Time to support Lee Clark
50January 13, 2013 by Made In Brum
Being a Blues fan is never easy. Looking around Wembley just a couple of years ago ago after the League Cup triumph I just sensed that the next ‘sorrows’ were not going to be far away – not that I thought for one minute we would be relegated – and the rest is very recent history.
Were do you start when talking about the current situation at St Andrews? Well I think we need to look at 3 things:
1. Owners
2. Manager
3. Players
1. Owners – With a lot of mess around Carson Yeungs financial affairs we can at least say CY bought BCFC for the right reasons but at the wrong price. He is clearly passionate about football and we should be grateful for the brief ‘joys’ that have come our way during his ownership. However, with such a muddled financial empire it was always going to be difficult to keep money issues transparent and his arrest was just like a kick in the nuts to us all. With Peter Pannu as his side kick he has one of the best allies you could have in his situation. I would have PP on my side any day. Unfortunately for Blues fans we can see from his parting comments that his loyalties quite rightly rest with CY – his employer. We are not part of the equation and the priority is to relinquish the BCFC for the greatest return. To be honest, with a minimum of 5 years in prison in China hanging over your head, I think how much they sell Blues for is a minor issue, but business must go on and the best return achieved. Think what your priorities would be – honestly.
We really have no control over what is being discussed in Hong Kong and sometimes the silence is deafening. The snippets we do get are only what they want us to hear/believe anyway.
2. Manager – Who, in there right mind would have taken the job on? Chris Hughton had worked wonders and came so close to an immediate return to the promised land. Who can forget Europe? Lee Clark has had so much to contend with this season that a lesser man would have walked. For this reason he deserves the full support of the fans. His hands have been tied with transfers. Injuries have taken a huge toll. Stupid suspensions haven’t helped matters. All this with a background of financial uncertainty hanging over the club and large sections of fans calling him inept, clueless and out of his depth. Lee has the potential to be a good manager and given time, transfer funds and support that could be at Blues. The young players that have been forced to come through have been a great plus.
3. Players – It would have been nice to carry on where we left off last season, but football isn’t like that. Consistency in performance is what separates the great players from the good players. We are a Championship team because we have good players. With a little consistency we would have 2 or 3 great players in our ranks which in turn would transform our season. This season has seen a levelling out in the Championship. Even with what we consider to be a crap season we are only 10 points off Brighton in 8th place, which can be closed quickly with a good run. Results however are unpredictable (Peterborough winning at Cardiff – Barnsley at Brum!) and I think a mid table finish would be a result. The players are starting to show real promise at times, but many are young and need time to develop.
What I’m saying is that the take over will or won’t happen. We will or won’t go into administration. We have no say on that.
Concentrate efforts on supporting the players and manager and bring back some positivity to the club. It can be hard and frustrating at times but that’s why we all love football and in-particular BCFC!
As ever KRO…..
John Clarke
Made In Brum 
Totally agree. I was initially pleased with LC appt. At least he wanted the job! I have been baffled by the dip in form this season & some of his selections but I do not know what is going in in training, fitness & behind the scenes. I’m also not an experienced professional footballer, just a fan who chooses to support the Blues. My choice is to support the club, as I have done over the years, through thick & thin. I’ll continue to support the club regardless of owners, managers, players etc. We can’t influence off field activities but we can influence onfield by positive support. We all have a choice. KRO.
When we were winning yesterday, no moans, no groans. As soon as Hudds equalised Twitter and FB were full of pathetic “clark out” morons. majority of blues fans haved turned into vilers, moan moan moan. fickle! they need to look at the bigger picture!
To have an opinion about my club means i’m scum? Grow up you act like a child!
What utter garbage! Lee Clark threw the game away yesterday huddersfield were there for the taking and he played with no strikers for 75 minutes leaving them in the game when we could have been home and dry! Three strikers (all our goals this season) on the bench! No-one would have taken the job on in the summer? Take your head out of the sand you offer any out of work manager his contract with the squad we started the season with and they would have accepted it! How many players could we have signed with the ambrose transfer fee? Lucas? Lovenkrands? Gordon? Hurst? Mullins? Diop? What a mess!
You clearly didn’t go to the game Matt. It was just the hard luck that we have had all season and the players and clark were faultless yesterday. i’m not a big clark advocate, but you cannot blame him yesterday. he bought two strikers on at 1-0 so he obviously went out to win the game and it was just our luck that we didnt.
