Fresh Southampton claim could enhance Birmingham City frustration over 2023 decision: View

Without a question, Birmingham City has started the 2024–25 season off on a positive note.

After being demoted from the Championship at the conclusion of the previous campaign, the Blues had an unusually active summer transfer window.

With the addition of Jay Stansfield, they believe they have assembled a team at St Andrew’s that will enable them to get promoted from League One right away.

On the field, the Blues have also had a positive start to the season under new manager Chris Davies, who was hired this summer after serving as Tottenham’s coach.

Birmingham currently appears to be in a position in the standings where they may challenge for a Championship comeback this year.

However, despite the fact that St. Andrew’s currently has a highly positive atmosphere, some may argue that, given the events of the 2023–24 season, the club should never have been in League One.

Birmingham City paid a heavy price for a new manager in the 2023–24 campaign.

John Eustace was starting his second season as Birmingham’s manager at the beginning of last season.

In his debut season in command, he led the Blues to their highest points total since 2016 and a 17th-place finish in the Championship table in 2022–2023.

At the beginning of 2023–2024, Eustace appeared to be building on that, so when Birmingham fired him in October 2023, the football world was shocked.

The Blues’ choice to make that management change undoubtedly appeared to backfire, even though they were in a play-off spot at the time of his resignation.

They collapsed down the table under Wayne Rooney, Eustace’s replacement, and were obliged to appoint a new manager a few months later.

Following a turnaround in results, it appeared as though the Midlands club, led by Tony Mowbray, were well on their road to safety.

However, Birmingham faltered once again and would be demoted on the last day of the campaign when Mowbray was had to resign from the position due to health issues.

Few would have imagined they would have been near that position, had they stayed with Eustace, considering how well they were doing at the beginning of the war.

It’s true that the 44-year-old went back to work in February, taking over Blackburn Rovers from his former team and leading them to Championship safety on the last day.

As a result, that decision to sack Eustace has already come under plenty of scrutiny, and the latest news could now add even more frustration to that decision for those of a Birmingham persuasion.

John Eustace links with Southampton job further show Birmingham City were wrong to sack him

Having kept them up last season, Eustace has now overseen a promising start to the current campaign with Blackburn.

The Lancashire outfit have looked much improved in terms of performances, and that has shown in the standings, where they are a lot higher in the table in the early standings.

Now it seems as though Eustace’s work at Ewood Park, may even be starting to attract attention from the Premier League.

According to reports from Football Insider, Southampton are now considering Eustace as a potential replacement for Russell Martin.

That comes amid the Saints’ slow start to the season, following their promotion from the Championship at the end of the previous campaign.

As a result, this latest update may once again have some Birmingham fans wondering “what if?”, when it comes to their decision to sack Eustace.

He has already reminded the Blues what he can get from a team in the Championship at the start of this season with Blackburn.

Now, the fact he could get the chance to go to the Premier League, does further seem to highlight just how good the 44-year-old can be in the managerial dugout.

As a result, this does feel like something of a demonstration to Birmingham of the quality of manager they let go, meaning they may have missed out on the chance for success under him.

It is perhaps also worth noting that had he not been sacked, Eustace would still have been under contract at St Andrew’s right now.

That of course, also means that had he attracted this interest while with the Blues, they would have been in line for some decent compensation if he was to leave this way.

Indeed, that could well be enhanced even further, due to the finances that Premier League clubs have available to negotiate such agreements.

In turn, that could then have brought in some useful funds that could potentially have been reinvested into the club.

With that in mind, it may well be the case that the latest links between Eustace and Southampton, may not help the perspective of Birmingham fans, when reflecting on their own club’s decision to sack back in October last year.

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