Original subtitles

What's their plan here?

Well, you've got to go for something here. You've got 39 seconds left. So if

they get in field goal range, they probably need 30 yards.

And you can certainly do that. You're ahead of the clock right here.

You've got one timeout.

So finding ZD Lamb, I just don't see New Orleans playing much man -to -man right

now. They've been pretty good in zone defense.

Oh, what's that?

Is everyone in here or are we leaving? We're ready to go.

You rocked it, bro.

Huh? You rocked it. Fucking awesome. That was a good day. We had our setup

We prepared hard.

Yeah. That was good.

That was really good. Yeah. Did the patient lose?

Yeah.

He's still making it hard on me.

Even in my absence, he makes it hard.

Vegas. Get down.

Down 14 with nine minutes to go.

This is called Sophia.

Yeah, we do have a second.

Do you guys have a good time?

Good. I know the game was actually a pretty fun game to watch. It wasn't a

game, but it was fun.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, you're welcome. And I'll see you next week, and I'm going to see your dad

tomorrow.

I know. He told me. That's so fun.

And I hope we win that game.

Yeah, we need to win that one.

I'm actually flying overnight to England for this soccer game tomorrow night,

and I'll be back Monday night at midnight.

So we're on to Birmingham.

We got Wrexham.

Tough game. It's early in the season.

But Wrexham, we're coming for your ass.

Brave St.

Andrew. many twelve apostles watch your dream come into view

frozen in a moment with my hand above my head never let them tell

you we're anything but blue

the

explosives were planted last season

And then, bang, we've been relegated and we're in a lower division.

I've always said about Birmingham, there's a loaded gun in the boardroom at

Birmingham, and when they've done something half -decent, they've got that

and they've shot themselves in the foot.

They own the club, they're putting money into... But again, you know, Birmingham

typical, they're behind the blues, they get relegated, that wasn't in the plan.

You're almost thinking, like, are they going to continue with this project?

They weren't expecting this. There's a lot of work to do. Are they just going

say, you know what, let's leave it like it's too much?

I had the worst summer in my life. The worst summer.

How the hell we got relegated?

And I was angry.

I was angry. We didn't deserve it. Players didn't deserve it. Fans didn't

deserve it.

This is not the place I want to be.

You're rubbish enough to be in this league.

There ain't a game that's easy.

You're there for a reason.

We were rubbish. We deserve to be in League One.

The main focus is to go up.

I don't feel that we belong in the league.

I just really hope that we go up and we don't have to come back.

Their owners have currently made an absolute unadulterated Horlicks of

Birmingham City and got them relegated to League One.

You've seen so many teams in League One and below that used to be giants.

former Premier League team, and they just can't get back up.

They've got to get this absolutely right.

The task is quite clear.

What we have to do now is be the best in every game.

But this is my mission.

I want to have no limitations.

Last year, we screwed up. In the end, I believe all sports start at the top. And

if you have failure, it starts with you, and you need to provide solutions for

how to improve things.

It's inexcusable to Tom.

It also was so infuriating to be in that position that it galvanized our

resolve to go and do some very ambitious things.

It immediately set out, like, okay, how are we going to fix this?

That's probably three things we had to rebuild.

We had to rebuild the culture, we had to rebuild the physical infrastructure,

and we had to rebuild the product and the pitch.

In a very short period of time, the stadium was generally unrecognizable.

It's amazing.

I mean, this was the dump. This was the dump. We'll go out this way. The dump,

it was like, it was an embarrassment.

This is the fan team.

This is their fabric of their community, and it's like, okay, how can we

complement their love of their team with the support it needs for it

to be successful based on our own experience?

I got a picture of it so I could send it to Tom.

It was very painful to be relegated, but despite the fact it didn't work out,

there was a bit of a silver lining in there.

I don't see any silver lining in that.

I'd much rather be one step away from the Premier League than two steps. And

we've got 500 more seats. So great. And they'll sell.

Yeah. Yeah.

Well, that's the bet we're making.

In this past offseason, we had an opportunity to really invest and create

culture that was reflective of what we wanted.

I think culture, you hear that word a lot.

Culture is about people doing the right things every day for one another so that

the organization can be successful.

And that's where Tom's influence really started to pay dividends, where we could

do a full search for a manager over a long period of time, interviewing scores

of candidates, looking at hundreds of candidates, and find somebody that we

reflected our vision.

