Following his appointment by League One side Birmingham City, Chris Davies sits down to talk about his journey, his ambitions for the club, and what he’s learned over the years working with Brendan Rodgers, Ange Postecoglou, Steven Gerrard, Jamie Vardy, and now Ashley Cole and Tom Brady at Blues…
As Davies settles on the sofa and into his story, he leans forward and turns off the switch at an empty plug socket.
I mention this reflex action of clearly a hugely meticulous individual. “I just don’t think we need to have that on!” Davies smiles. “Save a bit of money, get a few more players in! I am very, very, very detailed. That’s me. I want things to be of a high standard. Whenever I see the switch, I wonder why anyone has left it on.”
Davies now wants to flick the switch to get Birmingham going again. A glance around their training ground in Henley-in-Arden, upgraded from its Wasps days, and a world away from their old Wast Hills base, shows the impact of chairman Tom Wagner and the owners Knighthead Capital Management. Relegation to League One is an opportunity for a reset and revival. Birmingham have sold 17,000 season tickets, their best in a decade, and Saturday’s game against Reading at a spruced-up St Andrew’s is sold out.
“On my first day here I met the historian and he told me that Birmingham in the last five seasons lost more games of football than any club in England,” Davies says. “The fans have suffered, been teetering on the brink for a while now. It was a sad day when the club got relegated but I think the fans have got renewed optimism and ultimately that is because of the owners. For so long now they haven’t had that but they believe they’ve got custodians of the club moving this club in the right direction. The owners were pretty clear early on where they were going to take this club, to the Premier League, to the top.”
They handed stewardship of the team to the untried Davies, plucked from Postecoglou’s coaching staff at Tottenham Hotspur.
“I’ve been really fortunate to work with some world-class players”
Davies, 39, has learned much from many in the game and also from his own journey since arthritis halted his days as a midfielder in Reading youth’s team and Wales Under-19. He was 19.
“It was very difficult my playing career ending so soon but in some ways it was good I started coaching so young because I’ve had plenty of time to learn and grow,” Davies continues. “Brian McDermott, Brendan Rodgers and Nicky Hammond at Reading encouraged me to pursue coaching. My family, too. I thought, ‘OK I’m going to have to work very hard to make any meaningful impact in this space because nobody knows me’.”
His new career accelerated under Rodgers at Swansea and Liverpool.
“As a British coach, Brendan’s definitely, in my eyes, the leading figure in the last decade in what he’s achieved. He’s made a positive impact at pretty much every club he’s gone to. Brendan’s great strength is a good coach first and foremost, clear on what he wants from the team, improves players, a very good man manager, taking time to connect with the players and generate a good atmosphere. That’s what I took from Brendan.”
He took plenty from the players, too. “I’ve been really fortunate to work with some world-class players. Steven Gerrard was the biggest reference for me personally because I was a young coach at Liverpool and Stevie was the England captain and Liverpool captain but his appetite to continually improve, his humility and professionalism, was refreshing. Stevie was everything I believed you should be if you’re a world-class player. I still reference it to players that if, at 33, the Liverpool and England captain continually wanted to improve then there’s no excuse for the rest of us.”
Davies followed Rodgers to Celtic and Leicester. “Leicester had three standout players, the leaders – Kasper [Schmeichel], Jonny Evans and Vards – all different characters. Kasper had this real fierce determination to achieve. Jonny was such a strong character, such a leader, such an intelligent guy on and off the pitch. Vards was incredible with his ability to read situations in the game. He obviously was so fast but how sharp he was mentally was incredible. I’ve never seen a player that was reading the game half a second before everybody else, would read where the space was and then go. When he was away you never caught him. He had cunning streetwise edge to him.”
He finds encouraging echoes of Vardy in Alfie May, Birmingham’s £775,000 signing from Charlton Athletic. “There’s little things Alfie does that remind me of Vards. They’re really intelligent, they read the intention of a defender, they can read a transition that’s upcoming, and they’re already half a second on the move. Vards was an exceptional finisher, so clinical and again that’s something that we’ve tried to bring here with Alfie.”
“I wasn’t just an assistant coach picking up the cones. I was planning, organising, leading every day for years”
After leaving Leicester last year, Davies became Postecoglou’s senior assistant coach at Spurs. “I really enjoyed working with Ange. He is a really strong leader who’s so consistent and convincing in terms of his vision. Some of his team meetings were incredible where he’d lay out the path forward, whether that was football or your behaviours and character. The players were so inspired by this kind of leadership, absolutely unwavering in terms of his way and what he believes in.
