2020–21 Birmingham City F.C. season

The 2020–21 season is Birmingham City Football Club's 118th season in the English football league system and 10th consecutive season in the second-tier Championship.[4] As with all English Football League clubs, the first team will also compete in the FA Cup and EFL Cup.

Birmingham City F.C.
2020–21 season
OwnerBirmingham Sports Holdings[1]
Head coach[2]Aitor Karanka[3]
StadiumSt Andrew's
EFL ChampionshipPreseason
FA CupThird round
EFL CupFirst round

The season covers the period from July 2020 to 30 June 2021.

Background and pre-season
Main article: 2019–20 Birmingham City F.C. season

With nine matches of the 2019–20 season still to play and Birmingham lying 16th in the table, football was interrupted for three months because of the COVID-19 pandemic. On 8 June – 12 days before the Championship resumed behind closed doors – the club confirmed that head coach Pep Clotet would leave at the end of the season to "explore other coaching opportunities";[5][6] after a series of poor results, he left by mutual consent on 8 July.[7] Steve Spooner and Craig Gardner acted as caretakers for the last four matches. Birmingham accrued just three points after the resumption, extending a winless run to 14 league matches, and finished 20th, avoiding relegation on the final day thanks to favourable results elsewhere and a 12-point deduction because of Wigan Athletic's entering administration. On 31 July, former Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest manager Aitor Karanka was appointed as head coach on a three-year contract.[3]

Karanka's first signing was defender George Friend, who arrived on a free transfer, having rejected a contract extension at Middlesbrough in favour of rejoining his former manager.[8]

In June 2020, the club announced a four-year partnership with Nike as supplier of kits, which carry the logo of the club's principal sponsor, Irish bookmaker BoyleSports.[9] The home kit consists of a blue shirt with white collar, sleeves and trim, white shorts and blue socks.[10]

Transfers

In
Date Player Club Fee Ref.
15 August 2020 George Friend Middlesbrough Free transfer [8]
Brackets round a club's name indicate the player's contract with that club had expired before he joined Birmingham.

Out
Date Player Club Fee Ref
22 July 2020 Álvaro Giménez Cádiz Undisclosed [11]
23 July 2020 Jude Bellingham Borussia Dortmund Undisclosed[lower-alpha 1] [12]
3 August 2020 Lee Camp Contract expired [13]
Brackets round a club's name denote the player joined that club after his Birmingham City contract expired.
  1. The fee was officially undisclosed, but was understood by Sky Sports to be "a guaranteed £25m up front, with fees worth 'several millions more' potentially added on depending on appearances, achievements and milestones."[12]

Loaned out
Date Player Club Return Ref.
4 August 2020 Connal Trueman AFC Wimbledon End of season [14]

Competitions

EFL Championship
Main article: 2020–21 EFL Championship
EFL Championship match details
Date League
position		 Opponents Venue Result Score
F–A		 Scorers Attendance Ref.

League table (part)
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Promotion, qualification or relegation
1 Barnsley 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Promotion to the Premier League
2 Birmingham City 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 Blackburn Rovers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Qualification for Championship play-offs
4 Bournemouth 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 Brentford 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played on 12 September 2020. Source: EFL Official Website
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored; 4) Head-to-head results; 5) Wins; 6) Away goals; 7) Penalty points (sec 9.5); 8) 12-point sending off offences[15]

Results summary
OverallHomeAway
PldWDLGFGAGDPtsWDLGFGAGDWDLGFGAGD
0 0 0 0 0 0  0 0 0 0 0 0 0  0 0 0 0 0 0  0

Last updated: September 2020.
Source: [16]