Birmingham City have appointed Chris Davies as their new first team manager.

He has extensive experience as a coach in the Premier League, most recently at

Tottenham. Chris, welcome to Birmingham City Football Club.

My brother told me, he said, Chris Davies is going to be the new manager,

I'm, who?

I've never heard of him.

Very good, yeah.

Lovely drive, actually.

Brilliant. No, I've never heard of him.

Who?

We did.

Chris Davis is our new manager. And I went, who?

None of us knew who he was.

I'm not the only one.

It was a Google job.

First appointment as manager. Why did now feel right for you?

I think I've been ready to be a manager for quite a few years. It's something

I've always been on that pathway to.

We spoke to, honestly, hundreds of managers and every man and his dog

job.

Chris was different.

Chris has been coaching for nearly 20 years.

He wasn't unknown to us.

My pathway as a coach, I was not someone who had a long or successful playing

career, so I had to really earn it.

through years of work and sessions and building credibility and respect.

Obviously, I had a big coaching pedigree, but never actually been a

for them to put their trust in me was big.

I've worked at some of the biggest clubs in the world.

Liverpool, Celtic.

I was assistant manager at Tottenham.

So when it came up, you're thinking, OK, well...

Don't really want to go to League One, but it's Birmingham and everybody knows

what they're about.

Chris has got exactly the right attitude.

He's young, super energetic, really positive, incredibly driven,

really football smart.

He's got real competitive fire.

When Chris spoke, you could visualize it.

His message was clear, the information was clean.

OK, two on the ball.

And the most important thing, he knew the expectation to win.

For me, it's high energy, high intensity, style of football.

To attack, to be dominant, the number one rule for all the best teams is

to be the most hard -working team.

I believe very much in practising.

very hard and being a very stressful practice environment so that you can

go out there when it matters on the field against good competition and that

you're not overwhelmed by the competitive nature of the game so the

there we jogged we jogged we jogged and they play through right through the

middle of us so when you press you change speed it's not one pace you go

okay and support behind more aggressive in the press i think tom

shared the same kind of view of sports that I had. Go, go, go, go, together,

together. Yes, two, three. He had clear objectives.

Four, yeah, good, Chris, you got it, turn, don't miss the moment.

Basically, you have to get promoted and you have to basically win the league.

Well done, lads, well done, that's it for today.

And to do that, we need to sort this team out.

But we had to build a team, not only to get out of League One, but to compete in

the Championship.

One of the biggest parts of my job was those two months with Craig.

He spoke to so many players.

We need to create a team that can play football.

We need to create a team that can fight.

We were looking at our squad thinking, right, what do we need? And you need to

score goals to get promoted.

There's no two ways about this.

We have to get Alfie May.

Alfie was a top scorer in the league last season.

I heard great things about his character.

And then I also thought he'd be really hungry as well to make his mark.

I'm sweating.

prolific goalscorer in League Two, prolific goalscorer in League One, and

chance to push a team on. So I just thought it all ticked all the boxes.

I was actually

signing for Huddersfield.

I got a phone call from my agent saying that Birmingham are going to match the

bid of Huddersfield.

They offered an extra year on my contract.

Yay! Right, you ready? And me being sort of a senior pro now at 31, years

are important.

I think it was about eight and a half years ago I was working on a building

site.

I was brought up on sort of a council estate and working hard to try and earn

some money to buy a building house with my brother's company.

Playing non -league football on a Saturday.

At 23, went on a week's trial at Doncaster and never looked back.

When it comes down to sports with the kids, I'm very...

forward with it aren't i and lauren goes just remember their age you're

forgetting and i said it's because i'm a winner i want them to be like me and

lauren's like i understand that but like when i was two we used to go to a

little football thing and i said alfie if you're going to be like that you're

not going to come because like he's two i had to do it the hard way i didn't

have academies to rely on

I've had people tell me that I wasn't good enough. I've had people tell me

I was too small, too this, too that.

But I had a backbone.

I stuck up for myself.

I'd done it my way.

Noses.

Noses.

I've never had that chance to play in the championship and Birmingham have

me this chance. So that's why I'm probably more of a winner than I have

been because there's that end goal where I could...

possibly win the league of League One and next year play in the championship.

But we have got 46 league games to sort of grind out

and achieve what we set out to do.

Do you want to just give me a little lay of the land? It's August 10th.

