The Athletic FC ⚽ is The Athletic’s daily football (or soccer, if you prefer) newsletter. Sign up to receive it directly to your inbox.
Coming up:
Hello! We’re here to explain how an English club two tiers below the Premier League splurged almost £25million ($33m) on new signings.
💰 Brady’s Birmingham go wild
🔵 Chelsea’s ownership rift
📉 Dismal USMNT showing
💡 What’s in a club nickname?
Birmingham bonanza: City spend big for quick League One escape
There is no point romanticising Tom Brady’s relationship with Birmingham City.
Brady had the NFL on strings but all he has known in English football is relegation. He strolled into town as an A-list but tiny-equity figure in Birmingham’s ownership group and sat helplessly as they went down last season to the parochial obscurity of League One.
No club with lofty intentions — Birmingham intend to build a “world-class” stadium and training ground — can tolerate life in English football’s third tier, hence why City are attempting to smash their way out of it. They went a little under the radar in the recent transfer window but in relative terms, the plan of attack employed by Birmingham was off the scale.
First, a little lesson about England’s third division. It can be pretty austere. Burton Albion have been there for what feels like forever and their last recorded annual turnover was £1.6million. In the window just gone, Birmingham spent close to £25m, which is exorbitant — and a record for the league.
In essence, Brady and co are throwing the kitchen sink at getting back to the Championship. And despite the spending restrictions in other England divisions — the Premier League, not least — their investment appears to have been entirely within the rules.
Stansfield signing shows intent
The deal that made the country sit up was City’s last-gasp signing of Jay Stansfield (below) from Premier League club Fulham. He’s easily better than League One. The upfront fee was more than £12m — another figure that had to be seen to be believed.
It’s a risk but only to an extent. Birmingham’s owner, the American investment firm Knighthead, wants to make a big go of the club. Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl winner, might give them a celebrity face but Tom Wagner is the power behind Knighthead. In no way does it suit him to be slumming it in the lower leagues.
(Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)
Here’s the advantage for him: League One’s financial rules are different to those of the Premier League and the Championship. Wage bills are limited to a percentage of turnover (City’s is estimated to be double that of the next best) but restrictions on transfer fees are far lighter. It’s not difficult for an owner with money to fund them freely.
Birmingham have spent like a club trying to get up from the Championship, rather than a club trying to get out of League One. You can’t help asking: will their outlay pay off?
Going fourth… to conquer?
Four games into their season, Birmingham are fourth in the table. It’s a productive start but there are only two automatic promotion places in League One (a third is awarded via the play-offs) and they’ll be pushed hard, especially by Wales’ Hollywood team and current leaders, Wrexham, who they face next Monday.
Ultimately, Brady can’t make the passes. Knighthead can do no more than spend. From here. it will be down to the squad and manager Chris Davies to avoid one of football’s biggest pound-for-pound failures.
News round-up: USMNT upstaged by Marsch’s Canada
- The USMNT turned in a pitiful effort against Canada on Saturday. Shoddy defending, including a Tim Ream error (above) that gifted Jonathan David a goal, brought about a 2-1 defeat. Canada’s American coach Jesse Marsch took a subtle dig at the menality of the United States squad. It’s just as well Mauricio Pochettino is on the way.
- Not the news Arsenal wanted, but a constant peril of international duty. Defender Riccardo Calafiori has picked up an injury with Italy. He’s back in London for treatment.
- These were refreshingly honest quotes from another Arsenal player, Declan Rice. He says he hasn’t been on it in the Premier League and returned from the summer “a little bit rusty”. No doubt he’ll reset before long.
- One you might have missed, but shouldn’t: Andy Mangan, a coach with Birmingham’s League One rivals Stockport County, has a new job. At Real Madrid. He’s a mate of Carlo Ancelotti’s son, see?
- Jose Mourinho has got Fenerbahce to the top of the Turkish Super Lig. He’s been active in the transfer window, which remains open in Turkey. Winger Filip Kostic on loan from Juventus is another smart signing.
- In July, TAFC covered the details of sex offence charges brought against Nottingham Forest striker Hwang Ui-jo. He’s now left Forest for Alanyaspor in Turkey on a permanent deal.
Chelsea’s power struggle
Following Chelsea is a test of faith. They spend and they spend, and they fiddle and they fiddle. Their squad is bloated. They can’t keep out of the market. Some of the contracts held by their players will still be live after I’m dead.
And now it transpires that there’s trouble in paradise. Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly and his partner at Stamford Bridge, Clearlake Capital’s Behdad Eghbali, have fallen out. The Athletic has been told the two men barely speak. Their relationship is “irreconcilable” owing to various flashpoints, including the decision to jettison Pochettino in May.
Boehly is discussing buying out Clearlake. Clearlake is discussing buying out Boehly. The full story of how they got here is riveting and there will be more drama to come. That consistent, out-of-control air at Chelsea? It will get worse again if they become trapped in an ownership impasse.
Tour of Europe: Carsley won’t sing when he’s winning
Lee Carsley took charge of his first game as England’s interim head coach over the weekend. It went to plan. A decent first half and two unanswered goals were enough to beat the Republic of Ireland.
Carsley hopes to land the job full-time but already, he’s at the centre of a bit of beef. On Saturday, he declined to sing the English national anthem, to the chagrin of certain people. That dominated the agenda before and after the match.
Carsley might be Birmingham-born but he was an Ireland international in his playing days. He says his stance on the anthem has nothing to do with his heritage and that he avoided singing the Irish one too because he wanted to stay in the zone.
He is learning what Gareth Southgate discovered before him: managing England is not just about the players. It’s also a world of culture wars.
Gloves are off for Spalletti’s Italy
By the time of Italy’s early elimination from Euro 2024, their coach, Luciano Spalletti, sounded like he could do with a month in a health retreat.
He’s not great at channelling stress and it was natural to wonder how long it would take for his reign to hit the rocks completely. Friday’s Nations League clash with France started so badly that Italy conceded after 13 seconds — so early that goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was still strapping up his gloves.
But they fought back, they got their act together and, helped by the goal above — set up by a wonderful flick from Newcastle United’s Sandro Tonali — they banked a classy 3-1 win. We’re officially declaring Tonali back. Maybe Italy are too?
Around The Athletic FC
(Daniel Sheldon/The Athletic; design: Eamonn Dalton for The Athletic)
Quiz Answer
Friday’s quiz question challenged you to name the players who scored the first goals under each of the last four England managers.
Not easy. The answers were: Gary Cahill (for Stuart Pearce), Ashley Young (for Roy Hodgson), Adam Lallana (for Sam Allardyce) and Daniel Sturridge (for Gareth Southgate).
Catch A Match
Selected games (all kick-offs 2.45pm ET/7.45pm BST)
UEFA Nations League, Group A2: France vs Belgium — Fox Sports 2, Fubo/Viaplay; Israel vs Italy — ViX, Fubo/Viaplay; Group B3: Norway vs Austria — Fox Soccer Plus, Fubo/Viaplay; Group B4: Turkey vs Iceland — ViX/Viaplay.
(Top picture: Brady with director Matt Alvarez – Cameron Smith/Getty Images)
