The 2020-21 season is Birmingham City Football Club’s 118th season in the English football league system and its tenth consecutive season in the second tier Championship.[5] The first team, like all other English Football League clubs, competed in the EFL Cup, where they lost to Cambridge United in the first round, and the FA Cup, where they fell to Manchester City in the third round.
Aitor Karanka was appointed head coach on July 31, 2020, and was replaced by Lee Bowyer on March 16, 2021, with the team ranked 21st in the table with ten matches remaining. Birmingham survived relegation with two matches to spare by winning five and drawing two of the following eight games, eventually finishing 18th.
Football was halted for three months due to the COVID-19 epidemic, with nine matches remaining in the 2019-20 season and Birmingham currently 16th in the table. On 8 June, 12 days before the Championship resumed behind closed doors, the club announced that head coach Pep Clotet will leave at the end of the season to “explore other coaching opportunities”;[6][7] following a string of dismal results, he left by mutual consent on 8 July.[8] Steve Spooner and Craig Gardner served as caretakers for the last four matches. Birmingham accruedOnly three points after restart, they extended their losing streak to 14 league matches and finished 20th, surviving relegation on the penultimate day mainly to positive results elsewhere and a 12-point deduction due to Wigan Athletic’s administration. On July 31, former Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest manager Aitor Karanka was named head coach on a three-year contract.[2]
Of the senior players, goalkeeper David Stockdale, defenders Jonathan Grounds and Cheick Keita, and wingers Jacques Maghoma and Kerim Mrabti were released at the end of their contracts;[9] Lee Camp extended his contract to cover the final nine games of the season before leaving;[10] and midfielder Craig Gardner retired to coach.[11] After Cádiz’s promotion, forward Álvaro Giménez’s loan became permanent.[12] Jude Bellingham, who became Birmingham’s youngest first-team debutant at the age of 16 years and 38 days[13] and youngest goalscorer 25 days later[14], broke more records when he joined Borussia Dortmund for an initial £25 million.[13]
Karanka’s first acquisition was defender George Friend, who turned down a contract extension with Middlesbrough to rejoin his former manager.[15] He was followed by midfielder Jon Toral, who was Birmingham’s Player of the Season when on loan from Arsenal in 2015-16,[16] wingers Iván Sánchez, fresh from helping Elche gain promotion to the Spanish top flight,[17] and West Bromwich Albion’s Jonathan Leko, the first signing for whom a fee – reported as £1 million – was paid,[18] goalkeepers Andrés Prieto[19] and Neil Etheridge,[20] and another former Middlesbrough player, midfielder AdamClayton.[21] Scott Hogan arrived from Aston Villa on a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee after a loan spell in 2019-20 during which he scored seven goals in eight league games before the lockdown but none after,[22] and Mikel San José, a Spanish international midfielder or defender released after eleven years with Athletic Bilbao, signed for two years.[23]
Karanka’s first acquisition was defender George Friend, who turned down a contract extension with Middlesbrough to rejoin his former manager.[15] He was followed by midfielder Jon Toral, who was Birmingham’s Player of the Season when on loan from Arsenal in 2015-16,[16] wingers Iván Sánchez, fresh from helping Elche gain promotion to the Spanish top flight,[17] and West Bromwich Albion’s Jonathan Leko, the first signing for whom a fee – reported as £1 million – was paid,[18] goalkeepers Andrés Prieto[19] and Neil Etheridge,[20] and another former Middlesbrough player, midfielder AdamClayton.[21] Scott Hogan arrived from Aston Villa on a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee after a loan spell in 2019-20 during which he scored seven goals in eight league games before the lockdown but none after,[22] and Mikel San José, a Spanish international midfielder or defender released after eleven years with Athletic Bilbao, signed for two years.[23]
