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They were never above us in the table until into April and at one point they trailed us by 13 points. They had threatened to go up for years under Mr. Miserable Trevor Francis but it was only after his departure and the subsequent appointment of Steve Bruce that they finally made it.
Somewhat amazingly Bruce who has a reputation for walking out on clubs has now been there for almost 20 months, an appointment that was delayed when Palace, the last club he ditched, took out an injunction.
The Birmingham squad though is a lot different than the one that was last at the Turf for a league game as recently as March of last year with Bruce having made a number of signings.
He strengthened the squad last summer after promotion with the biggest fee paid to Palace for Clinton Morrison who cost £4.25 million. He also spent money for Aliou Cisse, Robbie Savage and Paul Devlin whilst also adding players such as Kenny Cunningham and Jovan Kirovski on free transfers.
They were always in the group just above the bottom three but never looked serious relegation candidates and Bruce made heavy use of the transfer window when it opened in January. In came Jamie Clapham from Ipswich, Spurs’ Stephen Clemence and Matthew Upson from Arsenal for a total outlay of £2.5 million whilst he added Christophe Dugarry, Ferdinand Coly and Piotr Swierczewski from Bordeaux, Lens and Marseille respectively.
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Dugarry is not the only addition this summer. Franck Jurieti has arrived on loan from Monaco whilst they have smashed their transfer record by paying our local rivals £5.5 million for David Dunn.
Dunn has already had plenty to say about the match, trying to wind up the Burnley fans. He claims to have a t-shirt ready should he score, it is unlikely that we will get to see it. I don’t think he would be quite so outspoken if Bally was playing. I’m sure the Burnley fans will give him the sort of reception he deserves.
They aren’t set to stop there though and have confirmed their interest in Arsenal striker Francis Jeffers whilst he is keen to sign a goalkeeper with Frenchman Frederic Roux and FK Sartid’s Serbia & Montenegro international Dragan Zilic both on trial.
There will be a return for a former Turf Moor manager in John Benson who is assistant to Bruce having been appointed on the same day. Bruce had worked with Benson for a short time at Wigan.
There is no news of who will be in the Birmingham squad but it should be as close to full strength as Bruce can get it with Dugarry possibly the only one to miss out. There has been some doubt over Savage but he is expected to play.