Mid-Season Report

We have a look at how the Midland's football clubs have fared so far this season.

image credit: BBC

At the halfway point of the Premier League season, coming a little later in the calendar than usual because of the World Cup, it's fair to say enough games have been played to start to judge clubs.

Here we are going to be looking at every West Midlands club and asking ‘how are they getting on?’

Aston VIlla

It wasn’t the best start to the season for Villa and like most other West Midlands clubs they have changed their manager already this season. Unai Emery came in to much fanfare and he hasn’t disappointed. Beating Man United at home for the first time since Jesus was a kid in his first game really laid down the marker. 

Since then it has been strength to strength for the new Villa gaffer with possibly only the result against local rivals Wolves that could be considered a blip. 

It’s a telling stat that only Arsenal, who top the Premier League, have earned more points than Villa since Emery took over.

You’d be hard pressed to find a Villa fan that doesn’t think a top half finish isn’t doable after such a rotten start and with the squad and calibre of players Villa are bringing in, would you bet against them?

Wolves

Wolves had almost as poor a start as Villa and followed a similar path in sacking their manager in October. Unlike Villa, it took Wolves 6 weeks to appoint their new chief Julen Lopetegui. 

Also unlike Villa, the transition has been a slower process and only recently have they looked to really be gelling and buying into Lopetegui’s ideas.

After such a miserable start to the campaign Wolves have left themselves with all the hard work to do in the second half of the season. The saving grace for them is, as mentioned, the performances and results are beginning to line up and, if we are honest, there are 3 worse teams in the league.

As history tells us though, all it takes is for one of the bottom 3 sides to find a little bit of good fortune and Wolves could be dragged into a relegation scrap.

West Brom

There was something in the water in the West Midlands in October. Strangely the West Brom board didn’t like being in a relegation battle after occupying a Play Off spot when Steve Bruce took over, so they got rid of him.

Crazy, I know. Like was the case with Bruce's two previous clubs, Villa and Newcastle, as soon as he took his negativity and packed in the boot of his car, driving off into the sunset with a lovely payout, the club saw an immediate improvement in results. God only knows what the common denominator is there.

They currently are back in the promotion hunt now and the new manager Carlos Corberan has won 75% of his games since taking over. (Bruce managed 25%). There are some good sides in the Championship however and with the ownership under scrutiny at The Hawthorns it could be a nervous few months to see if they get back to the promised land.

Coventry City

Never is there a quiet moment with Coventry City. I'm sure all their fans would love to have just one season where catastrophe isn’t lurking around the corner.

Starting with the first three home games being cancelled because the owners of CBS arena had rented out the pitch to the Commonwealth games for the rugby 7’s, to Wasps entering administration and potentially being kicked out of the CBS Arena, to Mike Ashley buying the CBS Arena and them all but being kicked out, to their new take by a local business man who secured their tenancy at the CBS until the end of the season.

There has been some football played this season too.

Not anywhere near as exciting as the off field drama but that would be impossible anyway. After being so far behind the rest of the pack because of postponements to home games, Coventry had their work cut out as they were getting no joy on the road either. But Robins’ men have kept ticking along nicely despite the chaos outside of football.

You’d expect them to be safe, but let’s face it, this is Coventry City! Anything could happen.

Birmingham City

If ever there was a false dawn, it was the takeover that never happened. 

After getting themselves in photos with all the new signings being made over the summer, to being interviewed for Sky Sports News, it looked as though the deal for the club was almost complete.

Alas, late last year the club released a statement saying th Paul Richardson and Maxi Lopez’s interest in the club had gone after a deal wasn’t able to be met between them and the current owners.

Fans were rightly peeved but for once it wasn’t all doom and gloom. John Eustace seemed to be getting a decent tune out of the squad he had assembled and things were looking ok. Which for a Blues is a damn sight better than usually is.

All good things must come to an end. After finding themselves flirting with a play off place after a dozen or so games, Birmingham are back towards the wrong end of the table again. Like with Wolves you’d have to say there are 3 teams that are worse than Birmingham, so they should be safe. Again. To repeat this same thing next season.

Walsall

The Saddlers started the season off with a bang and I genuinely thought they were going to run away with the title. 

As is often the case, early season form can fizzle out but those points on the board early in the season have stood Walsall in good stead. 

Flynn’s side have averaged a point and a half a game in a tough league and are only 9 points off automatic promotion places. A repeat of Octobers form where they picked up 14 points from 7 matches and earned Michael Flynn manager of the month and they could find themselves in a Play off semi-final at the least come the end of the season.

By Thomas Browne