Chief of Sheffield Wednesday's relegation rivals makes regret admission

Birmingham City chief Tom Wagner has admitted he and his colleagues made a key mistake amid their relegation battle with Sheffield Wednesday. Wednesday are currently goal difference behind the Midlands side and one point from safety heading into the final five games.

Danny Rohl is hoping to guide the Owls to safety over the course of the coming weeks, but they won’t be the only club attempting to dodge a descent to League One. Birmingham are another club fighting to get out of the bottom three, and they will be guided by Tony Mowbray after two sackings already this season.

The first of those was John Eustace, a manager who had Blues in the top six at one stage, only to be sacked and replaced by Wayne Rooney. Rooney then oversaw a disastrous run that led to his sacking, leaving Birmingham in relegation danger, and it hasn’t got much better since.

Naturally, the owners of the Midlands club have received plenty of criticism for effectively sending the season into a spiral with their decision to replace Eustace. One of the club’s chiefs has now responded to that criticism, admitting the club made a big mistake.

“We made one decision that if we were to go back in time we wouldn’t have made,” said Wagner. “I don’t think we can ever ensure every decision we make will be a perfect one. 

“There were some good lessons learned with some of the decisions we’ve made this year and there have been substantial learnings about how we think about making important decisions on the sporting side. In the context of having made thousands of decisions foe the club this season, we made one that wasn’t perfect.”