FA Cup
Main article: 2020–21 FA Cup

EFL Cup
Main article: 2020–21 EFL Cup

Appearances and goals
Sources:[17][18][8]
Numbers in parentheses denote appearances as substitute.
Players with name and squad number struck through and marked left the club during the playing season.
Players with names in italics and marked * were on loan from another club for the whole of their season with Birmingham.
Players listed with no appearances have been in the matchday squad but only as unused substitutes.
Key to positions: GK – Goalkeeper; DF – Defender; MF – Midfielder; FW – Forward
Players included in matchday squads
No. Pos. Nat. Name League FA Cup EFL Cup Total Discipline
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
    Players not included in matchday squads
    No. Pos. Nat. Name
    DF ENG Wes Harding
    DF DEN Kristian Pedersen
    DF ENG Marc Roberts
    DF FRA Maxime Colin
    MF NED Maikel Kieftenbeld
    MF IRL Dan Crowley
    FW ENG Lukas Jutkiewicz
    FW FRA Jérémie Bela
    DF ENG Harlee Dean
    MF ENG Josh McEachran
    MF ENG Gary Gardner
    MF ESP Agus Medina
    DF ENG Josh Dacres-Cogley
    MF ENG David Davis
    FW ESP Miguel Fernández
    MF ENG Charlie Lakin
    MF CRO Ivan Šunjić
    MF ENG Odin Bailey
    DF ENG Steve Seddon
    DF ALB Geraldo Bajrami
    MF NIR Caolan Boyd-Munce
    DF IRL Ryan Burke
    DF IRL Joe Redmond
    MF WAL Ryan Stirk
    MF ENG Jack Concannon
    FW ENG Jayden Reid
    DF ENG Nico Gordon
    MF ENG Kyle Hurst
    DF ENG George Friend

    References
    1. "Birmingham City PLC Shareholder Breakdown" (PDF). Birmingham City F.C. 23 April 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
    2. "Aitor Karanka appointed as Blues Head Coach". Birmingham City F.C. 31 July 2020. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
    3. Ostlere, Lawrence (31 July 2020). "Birmingham City appoint Aitor Karanka as manager on three-year contract". The Independent. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
      "Birmingham make Aitor Karanka their sixth manager in less than four years". The Guardian. PA Media. 31 July 2020. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
    4. "Birmingham City". Football Club History Database. Richard Rundle. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
    5. "Championship season set to restart on 20 June as coronavirus lockdown eases". BBC Sport. 31 May 2020. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
    6. "Pep Clotet: Birmingham City head coach to leave role at end of season". BBC Sport. 8 June 2020. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
    7. "Pep Clotet: Birmingham City boss leaves club immediately". BBC Sport. 8 July 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
    8. "George Friend: Birmingham City sign Middlesbrough defender on free transfer". BBC Sport. 16 August 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
    9. "Blues partner with Nike". Birmingham City F.C. 25 June 2020. Archived from the original on 2 July 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
      "Blues agree principal partnership with BoyleSports". Birmingham City F.C. 3 June 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
    10. "Our new home kit is revealed". Birmingham City F.C. 15 August 2020. Archived from the original on 16 August 2020. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
    11. "Alejo, Choco, Malbasic, Pombo y Álvaro continuarán de amarillo" [Alejo, Choco, Malbasic, Pombo and Álvaro will stay in yellow] (in Spanish). Cádiz CF. 22 July 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
    12. "Jude Bellingham to join Borussia Dortmund". Birmingham City F.C. 20 July 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
      "Jude Bellingham signs for Borussia Dortmund from Birmingham". Sky Sports. 20 July 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
    13. "Camp departs with gratitude". Birmingham City F.C. 3 August 2020. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
    14. "Dons snap-up highly-rated keeper from Championship club". AFC Wimbledon. 4 August 2020. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
    15. "EFL Regulations Section 3 – The League; subsection 9 – Method of Determining League Positions". EFL. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
    16. "Birmingham City league performance history". 11v11.com. AFS Enterprises. Retrieved 18 July 2020. Select content required via dropdown menus.
    17. "Player profiles: Men's". Birmingham City F.C. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
    18. "Squads – English Football League Championship 2019/2020 Birmingham City". FootballSquads. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
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