“It’s a really important thing, especially with the highs and lows of these big clubs, that you have a manager who is consistent in behaviour. If you lost 3-0 or won 3-0 you would see no change in Ange the next day. That’s unusual because unfortunately you can get carried away with the hype and you can go too low with the criticism but Ange was a guy that just wasn’t changing. He was clear what he wanted to do and nothing was going to stop that.
“He gave me a lot of responsibility as Brendan did. I led a lot of the coaching day to day at Spurs and did the same for Brendan which is why I’m here now. I wasn’t just an assistant coach picking up the cones. I was planning, organising, leading every day for years.
“There’s two types of number two: one who really loves the supporting role, who likes to be friendly with the players and plays the good cop. That was never my personality. I always felt I was a number one who was being a number two. I’ve always felt destined to be a number one, serving the manager, serving the club and knowing my role absolutely but I knew that each season was a step closer to me becoming a number one.
“I felt like a second manager really. I wasn’t just an assistant, I was having to make decisions and lead and deal with things all around the club every day. That was the style of Ange to give me that responsibility and he would be that helicopter overseeing everything.”
“I knew enough about the club to know that it’s a sleeping giant”
Then Birmingham came calling. “I got offered jobs in the Championship and so I was never really thinking about coming to League One. I was at Spurs, one of the biggest clubs in the country. I was thinking if I’m going to step out to be a manager it’s going to be top end in the Championship at least.” But he examined the clubs, their owners and resources. “Probably 20 Championship teams say they want to get promoted but only six have the budget.” He could see the risks.
He was far more impressed with Wagner, Knighthead and Blues. “I knew enough about the club to know that it’s a sleeping giant but the owners are really ambitious people. They’ve already pledged money to [a new £2bn] Sports Quarter in Birmingham. I’ve looked through the plans and it’s really impressive, not just the 60,000 stadium, it’s everything else for the community. It’s a little bit like the impact of Manchester City in terms of that area of Manchester.
“These are serious people, all successful in their own field, and they’re backing this club and they’re going to get it there basically. If it’s not me it’s going to be someone else who’s going to do it eventually so this is the time to come and lead this club.”
EFL clubs matter so much, for their community and also for the elite. Jude Bellingham’s rescue act for England against Slovakia highlight the importance of these EFL early-learning centres. “Jude’s an iconic figure here,” Davies continues. “If you look through the England team that played in the World Cup and the Euros you will see loads of players that came through the EFL. I worked with Harry Kane last season at Spurs and the amount of EFL clubs that Harry had gone to [on loan like Leyton Orient, Millwall and Leicester] was incredible.”
Kane has received tips on gridiron place-kicking from Brady. Davies has also tapped into the former quarterback’s approach to sport. “We don’t always quite understand in this country maybe the legacy and impact that Tom’s had in NFL. He is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, NFL player of all time and sportsman of all time. I spoke to him yesterday. I’m in regular contact with him and he’s got great experiences around dealing with expectation and daily standards, daily behaviours.”
Like? “Well, he is Tom Brady so he had to deal with that every day. There was a target on his back every game and he had to deal with being the main man and being the star player and repeatedly achieving. To do it once is one thing but to do it season after season after season and to the age that he did [45] is pretty unique. Just gleaning from Tom about his special mindset and how he can help us try to create that and help the players grow. He has spoken to the players and will speak to them again.”
Alex Guerrero, the alternative medicine practitioner who works with Brady, has been helping out Birmingham’s players. “So far Alex’s focus has been around the recovery of the players and making sure we’re in good condition physically. I’ve had quite a few dealings with him, another really good character who’s committed to what we’re doing.”
“We need to keep banging the drum for English and British coaches”
As he prepares to head off for training, Davies reflects on Gareth Southgate’s impact on home-grown coaches. “Gareth is someone I respect immensely. He did a great job with England, a wonderful leader and a great example not just as a football coach. We talk about the lack of certain values in today’s society. Gareth epitomised good, strong values.
“Foreign managers have enriched our game and books will be written on the impact Pep Guardiola’s had on this country. But we need to keep banging the drum for English and British coaches to keep rising to the top. No English manager has won the Premier League. That’s got to change and soon and we’ve got to make sure that happens.”
Ashley Cole continues on his coaching journey at Birmingham, and is strongly tipped to work with Lee Carsley, the England caretaker. Davies also learns from Cole. “Ashley is very similar in mindset to Stevie (Gerrard). What they’ve achieved in the game is incredible and both are really humble with it.” Both were winners as players. As he sets out in management, Davies has to prove he can be a winner. “I always felt I had the skill set to be a manager,” he concludes. “I’ve got to prove it with the way I behave, the way that I lead – and with the results I get.” That’s one area where he won’t switch off.
