Cristiano Ronaldo has built his extraordinary career by accepting nothing but the highest standards and setting no limit on his ambition. These are exactly the principles Birmingham City intend to follow, starting with the choice of venue for their training camp in Portugal earlier this month.
Just like Ronaldo – who spent time at the exclusive Pine Cliffs Resort on the Algarve with his Al Nassr team-mates – and numerous other members of football’s elite, Birmingham headed for Pine Cliffs earlier this month, with its state-of-the-art pitches and gym facilities.
Backed by a megastar of Ronaldo’s level, Tom Brady, Birmingham are one of the most intriguing stories in football right now. The Championship club granted Mail Sport exclusive access to their pre-season training camp on Portugal’s Atlantic coast, as they prepare for the campaign they hope will deliver Premier League football for the first time since 2011.
This is a whole new club since the July 2023 takeover by US consortium Knighthead, which includes NFL icon Brady. The group’s co-founder and CEO is Blues chairman Tom Wagner, and he has a motto: ‘If you can’t say it, you can’t do it.’
That’s why he speaks openly of winning back-to-back promotions to the top flight. Wagner and Brady believe it to be a matter of when, not if, Blues reach the gold mine of the Premier League – and that will be only step one of a £2billion mission.
The Americans hope to move Blues into a new 62,000-seat stadium in a regenerated Sports Quarter, part of that wider £2bn investment, by the early 2030s. They expect to generate revenue that will allow them, eventually, to challenge England’s best.
Tom Wagner and Tom Brady know in which direction they want Birmingham to go: up and up
The planned 125-acre site would be the largest facility of its type in the UK and, as well as the stadium, would include 19 pitches and a state-of-the-art training complex.
Thanks to Brady’s presence and Wagner’s many connections, Birmingham’s commercial pulling power has improved, with Nike, Delta Airlines and lifestyle app Mixr all on board.
This level of aspiration persuaded Japanese forward Kyogo Furuhashi to reject Premier League clubs, in favour of joining Blues from Ligue 1 side Rennes. Kyogo was one of six signings in six days and Mail Sport understands Blues already have an idea of the players they would target should they win promotion.
Turning them into a winning unit in the second tier is where director of football Craig Gardner, manager Chris Davies and the club’s support staff come in.
Such is the opulence of Pine Cliffs, it could easily be the venue for a Hollywood star’s wedding, yet as far as Davies is concerned this is all about work.
Clipboard in hand, Davies approaches Mail Sport before each of the sessions we attend to explain what he is trying to gain from each. Gardner watches the sessions from a small wooden stand, wearing a Blues T-shirt carrying the message ‘We Will Journey On’.
Tuesday morning’s stint is focused largely on attacking play, with emphasis on forward runs and early crosses. Blues marched to the title with 111 points last term, scoring more and conceding fewer than every other team, and losing just three times, but they understand they will not be able to control games so easily in the Championship.
Davies marches here and there during the session, which starts bang on time at 10.30am and lasts 75 minutes. The temperature is about 25 degrees but alleviated by the ocean breeze. During these exercises, the ball is never out of play for more than three seconds.
Manager Chris Davies has the job of preparing his players for a Premier League promotion tilt
Birmingham supporters attend Saturday’s pre-season friendly against Sevilla in Faro, Portugal
‘You’ve got the quality, you’ve got the pace,’ Davies shouts as Krystian Bielik’s pass over the top sends Bright Osayi-Samuel racing clear. The cross is turned home in the middle by Jay Stansfield, who is just back from becoming a European champion with England’s Under 21s.
Birmingham knew they needed to add speed to their squad and so signed Nigeria wing-back Osayi-Samuel from Fenerbahce as well as bringing back Demarai Gray, who left the club nearly a decade ago to join Leicester City.
As one exercise finishes, the next quickly begins – a sure sign of a session well planned. Despite the attentions of an irritable herring gull, a drone buzzes overhead, capturing the action on film.
Tuesday’s session is the 15th of pre-season but the first at full tilt, with staff desperate to avoid muscle injuries in the squad during the early part of pre-season.
‘That’s it, fire up those hamstrings,’ shouts head of sport science Dhani Patterson-Hughes at the start of Wednesday morning’s duties, which concentrate on pressing.
Even at a higher level, Davies wants Blues to keep their assertive playing style, with European champions Paris Saint-Germain a particular inspiration. If you want to be the best, why not study them?
Davies knows he cannot turn his players into Achraf Hakimi, Fabian Ruiz or Desire Doue but believes he can instil some of those principles – such as the way his three forward players constantly swap positions – into his own team.
This ambition is matched at boardroom level. Determined to turbocharge their rise with huge revenue deals, Birmingham have targeted best-in-class executives.
Birmingham have brought in Nigerian wing-back Bright Osayi-Samuel, 27, from Fenerbahce
Former Celtic striker Kyogo Furuhashi, 30, turned down Premier League clubs to sign for Blues
Stephen Haines, the new chief commercial officer, spent 16 years at Facebook. Chief executive Jeremy Dale was at Microsoft for eight. Head of infrastructure Nick Smith has overseen £15million improvements to St Andrew’s and the training ground, and is a key figure in planning for the Sports Quarter.
None of this will work, though, without results on the pitch – hence the six signings in six days that quickened the pulses of supporters.
Like Kyogo, Tommy Doyle turned down Premier League interest to move to Blues. The midfielder, who captained Cole Palmer in Manchester City’s youth team, is on a season’s loan from Wolves, with an obligation to buy if Blues are promoted.
‘It’s a good place to be,’ Doyle tells Mail Sport. ‘I look at the ambition of the club and where it wants to go – there’s a clear path. It’s up to us players to put it into practice.
‘You can see with some of the signings they’ve made that there’s no messing about. The club are pushing to bring in better players season after season to keep going further and further.’
When Doyle returned to Birmingham’s training base at Henley-in-Arden, in rural Warwickshire, at the start of this week, he found a fitness regime at least comparable with Premier League setups.
Since Knighthead’s takeover, the number of physio and conditioning staff has nearly doubled, with TBRx – the company founded by Brady and right-hand man Alex Guerrero – playing a significant role.
‘We have so many physios and massage therapists who show you exercises in the gym and treat you before and after training,’ explains defender Christoph Klarer. ‘There will always be a physio available at the training ground if I want to see one. That’s not typical, not even when I was playing in the Bundesliga.’
Defender Christoph Klarer has been impressed by Birmingham’s commitment to physiotherapy
It’s been 14 years since Birmingham played in the Premier League but they aim to be back soon
Going from League One to the Premier League in two seasons is a mighty task but it has been achieved recently, by Ipswich, who leapt from the third tier to the first before dropping back into the Championship. Guess who are Blues’ first opponents next season at St Andrew’s, under the lights on August 8?
There is risk involved here, of course. Blues are unlikely to breeze the Championship as they did League One and if they do not go up this year, they will be left with a high wage bill and no Premier League television money to supplement it. Revenue helps, of course, but what happens to that income if Blues hit a plateau?
Yet their attitude can be summed up by a quote from Brady that is stencilled on a wall in one of the medical rooms at the training ground: ‘The true competitors, though, are the ones who always play to win.’
If Birmingham do not realise these grand plans, it will not be for the want of trying.