I did go to the game home and away every week for the last thirty years mate! my opinion counts!
To critise Clark is counter productive. Wether you like him or not,he will be the manager until, if and when,the club has new owners,this is fact. Carson and Pannu have no interest in BCFC,apart from making money out of the club. They have no intention of putting money into the club and to get rid of Clark they would have to pay money out and then bring in another manager, at more cost. If you are true supporters,you will support everyone at the club and that includes Clark. He obviously wants the club to do better,because if he brings success to Blues,he might get a better job,at a club,with owners who want the club to succeed. While Carson and Pannu still own our club, times will be hard ! KRO
Matt- you obviously don’t realise that Clark is the third lowest paid in the league. And the circumstances of which he has to work under are ridiculous. The strikers on the bench WERE NOT FULLY FIT! He threw it away my arse. Did you go to the game?? If you did, you would have seen Blues dominate for majority of the game, and a half fit King come on, we created enough chances and we have also seen enough from redmon / morrison to warrant starting them again. blaming clark for yesterdays late equaliser is a joke. it is the way it goes when you are down the bottom playing with 2 strikers wouldn’t have stopped their goal. and king was not ready for 90 mins, nor was lover man and ziggy can do one, he is a complete liability. glass half empty no matter what with some people. the amount of injuries we have had is freakish and would affect any team, but the performances are massively improved.
who said scum?? if you had an opinion on clark, fine by me, but some people change their mind willy nilly, we’re winning, its clark in. we’re losing, clark out. pathetic
If I were the third lowest paid in my company, & the circumstances which I worked under were ridiculous , i’d be looking for another job.
But boot on the other foot who else would want Clark ?
Thats why he is still at St Andrews.
No, he’s still at St. Andrews becasue there is no one who would do any better
At least he wants to be here could easily have walked not exactly doing it for the money
Matt, Ambrose may be injured now, but how was clark meant to foresee that in June? he will be a great player for us when fully fit- unfortunately that’ll probably be next season.
Ambrose was garbage when he was fit!
He scored against barnet and set two up. I know its only Barnet, but still. How can he go from being a proven championship player for 8 years to being poor because blues fans make a knee jerk reaction on him? he hasnt been fully fit, we havent seen him long enough. when we do it’ll be different.
I agree Witherspoon you. There’s Nottingham we can do abort the Chinese owners and Mr.Pannu. Even I would have liked him to tell us à bit more abort what is going on regarding the plans of selling the club.
I also agree that we all should back LC and give him our support. I thinner it’s great To see all these Young players getting their chance. That’s our future. And I do feel for him. It certanly haven’t been easy for him.
But the main thing is that we should all be supporting him and his players because we love our team and the game should be about fotboll and not money.
Keep Right On
Thomas from Sweden
Redmond has had his best games of this season as a front man!
Created nothing!
Strikers main job isnt to create
this is the reason why i like a fanzine website like this. it is opinionated, the official site has no personal views, boring. well done MIB
Sorry the spelling program made My coment à little bit strange , hope you understand it anyhow. Nottingham means nothing we can do about it and abort menas about.
Sorry all
No worries
Thomas, eminently better than my Swedish!! 🙂
Hi guys, my personal hope is that we finish 10 points clear of the relegation field, just in case we do face admin. I have berated LC as much as the next man, but am now gaining a sense that he has been through the trenches with us and am beginning to really warm to this couragious man. Let’s park the commercial and off pitch controversies until the close season and for now lets get behind LC and the boys! KRO.
SOTC
UTV
Think you’ve got your own troubles to worry about
hi all
first time on! can i cast your mind back to the days of barry fry. We were relegated to the old third division at tranmere if i remember rightly forgive me if im wrong but i can remember the support for the team , the manager and how proud we were to be brummies! At Tranmere i remember the thousand or so of us that went there believing in all blue and white no matter what happend at the end of the game we were there for our team!!!! i fully understand how being a bham city fan can make us feel at times , but we have always been passionate about our team, lets try backing the manager till the end of the season, get to as many games as you can afford and sing our hearts out like the good ole days…. just try it you never know it may have an effect on our mighty blue army and we may be looking at things differently in the summer!! back clarke now at least , get behind the lads and make st andrews the fortress it always was. KEEP RIGHT ON TILL THE END OF THE ROAD!!!!!
