PRE-SEASON is an accurate barometer of what’s to come when – as Steve Bruce used to say – the ‘real ball comes out’ . . . ?
Nope. It’s a means to an end.
Blues infamously were biffed 5-0 by Paderborn in Austria in what was our first look at a Chris Davies team.
But that side was much different by the time we got into the League One campaign and by the season’s end; in terms of personnel, cohesion and stylistically.
Pre-season is for fitness and building endurance, then honing sharpness. For working on patterns of play and assimilating new blood and tweaks. Results don’t matter.
Davies revealed in the Blues Annual review that he spent many long hours on the training ground a year ago last July going over how he wanted the side to play, as well as marathon sessions in the analysis suite. It’s a fascinating read into his processes.
Those six weeks or so in pre-season were busy, intense, but incredibly productive.
History does tell us not to judge too quickly.
In their penultimate friendly ahead of the 2009/10 Premier League season, Blues lost 4-1 at Crewe Alexandra, for whom Clayton Donaldson led the line.
Blues had been quite wretched in their warm-ups. They lost all three games on tour in Austria and when Marcus Bent scored in the 77th minute at Dagenham & Redbridge, it was Blues first goal in just shy of six hours of football.
At Gresty Road, Crewe, who had been relegated to League Two the previous season, ended up running Blues ragged.
Franck Queudrue made his first start of pre-season, pressed into an emergency centre-back role, due to injury to new signing Scott Dann.
By the end of the match, with Stuart Parnaby having gone off after popping his calf, Blues backline included Lee Carsley on for Queudrue in defence and youngster Jarred Wilson at left-back.
Blues opening game at Manchester United loomed very large.
And yet, for all the genuine worry and concern about how newly promoted Blues had been shaping up, they ended ninth in the Premier League – the club’s highest finish in 51 years – and set a club post-War record of 15 top-flight games unbeaten at home.
Before the 1995/96 season, Blues staged high-profile friendlies at St. Andrew’s
Blues defeated Celtic at the end of July in a match famous for Karren Brady’s wading into the crowd to confiscate a flag. They followed up with another impressive 1-0 win, over Manchester United.
Forty-eight hours later, Chelsea, fielding new star signings Ruud Gullit and Mark Hughes, beat Blues comfortably.
Barry Fry, who guided Blues to the Second Division and Auto Windscreens Shield double in 1994/95, joked that they had finished top of the pre-season league.
Fry made a raft of signings that July (nothing new there) and Blues began life back in the First Division well, before falling away to finish 15th – which resulted in his sacking.
Continuity – manager and squad – is something Blues have struggled with in the most recent years.
A managerial merry-go-round and player churn has not helped the cause.
Lee Bowyer hung on until he was dismissed by the owners that weren’t, Maxco, in July 2022, giving new head coach John Eustace just 27 days to get things ready for the big kick-off.
Last summer Davies signed 17 players and moved on 13 senior ones before the summer transfer window closed.
At least when Davies and Blues reported to EPIC this June it was with the nucleus of a strong squad already, everyone knowing the methodology and demands, and not off the back of a massive turnover in the transfer market. Oh, and it was with the same manager.
Hopefully Davies can buck a trend that has seen no Blues manager start and finish two successive seasons since Lee Clark 11 years ago.
Blues began this pre-season impressively, taking down Sevilla in Portugal.
Then came the split squad friendlies at Burton Albion (1-0 loss) and Crewe Alexandra (4-0 loss). Those games were about getting minutes; usually managers ease players back in with 45 minutes, then 60, then 75 or a full 90. You also have those coming back from injury, or recent signings who often need to be drip-fed in. Hence the increasing trend for split squad friendlies, to get the players up to the same speed, at the same time.
Davies isn’t intending that Blues stand pat in 2025/26. He has again worked his players hard in pre-season to add what he calls ‘layers’ to the side’s game required in the Championship.
“I am keeping the core of what we did knowing we all believe in it, but this pre-season for me has just given the players a couple more solutions and layers that I think we’re going to need.”
Whether that is being able to alter the defensive line to a five when needs must in-game, or being better and quicker in transition, Davies has used the preparation this year to adjust a few things as well.
He has admitted that some of his new signings were brought in to enhance the pace and athleticism in the team, set-piece productivity has been looked at and experience has been added to the ranks.
By being in place – that continuity – he has been able to fine-tune and hone things for ‘Season Two’, with the foundations already cemented.
Blues rounded off their pre-season campaign with an encouraging 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest in the Trevor Francis Memorial Match in front of an equally impressive 18,269 crowd.
Davies admitted that the ‘core’ of his starting eleven against Forest would most likely begin the season proper.
Key takeaways there were Bright Osayi-Samuel instead of Ethan Laird at right-back and Tommy Doyle in the number 10 role, behind Jay Stansfield, albeit Blues are very fluid in the front areas. Demarai Gray played coming in off the right.
Davies commented afterwards: “Obviously you look at the opposition and how they play and what they’ve got. I will have to consider all that stuff to make sure it’s the right team for the right opposition and we will do that.
“But the core of that team will be the ones who will start the (opening) game, naturally, but we will see how the week goes in training.”
Phil Neumann also started, with Christoph Klarer switching to left-side centre-half. Last season Klarer was predominantly on the right.
Davies said: “He can play there, yes. I didn’t have a doubt. When you’re deep and it’s not a left-footer, then you can limit your build-up at times.
“But Chris is really calm on the ball and makes good choices, so he’s fine from there. And when we move up the pitch he goes slightly more to the middle, so he’s fine at both those roles from what I have seen whereas Phil has played a lot in a back three and is good on that right side stepping in; it suits both of them two that way round. Chris is an intelligent player.”
