No pressure on Veigas

Last season started in such a bad way that left many fans and fellow managers wonder why Veigas was selected for the hot seat at St. Andrews. Luckily his job was saved by a turn of fortunes on the pitch which saw The Blues go on a fantastic run, not only saving themselves from relegation but ending up finishing closer to a playoff spot. Last season's target had not been reached but due to such a strong second half of the season, the board decided to give Veigas more time.

This season The Blues once again started poorly and that triggered manager Veigas to call for an immediate board room meeting to discuss his future and the future of the club. After many hours of discussion between manager and club, the board felt that they had the right man in place. They moved on to discuss what Veigas had in mind and how he wanted to take the club forward from here. Many guys at the top did not look impressed at their managers plans to start of with until it was all explained into greater details. The board concluded the meeting by assuring Veigas that he had their full backing and they would give him plenty of time to be able to achieve his goals.

Veigas was handed a new 4 years contract at the start of the week.

''We are extremely pleased with how talks progressed with manager Veigas, we are happy with his new plans and we are 100% sure with plenty of time that this will come good. We have in the last couple of days sold some big players, which has been seen as a bit of a shock to many. We just ask the fans to be patient with the club and support their manager through these changes.'' - Chairman

So talking about selling some big names, the likes of Torres Nilo, Eremenko, Alvaro, Caicedo and Scott Parker have all been sold in the last couple of days. These where some of the bigger names who where tearing apart the financial side of the club with their big wages. Only 2-3 of these 5 lads where actually putting of some good performances, but football is a game of 11 players and if the other 8-9 players do not perform then you don't get the results you'd hope for.

''Really happy with how discussions progressed the other night with the board, and I'm looking forward to the new direction that we are going to try take this great club to. It's going to be a very long road ahead but we are all determined to achieve this. The way I saw/see it was/is, If we where not going to achieve promotion and under perform this season and even next season then I'd rather do that with a younger bunch of lads who can learn from mistakes and grow into quality professionals here at St.Andrews. The lads I've brought in till now, and ones who will join in the future are all quality players, with good futures ahead of them under the right guidance. People have to realise that this is not a quick fix, this will be a long term plan for the club to hopefully achieve what these fans deserve.'' - Veigas

 Now we move on to the new signings...the future of Birmingham FC!

Marcel Risse / Oguzhan Özyakup / Alpaslan Ozturk / Aaron Cresswell / Paulo Oliveira / Nicola Sansone / Efe Ambrose / Albert Adomah / Mark Gillespe

Was going to go into details about these players and why Veigas chose to bring these lads to St. Andrews but we don't want to give to much away. Most of these lads are known to other managers, and if they have no idea then all it takes is a quick Google search.

With the squads average age of about 25 and average rating of 86, this gives us enough time to mature as a team and grow stronger together for the challenge ahead. Most of the lads are expected to get some sort of a rating raise. Some hopefully will improve enough to stay and play a major part but some may not rise as expected so they could probably be sold in a season or two and replaced by another bunch who could well become greater players.

''I don't feel much pressure anymore at Birmingham now. Fact of the matter is from now on we will most probably have the youngest squad in the division, with the least big names to throw in the starting line up, so the pressure will be on who ever we face. We will work very hard, but the message i'll be giving my players at the start of every game will be for then to go out on to that pitch and have fun, enjoy the football and show the world what they can do at their own pace! I'm looking forward to this season specially to see which clubs will crumble over the pressure they will be in to beat us.''

Johnson signs for The Blues

Adam Johnson has finally completed his £9m move to Birmingham City.

This this was agreed over a week ago, when Veigas noticed that a bid had been accepted by Watford for the services of Johnson to move abroad. He move fast to contact John Harman at Watford and offered half a million pounds extra to cancel the deal if Johnson would prefer to stay in England.

Johnson agreed to this and was over the moon to find out that Birmingham was the club who wanted his services.

Watford where told that they would have to wait a week or so, so Birmingham could find the funds to make this deal happen. Teofilo Gutierrez was told that he could leave and was eventually sold back to former team River Plate last night. Birmingham placed a official bid for Johnson last night and by 15.00 o'clock this afternoon the transfer had been completed.

Johnson at St. Andrews

Johnson was handed the number 11 shirt and is believed to have signed a 2 year deal worth £30k a week.

"Johnson is a quality player, we are over the moon to have captured his services. He has the ability to be very successful here and the confidence around the club is noticeably risen with this news. This was the signing we have been waiting on to complete the puzzle here at Birmingham. We are confident that this could well be our year, we just need to hit the ground running this season!" - Veigas can't hide how pleased he his with this signing and squad.

We later caught up with Johnson as he was leaving St. Andrews " I'm very excited to have been given a chance to stay in England, specially to join Birmingham. Very impressed about the whole set up here, future plans and the kind of players i'll be working with. Looking forward to working with Veigas, he seems to have finally put a decent squad together and I'm confident we could go for promotion this season"

Double signing for The Blues

Birmingham have completed deals to sign MK Dons midfielder Fabian Delph and Tottenham defender Francis Coquelin.

Delph joined for a fee of £5m as part of a previous deal, which saw Patrick Ebert and Matias Silvestre swap clubs. Coquelin joined for £6m after Birmingham's long hunt for a right back.

Birmingham had been linked to a few other right backs for some time. After some serious scouting and consideration they opted for the young French, Coquelin who is a very talented player with a very bright future. He is believed to have signed a 3 year contract, worth £21k pw.

Birmingham agreed to sell Patrick Ebert last week, but only if they could find a decent younger replacement with good quality as a replacement. As part of the Ebert deal, we saw Silvestre join Birmingham adding an experienced face at the back and the clubs came to an agreement that Delph would then join Birmingham from MK Dons for a bargain price of just £5m. Delph is believed to have signed a 2 year contract also worth £21k pw.

Birmingham manager ; ''I've very happy with the way our squad is shaping up for next season, these two are very talented footballers who I'm very excited about. They will bring some much needed depth to the team and obviously, quality!''

There are a few rumours being whispered around Birmingham that it is only a matter of time before they sign a former England international.

When asked about the rumours and who this player might be, Veigas replied ; ''We are always going to be linked with any player who seems to be available, Birmingham need to push for promotion and everyone knows that the chairman here will give me his full backing in bringing in who ever I think could help us achieve that. I will say, yes we are looking into a possibility into bringing a very quality player in but I will not be mentioning any names until he has signed on the dotted line.''