Consolidation or a promotion charge?
What was the brief in the summer, after Blues wiped the floor with League One?
Tom Wagner, Tom Brady and the Knighthead ownership were typically bullish; they’re not shy about outlining ambition, nor make any apologies for it.
And lob in the Sports Quarter and Powerhouse reveal, then you’ve suddenly got a club that means nothing but business – Premier League and Europe, infinity and beyond – here we come, baby!
Significant investment and another overhaul of the squad resulted in 12 senior players added, 13 jettisoned.
Then glaring problems were addressed in the January window and more money was shelled out, more of the squad moved on.
Among supporters, after seasons of these finishes in the Championship – 22nd, 17th, 20th, 18th, 20th, 17th, 19th, 19th – naturally there was a certain excitement, if not giddiness before a ball was kicked, and also as we went in-season.
But Blues have not been up there contending for an automatic place. And we’ve seen the likes of Millwall – Millwall? come on! – going from strength to strength and in the shake-up.
The away form has been nothing short of awful, apart from a few exceptions; the home form has been nothing short of excellent, until a drop-off since December, with six draws from 10 games.
Blues have had some outstanding performances, some excrutiating ones.
The manager can be held accountable, as he sends the team out there with a style and pattern of play. He prepares them.
But so can inconsistent players and those above him.
Individual and collective performances have ranged from coruscating and dynamic to perplexing and humdrum. And, in fairness, the team has always put the effort in,
Blues have made some good signings but also brought in some duds who just don’t fit what the Championship requires, whatever the data, AI bots and algorithms say.
Personally, I don’t really care what Millwall are doing. Good luck to them. They are a ‘classic’ Championship side, they are set up to do the nuts and bolts and it is working.
I don’t really care what Wrexham – who finished 19 points behind Blues last season – are doing. They’ve gone down a different route, a kind of Millwall with trimmings and a Hollywood sheen. But a big spending Wrexham, all the same – if we like to level that at Blues.
The ceiling of both the Lions and Dragons is far, far lower than Blues’. And the pressure on them is far less than on Blues.
After Blues victory over QPR, which halted a three-game losing streak and people losing their minds, I was intrigued by Davies’ comments.
The gist was that he felt gaining a foothold in the Championship was the first requirement, and that to expect back-to-back promotions was fanciful.
“As I’ve said all along and I will continue to say it, it was never going to be a stroll up to the Premier League. It’s about competing in this division, making our mark, growing and with continuity and time we will get better and better. There’s no doubt about it and that’s what you have to do.
“If you look at all the teams at the top of the league they’ve been together for a few years and built. That’s what we need to continue to do.”
Of course there is an element of trying to ease the heat on himself by making such public offerings, even if a lot of supporters just don’t want to hear it.
And it came across as a gentle riposte to the owners, to calm the jets a bit.
He has said this before, of course. Quite early on into the season.
Paul Tait, on the latest Forever Blues podcast, said he ‘didn’t want to hear it’ and that this season could be a ‘missed opportunity’ for Blues.
Fair enough. Blues could and should be doing better than they are. But doesn’t that go for a lot of clubs, too?
Coventry City finished 16th, 12th and fifth in their first three seasons at Championship level after getting out of League One.
Davies has not managed at this level before. If this was his third job in management, say, would he go about things differently, be more knowing and flexible?
It has to be remembered that the owners wanted Davies to play a certain style of possession-based football and also change the culture in the dressing room when he came in. They’ve invested heavily in analytics – the £1 million electricity bill – to drag themselves to the forefront of data modelling and usage.
A lot of Blues players have not had to negotiate the slog of a Championship season and all that it entails; there is definitely a case to have brought in more oven-ready players who know the ins and outs of the league.
I have written and said this before, on the podcast, but maybe this is just what Blues are, at this stage of their evolution under Knighthead – a team just above mid-table, with half a shout of making the play-offs, with a manager effectively learning on the job.
They remain a work in progress.
Some of the comments on social media after the defeat of QPR were puzzling – ‘grim’ and ‘turgid’ were a couple. It wasn’t. Blues could have been out of sight in the first-half and, after the visitors roused (which you expected them to), Blues dug in and saw things through. A win after three straight defeats.
Everyone seems to be caught up in the ‘sideways and backwards’ thing. And when it is prosaic, as we have seen away from home on some occasions, with no end product, Blues can be a hard watch.
Blues, under Davies, want control and that means keeping the ball and trying to dominate. It is not as easy to do that as it was in League One. Factor in better opposition as well as an up-tick in athleticism and physicality in the division.
Blues probably became a bit robotically conditioned from last season, but they have mixed up their play and approach a lot more as the campaign has gone on.
They do go long, in behind and have performed with a dash and elan. They get as many crosses into the box than any other team and create big chances. They do press aggressively but will temper that according to the situation.
Many see what they want to see. That’s modern life. You pays your money, you takes your choice. You are judge, jury and executioner in an instant on X.
Blues journey is a very, very interesting one at present. The direction of travel is upwards. Maybe not instantly, probably not this season. But the club is no longer a basket case.
So, why not embrace that journey, gain enjoyment from it as we go along, all the foibles included. Nothing is ever linear and as much as we’d want it to be, that ain’t life.