There's a lot going on right now.

The sun is shining, can only be one thing, bubbles back.

So we've got Birmingham starting today, new coach, new programme, super

exciting. I can't walk, I can't run.

Birmingham kick off their League One campaign against Reading. This is a

fantastic game, isn't it?

Don't bullshit.

It's a season that I'm sure a lot of Birmingham fans, like myself, heading in

towards it with a bit of optimism.

Chris kind of ran a tough training camp. He's really interested in getting these

guys in good shape and pushing them. I think we've made a lot of good moves to

get different players in there that are embracing what he's trying to do.

I actually got to move all the players that I felt were not contributing and

bring in players that I could almost...

Guaranteed, certainly from a cultural point of view, would contribute.

Really, we turned over the entire team.

Chris Davis was the new man's horse. We're brunting this Birmingham

And this does look like a championship -ready team, doesn't it, on paper?

So I spoke to the team yesterday.

It's just me kind of telling them, it's about you guys. It doesn't matter what

anyone else says.

Chris can coach you, but at the end of the day, you guys got to go out there

play the way you're capable.

One thing I've missed more than anything is those fireworks.

Today we get to see them in League One against Reading and there can only be

winner.

The sun is shining and the expectations are high.

The Birmingham fans hoping that they'll find an immediate return back to the

Championship.

Birmingham with new faces, a new league to get used to as well.

but they will have the weight of expectation on their shoulders and

for promotion.

What a really good chance in following the way of Reading.

Here's the chance.

Whatever you think Birmingham would do, Birmingham would do the opposite.

Typical Blues, 1 -0 down, and it all just, like, everyone's like, oh, God.

Here we go again.

Here we go again.

Oh, God.

We just need a fucking point.

Oh, fuck!

Trying to find an opportunity.

Fuck yeah, we needed that.

And now a big chance for Birmingham.

Oh, come on, Alfie. Take a deep breath.

And it is the new signing, Alfie May, who is tasked with

trying to get Birmingham back on level two.

like this outfit a lot.

It's like it's juice.

And how about that for your debut?

One more.

We've got seven more minutes. We've got a lot of intensity to try to steal one.

Well, I think we're on for a lively end to this game, Dave.

We've got the pit between there, Steve. The fans can sense it.

The stadium has consented.

Points shared between the two teams.

There's a lot of things that I'm disappointed about.

We're behind, we're playing from behind, and we just can't get out of our own

way.

In League One, every single team wants to bring you down.

So Chris Davis, he's got to try and make this team work that is full of new

players, all being brought into a new league, a new environment.

They've got to make it work quick because you've got no time.

They can't play like they did in the first half. That was crap.

Yeah.

We're in fucking League One now because we still have a lot of shit we've got to

improve.

Only Birmingham could spend all that money, have everything going, you know,

cameras are there, everything's ready for absolutely spankin' for you.

Look, they don't turn up.

It's just day one. There's a lot of emotions you haven't dealt with. Your

feels different. It's game day.

Yep. But I just, yeah.

You know, we seem tentative, a little bit nervous.

So we've got to get that fixed.

Yeah. We have to be ready.

Everybody's going to come for us.

I think it was a frustrating afternoon for us.

There's a different expectation on us now, you know, through the stadium. And,

you know, for the players, they've got to get used to that.

As I said, it's not going to be easy.

We had a brilliant pre -season. Players had come in and it was really easy for

people to start getting carried away and I think that Reading result just put

everybody's feet back on the ground.

Then we get all the way to the first match.

of this season, and it doesn't go exactly as we planned, but we hadn't

the squad yet.

We knew we had a good team, but we wanted that little bit more.

We had to do a lot of convincing to get the sort of players that I knew would be

really good League One players. Just for my benefit, let's just run through

where we were at the end of last season to where we are today.

The transfer window is an opportunity

where you can basically trade, buy and sell. Once the transfer window is shut,

you obviously can't do business.

We ended up signing Tomoki on deadline day.

That was a massive, massive signing for us.

He's a hot player.

We believe that it's a little bit of a field of dreams scenario. We build it,

you know, we're proving it, right?

We tried to build a team that could win the league.

You know, we're convincing players to leave clubs that are... playing in

Champions League football to come play League One.

Tom was great in this because it's easy to have money and spend money, but it's

hard to spend it in the right areas.

