The five-time promotion winner Birmingham City must boldly target if Chris Davies is sacked
Chris Davies is under pressure to turn things around at Birmingham City after an underwhelming start to the campaign
After falling to their fifth league defeat in 12 matches, pressure is beginning to intensify on Birmingham City manager Chris Davies despite last season’s record-breaking title triumph in League One.
Blues dropped to 15th in the league table after their 1-0 loss to Bristol City and are now four points behind the play-off places and 10 adrift of second placed Middlesbrough in the automatic promotion spots. Birmingham, as is often the case, dominated possession against Bristol City but failed to turn any of it into clear-cut chances - registering just one shot on target throughout the match.
The West Midlands outfit were amongst the biggest spenders in the division, with a huge chunk of their investment going on attacking talents like Kyogo Furuhashi and Marvin Ducksch. But as it stands, the team are failing to click in the final third, scoring just 11 goals all season - making them the fourth lowest scoring team in the league at present.
It marks an underwhelming start for a team that many, including Birmingham City’s ambitious US-owners believed had the capacity to compete for back-to-back promotions. Football Insider claims that Chris Davies has less than two weeks to prove he’s the man to lead Birmingham to the Premier League at the first time of asking, with a potential change being considered during the November international break.
Should Birmingham City stick by Chris Davies?
Birmingham City were hugely successful in Chris Davies first campaign last term. They picked up 111 points in League One to smash the British record which had been held by Steve Coppell’s Championship-winning Reading team of 2005/06 which managed 106 points.
The Blues also managed 34 wins from 46 matches to eclipse Doncaster Rovers’ long-standing record of 33 wins in a campaign which was set all the way back in 1946/47 shortly after World War Two. However, despite spending big on new recruits, that form simply hasn’t translated into the Championship, and some sections of the fanbase are questioning if he has what it takes to lead the team forward.
The big concern at this stage has been the lack of creativity throughout the time. No Birmingham player has recorded more than one assist in the league so far this season, with 21 teams in the division having at least one player with multiple assists this term.
Pressure is mounting on Davies to turn things around, and while his achievements from last season should offer him credit in the bank to try and change things, Birmingham’s owners have made no secret of their desire to achieve success fast and have proven with the way they sacked John Eustace that their willing to be ruthless to try and achieve their goals.
Gary O’Neil could be a good fit for Birmingham City
The Beckenham-born coach is a top contender to replace Davies at St Andrew’s, according to Football Insider. O’Neil, who made more than 200 appearances as a midfielder at Premier League level, has been out of management since being sacked by rivals Wolves in December 2024. However, he’s recently expressed a desire to return to management in the near future and is believed to be someone that the Birmingham hierarchy admire despite his poor end to life in the Wolves dugout.
O’Neil started his coaching career with Liverpool Under-23s nearly five years ago before joining Jonathan Woodgate’s coaching team at Bournemouth. He remained a key member of staff as Scott Parker led the Cherries back into the big time, marking the fifth time he’s been around a Championship promotion-winning environment after achieving the feat four times as a player with the likes of Portsmouth, West Ham, QPR and Norwich City.
He was placed in caretaker charge by Bournemouth following Parker's dismissal on 30 August 2022. He had next to no time to buy players that summer, and inherited a team that had just been beaten 9-0 by Liverpool, with the former manager describing his own team as ‘unequipped’ for the Premier League.
The 42-year-old ultimately guided the Cherries to a 15th placed finish in the league, winning the Manager of the Month award on one occasion while also helping the club in the long-run with the January signings of Dango Ouattara and Illia Zabarnyi, who have both been sold for significant fees along with Antoine Semenyo, who has been one of the club’s most important players in recent seasons.
O'Neil was surprisingly relieved of his duties that summer but went on to achieve similar things at Wolves in an almost identical situation after Julen Lopetegui’s decision to resign on the eve of the season. Wolves finished O’Neil’s first season in 14th while reaching the quarter-final of the FA Cup - leading to reports linking him with England and Man Utd. However, the following season started disastrously with O’Neil being dismissed in December with the club in 19th position and four points from safety.
The former Old Gold boss will look to bounce back from this experience in the near future and could be a good fit for Birmingham’s ambitions. He has excellent knowledge of the Championship having won promotion from the division four times as a player - and has an understanding of what it takes to succeed in the division, both from a playing and coaching perspective. He’s credited with unlocking the potential of players like Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri at Wolves and is renowned for playing fairly attacking-minded football.
When discussing Cunha, O’Neil said: “He was super-talented but wanted to be free; wanted to move around the whole pitch; wanted to just feel things. I’m imagining going to Brazil and watching kids playing on the street and that was still how Matheus was. We just helped him with what areas of the pitch he needed to work in and tried to give him a little bit of structure.”
It’d be harsh to sack Davies so soon after winning promotion but if he was to be dismissed, it’d be clear to see why O’Neil would be a good candidate to rejuvenate the season.