an agreement for the players registration to go through just for it to then come back and be the reason for such a severe punishment? Surely if the EFL were that bothered about what Blues did with Pedersen they would have blocked the registration and made us wait till an agreement was made between them and us.
Another reason for Blues fans just to carry on until further notice is that the EFL have actually come out and said that no decision has been made on the matter yet, in fact they haven’t even organised the panel for the decision. This will start to happen over the next few weeks and months
So therefore Mr Percy is simply scare mongering for views and readers, plain and simple. He doesn’t know if it’s going to be a fine, an embargo or a points deduction. No one does. All we can do is wait for the final decision now and hope the EFL don’t hand out a ridiculous punishment for a club who have finally been able to spend money on players for the first time in 6 years.
Finally a bit of news that’ll confuse and also no doubtably bring some laughter is that David Stockdale has joined Southend United on an emergency loan…it’s a 7 day rolling contract – something I don’t think I’ve ever seen in football. Only the Blues eh?
Bring on the new week and the Baggies at home on Friday night, Keep Right On!
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