And then you start hearing whispers and they're saying, we're going to put a

final bid in for Jace Dansfield.

Jay was on loan from Fulham.

He was like a hero.

His first loan season, they always say, don't fall in love with a loan player.

The fans loved him. He gave 100 % every game. You could see his heart was really

in it and he really tried.

That's all we want.

Jay Stanfield, who has been a tannisman for Boos this season.

His future's still uncertain.

Might have been his last run out in a blue shirt. Who knows?

Jay Stansfield is a Premier League player and we want to bring him to

One.

People are going, impossible.

But Tom said to me, get a price.

Breaking news.

On deadline day, I did say mad things happen.

Birmingham City have put a record bid in for Jay Stansfield of £10 million.

If we pull this off, oh, my God.

Again, you just don't believe it because, surely not, they're not going

him go for less than 10 mil, 12 mil, and you're like, well, we've got absolutely

no chance, have we?

Everybody kept saying, oh, we're getting Jay Stansfield back, Jay Stansfield's

coming back. I've seen him in Sutton, I've seen him move in Howes, I've seen

put in... And I'm like, he's not coming.

Pullum have given permission for Birmingham to talk to Stansfield while

continue to negotiate in the background.

Everyone was telling us there was no way it could happen and it would be

impossible and that Jay would never come play for us and we'd never be able to

afford to buy him.

So,

Fulham have rejected the £10m bid from Birmingham City Football Club, but

negotiations still remain ongoing.

It's hard to find really transformational players.

And Jay was getting offered opportunities at other clubs too that

than ours at that time and certainly maybe in the championship because Jay's

really good player.

At the minute, they're saying it's not for sale.

Don't fuck it up.

Okay. Okay.

As you know, we worked really hard this transfer window to improve the squad and

deliver a product to you that you'll all enjoy.

And we got nearly everything we wanted. Some of the goals we set were very

aspirational. and some proved to be just a bit of a stretch too far. But in any

event, I'm excited for tomorrow. I'm excited for the season. Keep right on,

we'll see you tomorrow.

It's been a quite staggering deadline day deal in the EFL.

Birmingham have signed Jake Stansfield from Fulham.

I'll probably have to get into school.

Everybody in English football is currently talking about Birmingham City.

I almost launched my phone. I just absolutely was like, no way.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

And we will whip that away and get it all scanned and submitted.

Okie dokie. Thank you.

Oh, loving, loving, loving, loving.

Three, two, one, go.

That signing almost made everybody go, oh no, they mean it.

And I made a promise to myself, as preposterous as it was, that we would

back.

And I spent two months working with our team to make that happen.

As soon as I got the call, obviously I was buzzing. I really enjoyed my time

here last year.

That feeling of waking up on a Saturday morning and knowing you're going out in

front of however many thousands of people and putting the shirt on and

game, there's no other feeling than doing that. And that's the feeling I

every week.

I got the opportunity to come back to such an amazing club and with the future

of this club and what the owners want, I thought this was the best place for me

to come for my career.

We've almost bought League One.

So if you don't finish top when you've got all the top things, all the

parts that you need, then anything less than that is an abject failure.

I mean, I've seen the amount of money that they're spending in League One.

But they had to rebuild.

The club was in a mess.

And I think it took them to get relegated to actually find out where

to go.

She's drunk.

Laying down £15 million for one player, is that the answer to getting you out of

League One?

How many clubs have we seen, and the moral of the story has been going to

difficulty for trying to reach the stars, and it all comes tumbling down?

In the end, to get Jay on that very last day was a huge boost for us, because

then we had a squad that I thought... Yeah, there's no excuses now.

It very much puts a target on their back because everyone's going, now you've

spent £30 million in League One, you have to go up.

Unprecedented spend in League One with 17 new faces in total, the likes of

we've just never seen before.

Wrexham's chance for activity completely dwarfed by Birmingham City.

Watch out, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, you've got a bit of

Massive game next week, by the way. Yeah.

Massive game.

Let's go.

Have a great day. Enjoy your visit.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

It must be good. They've got 11 goals.

They're good, man.

They have more goals than anyone else.

And they've given up fewer than anyone else.

It's a good formula.

You should tell the guys today before the game.

Guys, I got an idea.

Hang on, hang on, hang on.

Guys, I figured this out.

I'm here.

What is it?

Score more goals than the other team.

I think there's more pressure

on us.

Because, you know, we went out and did all the spending. I think everyone...

