‘Confident’ Tom Wagner makes stunning Birmingham City transfer promise

Birmingham City are preparing for the 2024/25 season and their bid to make an immediate return to the Championship

Tom Wagner is adamant Birmingham City will have a better squad in League One than they did in the Championship.

With the 2024/25 season due to kick-off in less than two weeks, Blues have already made some eye-catching signings, with big fees paid for the likes of centre back Christoph Klarer and Willum Willumsson, with Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Ryan Allsop, Alex Cochrane, Emil Hansson and Alfie May also new arrivals.

Blues have more than a month to further add to that, while they will also be managing the futures of star midfielders Paik Seung-ho and Jordan James – and they will start the campaign against Reading on August 10 (5.30pm kick-off) as red-hot favourites to make an immediate return to the second tier.

That’s certainly the intention of chairman Wagner, who has so far been relentless in his investment and desire to raise standards at Blues, and speaking to Blues TV he made his latest commitment as he considered the next 12 months of the Knighthead regime.

“We know what we did well in our first year, we know where we need to improve,” Wagner said. “I think some of the accomplishments off the pitch exceeded our expectations.

“I think we all recognize that our performance on the pitch was far less than what we expect and will demand. It’s incumbent on us to not even contemplate stepping back.

“We’ve accelerated everything, we’re pushing forward on every project. We’re pushing forward to make our squad better this season than last – despite the relegation.

“I’m confident that that will in fact be the case and will put us in a very strong position to compete next year and beyond. That’s the goal period, full stop.”

While he has launched a plan to build a new 60,000 stadium, Wagner has also been ploughing money into the club’s existing St Andrew’s home. He admits he is excited to see what fans make of it when they return in their thousands on August 10.

“There has been incredible progress since the end of the season and just builds on what we did in our first 10-11 months of ownership,” he said.

“I think many of the areas will be unrecognizable to the fans when they come back, I had seen the renderings before work began and it still was jaw dropping when I walked in. Definitely a bit emotional to see how much it has been accomplished in such a short period of time.

“I’m just excited to see the reaction of our supporters when they walk in and see their stadium for the first time this season.”