Spot on BOB!
Well said time to stand up and be counted
i wasn’t at the game yesterday due to illness but having seen their goal it did look like more poor defending.I listened to the commentary and as well as we seemed to play i never felt redmond would ever score a goal.I’m not a fan of LC,never have been but even i appreciate how tough the job has become despite alot of his own making i wish the guy well..I never would have said that this season but with whats going on at the club i have developed a new respect for the job hes trying to do and the circumstances he is in.
It’s vital we get behind the team, to help them stay in this division. The tilton is worth a goal when we back the team, instead of getting on their backs.
I’m a supporter not a fan, they will always have my backing! K.R.O
Well said. The team need all our support, time to get off everyone’s back especially lee Clark and get Behind the team, cheerin works a lot better than jeering We’ve got no money, every single injury effects team selection lets just make the best of a bad situation our day will come again soon
Well said MadeInBrum. Lee Clarks had am umimaginable job and is doimg well
Totally agree others would have walked
The big story nobody is talking about is the comments by Zigic’s agent about his wages. Having a laugh saying he has a Man Utd contract while playing for Birmingham. He wont move and will stay and earn his money.The last accounts show a 4 million operating loss before transfers. If we can get Zigic off the wage bill it will save us £3 million a year.
Our priority as fans has to be stop moaning at Lee Clark whi is trying his best and earning low wages and turn on Zigic who is lackluster, only really trys 1 game out of 5, and is bankrupting the club. The think Marlon King and Chris Wood are probably on 10k a week and Zigic is on 50k to 60k a week makes me feel ill.
The £4 or £5 million we get from selling Butland we are giving to straight to Zigic.Zigic is happy at Birmingham because he is earning Man Utd wages under no preassure at all. As fans we need to send a message to Zigic he has to give 100% on the pitch or get out and not bankrupt the club!
Doesn’t earn his money any other line of work would have been sacked he’s let us down many times missing easy headers and red cards King and co much better players and I’m NOW right behind lee Clark considering lack of cash injuries and suspensions he’s done alright
Anybody who thinks Zigic is worth £60k a week needs to think about one thing. Nott Forest and our former boss Mcleish could come in and get him on a free transfer, but even Mcleish wont come and get him.WE CANT GIVE HIM AWAY FOR FREE TO ANYBODY as nobody will pay his wages!!!!
The problem is he scored a goal in the cup final, so will always be a hero to some fans. But I am bang up for booing him next time he gets on the pitch to try and make it easier for him to move on!
Let’s put a few things into perspective-
1) No, Zigic isn’t worth 60k a week, no footballer is, but it isn’t his fault someone offered him that money. It isn’t his fault that Blues are in financial trouble.
2) The comments were made by his agent, not Zigic himself. His agent has a reputation for saying stupid.
3) I would never, ever boo a Blues player.
4) Why should Ziggy take a pay cut when Pannu is earning 700k a year? Don’t forget, he’s one of the main reasons why we’re in this mess!
Just because Pannu wears a suit and Zigic is part of the playing squad does not automatically mean Zigic is a hero and Pannu is a fool.
Zigic signed a contract for 60k a week which was offered to him, i dont disagee and good luck to Zigic. However there was an assumption from those who offered him the contract that he would give 100% and try every game and give his best. Zigic is a joke, and the lack of effort is there for anybody who has a tiny bit of football knowledge.
I have been a Birmingham fan all my life, and that means we support the 11 players who wear the shirt. However we are a working class club, who have always kept our players honest who dont give 100% and dont really want to play for the club. Zigic is not giving 100% and he is a very high earner and present is a major reason we are facing a financial wall and having to sell our better, hungry players who want to play for the club and give 100%.
Zigic will tell us he loves the club and his family are happy, yet is anybody offered in 80k a week he would be gone.
Blues signed Zigic knowing what sort of a player he was. Slow, clumsy, but can be a threat. No, that’s not 60k a week quality, and yes, we could probably sign a league 2 striker who could do what Zigic does.
But the fact remains, McLeish knew what type of player he was signing.
He’s on £50k a week, not £60k. It’s been widely confirmed and publicised.
he could defer his pay like some players at Portsmouth did because they cared about the club a) by helping with short term cash flow, b) by helping to keep a player who will probably be sold just to pay his wages.
team player !! when pressure maybe put on one of his team mates to leave when they may not want to?
totally agree , we should give him stick, Gardner first season then Mutch second season had to leave just so we could pay greedy Zigic. Doesn’t score enough, too many red cards and too many injuries and for £50k a week!!