There's been more of an expectation for us.

They're playing great. It's been great things since they took over.

I'm not to say that they're coming up from a lower budget. We're coming down

from a higher budget.

It's more on us to do our job.

I'm scrambling, Gotham. I'm scrambling.

I'm used to it.

Pack this up.

I think we might be okay, G.

Do you take all this shit with you?

Yeah.

Yeah!

You need three minutes.

Three minutes. Thank you.

I was just already thinking about this.

Talent can win you games.

Process is what sustains you winning.

Yeah, for sure.

For sure.

It was a big boy watch tonight.

David Beckham is expected to be among the celebrity guests in attendance at St

Andrews tonight as Birmingham host Wrexham in League One.

Wrexham have, of course, been owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob

McElhenney since 2020, overseeing back -to -back promotions to League One.

The owners are both American and they want to beat each other.

They're a good thing.

Wrexham have been...

on this journey for a couple of years now, and they're looking strong this

We are going up! We are going up!

They're promotion rivals.

They're up there.

So we need to be ready to go.

Wrexham claim they now have the biggest international following of any EFL club.

And if you had any words of wisdom for him, what would they be?

I would never presume to give Tom Brady words of wisdom as it pertains to

professional sports.

The traction that these guys have got, Ryan Reynolds and the other fella, is so

enormous. I would not be surprised if Wrexham ends up in the Premier League.

Who gets to the Premier League first, Birmingham or Wrexham?

They've done a spectacular job of bringing attention to a small club.

I think what we have here is a club that's already a very big club.

And so from our perspective, it's a bit different. The ambitions for us in the

context of what we'll build, I think, is bigger than what they'll attempt to do

at Wrexham.

What do you know about Tom Brady, mate? Are you close enough? Honestly, if I

parked in the street, I wouldn't have a bloody clue who he is. Resource owner,

eh? As far as much as I know about him. He plays the inferior football, I know

that. That's all we need to know, really.

That's the quote right there, the inferior football.

Rob, can you just educate the Wrexham fans just a little bit on the history of

the NFL?

Thanks, bud.

With tonight and these guys coming, David, do we have any hospitality bags

can give them, like a couple of sweaters? It's so funny we were talking

that. It would be nice for them to leave with something just like,

hey, we appreciate you coming, you know?

I'm good, I'm good. A quick one for you. Do we have any kind of swag bag for

people for tonight that are the Alliance guests or no?

Can we just get something for Beckham?

Oh, it is?

All right, let me talk with Tom about it. I'll walk him through it.

Here's Gary said.

Because David has no affiliation here, he's like it's a faux pas to give him

something. It's not.

It's fucking stupid.

So we should do it. Give him fucking a gift bag.

Yeah. You have to put it on. No.

Yeah. Don't take it home. It's just sweet. It's a nice thing.

Hey,

buddy.

No, Tom was just talking. He'd like to do one for him. He thinks he's going to.

be fine with it. We're not going to ask them to wear it or do anything with it,

but there's kind of a thing between the two of them.

What do you want on the back of this shirt?

No, it's not a jersey, just a sweater. Oh, not a jersey, just like a hoodie,

scarf, hat, that kind of stuff.

And then someone goes around and it just makes everyone feel so special that

they care for. And then they want to root for you. And then they have a

emotional interest in the club.

And they're always like, yeah, Birmingham do.

Yeah. And they'll be texting you. And then when you get better, it's like,

we've been kind of on this journey with you. Yeah.

Then it becomes really real. Yeah.

Welcome to Pitchside at St Andrews, ahead of Birmingham City against

arguably the most star -studded game to ever take place in the third tier of

English football.

It's like the America derby, isn't it?

Especially in League One, at this level, you don't really see games like that.

Birmingham have earned their start and stripes under Chris Davis. Three wins in

a row. League One record -finding Jace Bansfield starts playing just in front

Alford, mate.

For Birmingham, my only slight concern is that you've got a lot of new pieces.

new manager, a lot of new players.

The more attention there is, the bigger the job you're in.

You want to be at big clubs with attention and interest, and I certainly

But when there is expectation, there is pressure.

Do we need any Wrexham fans tonight? Why are they allowed in the stadium? We

should put them up there in that little corner.

We want to get to a place different than where we're currently at.

Every time you take the pitch, you've got to earn it.

