"100% confident" claim made on Tom Wagner and Tom Brady at Birmingham City | OneFootball

FLW's Birmingham City pundit is delighted with Tom Wagner and Tom Brady's ambitions.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

The 2023-24 season was seen as a dark season in the club’s history for many Birmingham City supporters, but they have hit back from that setback with an immediate return to the Championship.

While the players have undoubtedly played a key role, much of the credit must go to the impetus brought by the club’s new ownership group, led by Tom Wagner and Knighthead Capital Management.

On the pitch, they’ve brought in a host of exciting talent, while off it, they’ve begun laying out ambitious plans for a new 60,000-seater stadium and surrounding sports quarter.

In terms of visible success, Wagner is looking to fulfil his initial ambition of reaching the Premier League by 2026. It will be a tough ask given their recent promotion from the third tier, but with a talented squad in place and a clear willingness to invest further, it’s certainly a realistic ambition.

Birmingham City pundit delighted with club's direction under Tom Wagner

To find out about the views of Tom Wagner from inside St Andrew's, Football League World spoke to their resident Bluenose, Mike Gibbs, to ask whether he believes the owners truly have the club’s best interests at heart.

"Yeah, 100% confident the owners have the club's best interests at heart," Gibbs responded. "I think they are in it for the long term.

"The work they are doing around the new stadium and the regeneration of the Wheels Park shows that. But also, just things like coming out on Sunday and talking about how they're striving for success and setting the bar really high moving forwards.

"From my perspective, they are all in for the long term. They are doing everything that you would want of owners.

"The Amazon Prime documentary, the sponsors we have brought in over the last few months, should mean there is more money to spend next year because of the commercial revenue the club is generating. That is really positive, and they're obviously keen to drive revenue and invest that back into the club."

Tom Wagner understands Birmingham City

Tom Wagner may have had little association with football prior to his involvement with Birmingham, but it is clear that he gets what Bluenoses want.

Prior to his involvement, Birmingham had spent years teetering on the edge of relegation, enduring season after season of struggles near the foot of the Championship table. That changed in May 2023, when Wagner completed his takeover and soon brought in high-profile investors, including NFL legend Tom Brady, to help steer the club in a new direction.

That momentum is now on an upward trajectory, having secured the League One title, with their next objective being a strong push in the division above.

The second-city club may not boast as rich a history as their nearby rivals, such as Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion, but they are now on a level playing field with the latter - and could soon be challenging the former.