NOW WHO IS GOING TO LEAVE TO PAY HIS WAGE NEXT SEASON??
WAKE UP BLUES FANS.
we have missed out on Chris Wood last year and this because we have no money and instead have forked out £5 million last season and this on paying zigic to start 30 games in last season and a half.
Blues by far the better team yesterday, but I hope you can see why LC was sacked at HTFC, despite having the 40 odd match unbeaten run, and everyone outside of our club asking why? Well yesterday you saw the answer- His team CANNOT defend until the final whistle. We would have walked Div 1 with a half decent defence but we gave so many goals away from a winning positon, particularly at 2 nil up, that you start to realise its just not ‘bad luck’. I dont know how many games this has happened to Brum, being 1 up and not hanging on, but yesterday was an example. I guarantee a few times more. He is a passionate guy, cares a lot, but ultimately he just doesnt have the tactical nous to close games out. I also think he is buying some time with the injury/players sale situation because you wouldnt be doing much better if all the first team players on your books were fit, and raring to go, he’d have nowhere to hide then.- He just doesnt have the answers Im afraid. Our accounts were out yesterday and we are 5.6 million in debt, a legacy from LCs efforts to basically get us out of Div 3, which he failed to do. Lastly I would like to wish all Blues fans good luck for the rest of the season and hope the mess gets sorted, Im sure it will in time, just hang in there and I hope we are playing each other in this league next year, Fingers crossed………….
hope so, have a soft spot for Hudders esp Giants, have family from the town, so yes hope we both stay up
You forget to mention that we were shocking at the start of the season, despite Clark having a relatively fully for squad to choose from including the players he brought in.
Whilst Clark cannot be blamed for the injuries, he cannot be absolved of blame for the shockingly awful start/team selection/consistent playing of Mullins before the injury crisis hit.
Clark has played his part in our awful season, equal parts to the players and owners.
well said!
Clark puts on Zigic @ 90 minutes meaning the Terriers can push forward because he has no pace to hurt them with on the break. He should have shored up the midfiled with Hancox or Hall so denying them space plus the chance that either of those players could break quickly, especially Hall.
Sorry it was a gung ho attitude and puts more pressure on himself and the team as it’s more points dropped.
Made in Brum
Pannu may support his mate, but i disagree he has to hold out for the best offer as with each week the value of the club is diminishing.
The value will drop if assets are sold and yeung will probably not benefit from that as it will have to pay bills and wages.
If you were a potential buyer like Paladini would you still pay £17 million plus add-on’s two months on, knowing the window has closed (will have before a deal can be struck), and relegation is even nearer meaning the loss of parachute payments next season if we go down.
If Yeung and Pannu think the offer isn’t enough now, wait till they see any offers as a league one club with our main playing assets sold, they’ll be lucky to get £5 million, as debts (£20 million) would be more than the club was worth i.e. Players = £5 million and Ground & Wast Hills = £10 million.
If Pannu can get anyone to buy the Club for its potential then he deserves his huge wages. I agree that as each day goes by the figures that seem to be banded around are getting more and more ridiculus. However, the sort of peole that buy into football clubs don’t normally do it with any common sense, more a misplaced idea they can be the next messiah or just something to do with a bit of spare cash. God knows who we will end up with, but as i said at the start it’s out of our hands totally and I beleive we need to get behind the team like the days gone by. Agree with comments from Bob Hatton – the manager and team need our support.
New owners will appear at some time.
When Mullins firt signed, he wasn’t good, but he was no worse than anyone else. He was made a scapegoat. Since then, he’s had a fair few decent performances, he’s still made a scapegoat.
Clark has got things wrong early on, but don’t forget he was filling very big boots. He has started to settle now, as has the team and with a full strength side all season, we would be better off than we currently are. But Blues fans ridiculously high expectation doesn’t help.
And regarding the sale, Pannu CANNOT sell the club until the BIHL accounts are filed. But he didn’t know this- that shows the integrity of the bloke. He’s as bent as a nine bob note. But Paladini is no better. His claim that a deal was in place was garbage. It couldn’t have been in place becasue of the non-filed accounts.