I want to see all these players rise to the occasion. There's a lot of people

watching.

Everyone's under pressure to succeed and perform, and that's why you sign up to

play professional sports.

I've been practicing in Juco's garden.

Oh, shit.

How often is he in your ear?

Every single day.

Especially when something goes wrong. Yeah, the phone immediately rings. Like,

what, you know, what happened here? I have, but you know what? I really don't

give a shit about that.

You know, I think that we've got to get out there and... Come on, boys.

Hey, come on.

Come on.

I got to leave my receiver.

There's some famous owners involved with Rexham as well. So how excited are you?

I don't know who these people are.

Hey, Mr. Merkel, hey.

Welcome to Birmingham FC.

I was talking to Tom today because I saw him at the hotel.

And I'm like, he has all these ideas about how to talk to players.

And I'm like, that's what Brian and I stay out of. I mean, we go in and we go

the locker room and we say hi, but we stay off.

I know the feeling.

Stay off. Yeah, that's exactly the way we do it.

Tom's here for that. Let the football guys do the football stuff.

We do the marketing.

All right, good to see you guys.

Nice to see you guys.

I see you guys on a Zoom. This is fucking way better, trust me.

What's up, my brother?

Keep putting that fucking ball in the back of the net, baby.

I love seeing it.

Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, the fire and firework display

demonstration will take place very shortly, and that's done for people that

the area during that exercise.

A firework display?

We have to test it.

Yeah.

We don't do that.

Well,

we're always looking for good ideas.

Just keep working hard in practice. That's all I give a fuck about.

I know that all this takes care of itself, so it's worth it to come over

and see you guys play, be here in person, but we've always got your back.

So good luck, okay?

Yeah. Kick some ass.

All right.

Thanks, guys.

We'll be in touch, okay?

Good luck, dude. Yeah, good to have you back, Jay.

You're one of five people probably on planet Earth that everybody in every

locker room will listen to. Yeah. You wind up in there talking to them?

Yeah, except you're on the way up, and we were on the way down last year. So

whatever I'm saying isn't resonating.

You've only had a year. I know.

Yeah.

My son trolls the shit out of me.

He pulls this out. He goes, can you ask Tom to sign this for me?

Oh, you can do it in eagle green.

No, we're not doing that. It's so ugly. What an ugly color.

Tom,

we got one thing for Rob.

I'm sure he'll put it on right now, right?

How do you feel about that?

Oh, come on. What am I supposed to do with that?

Look at that. He can frown and I'll hold it. Hi,

guys.

You guys doing well? Good to see you. How's everything?

You guys looking good. You're looking fit. Did you lose some weight?

He looks good.

Sexy guy right there.

I love it.

How are you doing?

You guys good?

Where's Chris?

Is he in the... Oh, next one over.

This looks great out there. It does look good. It's going to be bonkers tonight

out there. A lot of energy. And we're going to work together. I'm really,

worked up. We always have the guys who rate the boys.

They're ready to go. They're ready.

We had a game in 2007.

We had an undefeated team. This only happened one time in the NFL.

And we were going into the midpoint of the season, and Belichick came in.

It's like, all right, this game, we're going to Buffalo.

They're a tough team,

70 ,000 people.

You think the season's going to go easy the whole way around.

This environment, you go in there and you suck it off. They're going to kick

your fucking ass, right, whatever.

They've got so much new shit for you guys. You don't even know what you're

preparing. You better come in. And then we scored a touchdown on every drive.

We left the game, and I was like, that fucking asshole had me so fired up all

week. It's always about finding that process for winning.

This is a great game and we've got to prove it. You know, you've got to prove

it. We've got to, you know, they think they're better than us.

Yeah, so we've got to prove it.

You hear David Beckham's coming, David Beckham's going to be, yeah, yeah,

whatever.

And then he turns up. He really is.

He's really here to watch her.

Yeah, I had this game yesterday. I was in Dallas.

It was good. Second time around. It was my second time.

It

was

really interesting when Tom first showed up.

It really means it. It's not like, here's this hobby that I'm doing for a

purpose. When that whistle blows, that's it.

He wants to win.

On Monday Night Football, under the lights with a sold -out stadium, I don't

care whether you're playing for a Premier League club or a League One

feeling's the same for all these guys.

He's put his money where his mouth is.

We have spent more than any other club.

So people are sort of hoping that you're going to fail.

They put the target on your back as a club.

