Blues return to action with an Easter message filtering out from the club that is it very much business as usual.
Blackburn Rovers are the visitors to St. Andrew’s on Good Friday before a trip to Ipswich Town on Easter Monday.
Chris Davies has been preparing the team as normal and, having had talks with owners Knighthead about recent form and direction – which the manager said is standard procedure – the focus is on finishing this season strongly and then planning for the next.
Many supporters reached a breaking point after the performance at Derby County last time out when Blues play-off hopes all but evaporated, with a veritable whimper.
But Davies continues to plot for the here and now and in the summer there will be discussions about playing squad needs.
“I do have regular contact with them (the owners). Not directly with Tom (Wagner) at the moment but with other members of the board. We do that weekly anyway.
“How the team is doing, our progress. Everything around the work I do and the direction of the club.
“So that’s taken place over the international break, which is normal.”
“When you get to the end of the season you all dust yourselves down and say, ‘this is the season we had and this is where we need to go . . ‘
“Those conversations are taking place but it’s very much about the here and now, then we start thinking about our summer transfer window.
“We’ve already discussed that in the last couple of weeks, assessing players we’ve got, ones that will leave, ones that we’d like to bring in,” Davies added, at his pre-match press conference ahead of Blackburn’s visit.
Whilst a challenge for promotion was very much hoped for, the intent now is to end the campaign on a high and build momentum for 2026/27.
Blues highest Championship finish since 2012 has been 10th, with the last decade a constant battle against relegation at the level.
“Where we are now is trying to make sure we finish the season strong,” Davies told Radio WM’s Richard Wilford.
“Like a lot of teams, there was a hope you can go and get into the Premier League – first time of asking for us. We’d be coming up from League One and straight up there.
“What’s clear to me is I do think we’ve made progress this year. We look like we’ve been competitive. We haven’t been as consistent as I would’ve liked us to be, but we’ve certainly been competitive.
“And where we position ourselves now as a club, as a team and me as a manager, is very confident I will be even more successful here and get this club to the Premier League and stay there.
“What we have seen in recent years is teams that do go from League One straight up don’t last long normally in the Premier League.
“Your teams likes Brentfords and the Brightons they stay there and they grow and build their team and infrastructure and everything to a point where they can actually be proper Premier League teams and that’s what I believe we will do here with me as a manager.
“So, yes, I think there’s a natural disappointment we think the play-offs are out of our grasp. That comes with a lot of disappointment and frustration, I can completely get that. I’m the first one to say that you’ve always got high hopes for every season.
“But taking that bit of space to reflect on it, what I want us to do now is continue to compete, finish strong and certainly with one eye on how we can be even stronger for next season.
“I’m thinking about the group, the players who will be here with us, how we can improve them and get into the best possible position to have a strong start next season.”
The performance at Pride Park has given Davies food for thought. In his pre-match press conference he regular referenced how the team needed to play with more tempo, courage and attacking gusto.
Davies veered away from his normal formation against Derby and the back five, designed to make Blues more solid but also provide ‘outlets’ high and wider via wing-backs, simply malfunctioned.
“The way we executed what we hoped was very short of it, basically, and I take responsibility for that,” Davies reflected.
“The idea was certainly not to be as passive as we were, to be as slow and pedestrian as we were and we got exactly what we deserved from that game, which was nothing.
“It certainly wasn’t the intention to go like that but I always have to think about how I’ve set the team up, what messages have I given them and what responsibility to they need to take themselves to go and compete in what ultimately was a local derby.
“So it wasn’t enough and it was a difficult afternoon, no doubt about it, for everyone connected.
“We need to see a lot more than that, no doubt about it. And attacking intent since I’ve been here is something I think we’ve always had. An attacking spirit to our play.
“And I want to make sure we have that for our last seven games. It doesn’t mean we are going to win every game but I want to keep an attacking spirit that wasn’t evident in the Derby match.”