The pressure's really on the owners now.

They have to win.

It's so classic.

Did you play here a few times? Yeah.

We've got to win today. We have to win. We have to win. There is no two ways

about it. I feel like we're getting some good things done.

Now we've got to fucking win.

Here we are.

for what will be the most high -profile League One fixture.

Ready, Wrexham, who waste no time in the way they play getting that ball

forward.

That will be the first corner.

He goes the corner! It was an awkward one!

Two minutes, 38 seconds.

It took Wrexham to take the lead.

Clubs that get relegated from the Championship to League One don't find it

Their expectations are higher.

As a player, you can underperform.

There's a lot of pressure on all of us.

But what they've done brilliantly well is control the rhythm and the tempo of

this game and it's taken a little bit of a fizz out of these home supporters.

They are difficult to stop, Wrexham. They've shown that already this season.

Our roster's so much improved from last year, but...

at home, that atmosphere and that intensity works in favour, obviously, of

players.

If it's a night game and everybody's had a drink and it's an important match,

there's no atmosphere like it.

The trip stands for a quiet, but it only needs one moment. That's what we know

about it.

Stansfield, the touch was decent to lay it off, and they've worked this one

pretty well. Saved by Kwokwo, pretty well kicked that out.

Jay Stansfield is back at Birmingham, and he's back scoring at Birmingham.

It's what we play the big books for, isn't it?

In sport, you can't just do well enough.

At some point, to win...

To have silver in your hand, you have to fucking win big games.

That

was

a nice goal.

Being a young footballer, I've been able to learn.

With this much pressure, there's no other better place to be because the

are so supportive.

I've got the whole club behind me.

While it's 2 -1, there is always hope.

It might be 3 -1 here. Oh, no!

Good goal!

I believe that the solutions are always there.

I love seeing it come together.

And I love seeing us work on something and then, man, it happens.

It's because Tom Brady's in the ground, isn't it? That's how you tackle in the

NFL. I like the bad blood.

It's kicking off again. This time there's some arms up as well.

Looks like American football.

I like this game.

the better in this League One blockbuster.

And Jay Stansfield stole the show with some high profile onlookers.

Good match. Congratulations.

Thanks for coming.

Of course.

Good match.

You are too.

Yeah, we'll keep going.

Good burning.

It was a club that had just been used to losing all the time.

What was important to me was the possibility to start building a winning

feeling, you know, and a winning culture.

They made me walk in thinking that they were better than you.

And you had to prove, prove it.

Not talking, prove.

So we had a little mountain to climb today and we climbed this one, yeah?

We set our bar now. This is our standard, yeah?

So now we can measure ourselves against that every single game. This is the

game. We can get better and better.

Well done to everyone.

That fucking goal.

That header was sick.

We made that cross. That was a ridiculous cross.

Alfie set him up great.

Alfie was just so ready for that ball.

He's a fox, you know?

What do I love the most? The genes and people.

And I'm the biggest fan of people succeeding.

And if you're, like, invested in things that I'm in, then I'm going to work

really hard to make sure everyone's a part of the success.

Well done, mate. Good work tonight. That was good.

You just win, you fucking put them in their place.

Yeah, it was a great win.

We'll have our challenges, but what we have to keep in mind is while we, as the

owners, will look far down the road, particularly commercially, we've got to

make sure that the organization is focused on the next match. We have to

sure that everyone's doing their job. We have a saying, we say, take your job,

do all of your job, all of it, do everything, and do it every single day.

And if everyone in the organization lives by that mantra, we'll achieve

success. I'm going to go back upstairs.

We've got a fucking thousand people we're trying to get to spend money in

club, so you guys can spend more next summer.

So I'm going to go do my job.

All right. Thanks, guys. That was well done. That was really special.

That's a lot.

Awesome experience, like 30 ,000 people.

I was impressed by, I think, the way that the team just... They knew it was

going to be a big game. It was Monday night football and they showed up. That

was electric.

Just going to do the rest of the season now, right? Yeah.

How many more times?

35 more just like it?

We don't take it back with death out there.

You think League One's a walk in the park?

We're going to show you why it's not.

There's flashpoints and there's moments in the game that I do get emotional

about.

There is that element of hardness about who the fans are and where they're from.

It's a sort of form that if it continues, you're in a bit of trouble.

doing the wrong stuff and you're losing, there's a reason why.