David Beckham had something he wanted to say to Tom Brady.

It was September 16, and Beckham was a visitor to Birmingham City’s St Andrew’s stadium. Beckham and Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl winner and minority investor in the club, were not the only celebrities in town. The visitors were Wrexham, the club owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, and a Hollywood cast filled the premium seats.

Birmingham romped to a 3-1 victory and Beckham, barely audible over the noisy celebrations in the 28,000-strong crowd, told Brady and club chairman Tom Wagner: “You’ve got something special here.”

The Inter Miami co-owner is not the only one to have been blown away by Birmingham this season. Since that night, they have cruised to the top of League One; with the top two guaranteed automatic promotion to the Championship, Birmingham have an eight-point lead over third-placed Wrexham with two games in hand.

Unbeaten in all competitions in 18 games, now their attention is fixed on tomorrow’s meeting with Premier League Newcastle United in the FA Cup fourth round — the biggest cup game played at St Andrew’s in a decade.

“The lads have been brilliant because we’ve had a lot of hard-fought games where we have been expected to win,” says manager Chris Davies. “The next game, though, is what we have been craving.”

If Beckham thought the noise generated against Wrexham was impressive then he should consider tuning in again tomorrow. So enticing is this game that the BBC, the UK public-service broadcaster, has selected it for primetime viewing. Birmingham, meanwhile, have special plans of their own, including a live performance  — the details remain top secret — and a mind-boggling array of pre-match pyrotechnics.

Ahead of the Newcastle tie, The Athletic were invited behind the scenes for deeper discussions with the people attempting to resuscitate a club that has languished outside England’s top flight since 2011.

“Saturday is a precursor for the future and people are going to see who we are,” interim CEO Jeremy Dale says from the Chairman’s Lounge in the Kop Stand, overlooking the pitch.

“We think the transformation of Birmingham City FC and the city itself is going to be the football story of the next decade.”

It’s Monday morning and the players are arriving into the Elite Performance and Innovation Centre (EPIC) in Henley-in-Arden for a 10am meet-and-greet.

Birmingham’s weekend victory over Rotherham — the sixth time they have clawed back a win from a losing position — keeps them top ahead of two cup games in the space of five days.

Davies is in early to prepare for the trip to Stevenage in the Vertu Trophy, a midweek competition contested by clubs in Leagues One and Two, plus some invited academy sides from Premier League and Championship clubs. It is the least of Birmingham’s priorities right now, but such is the momentum at the club, no game is being written off.

Davies, who at 39 is one of the youngest managers in the English game, schedules a series of conversations with his staff and then oversees a set-piece meeting with the players before training.

Chris Davies is relishing the visit of Newcastle United (Photo courtesy of Birmingham City)

Sporting director Craig Gardner, who used to play for Birmingham as a midfielder, enters the canteen and shakes hands with each member of staff before zipping back to his office to complete what he hopes are the final calls of transfer deadline day. Unlike many other recruiters across the country, Gardner is calm: Birmingham completed the bulk of their business in the summer and seem in ideal condition to achieve their main aim of promotion.

As the squad map on his whiteboard at the EPIC shows, each position is covered adequately, and one look through the long list of players suggests this might be the most talented set of players to ever represent a club in English football’s third tier.

After a summer spend of between £20million to £25million ($24.7m to $31m) — a record-breaking outlay that sent shockwaves through the rest of the division — they are certainly the most expensively assembled. Birmingham plunged out of the Championship on the final day of last season, the first time they had been out of the top two divisions since 1995.

That setback had not been scripted by chairman, Wagner, the co-owner of Knighthead Capital Management, which had taken over the club in the summer of 2023, but he and his team refused to deviate from the plan. “The comeback will be bigger than the setback,” roared the now-departed CEO, Garry Cook, at the end-of-season awards, scheduled rather awkwardly the day after relegation was confirmed.

Perhaps surprisingly, the reaction from around 900 supporters on the night was positive. That was, in part, down to the club’s previous troubles under the former ownership of Chinese firm Trillion Trophy Asia, which included fan protests, points deductions and concerns over compliance with English football’s financial regulations. At times it felt like Birmingham were crumbling before their fans’ eyes — literally so, given parts of the ageing stadium had been closed due to contravening health and safety regulations.

Yet relegation has proved to be a rebirth. Season ticket sales increased despite a small price rise and merchandise sales have almost quadrupled. There are grand plans for a 48-acre site, purchased by Knighthead and set to house a new 60,000-seater stadium and “Sports Quarter”.

Birmingham — a city where the metropolitan area is home to over 4m people — has always been rich in potential but the club believe they lost a generation of supporters during the troubled times under the previous regime and are working hard to make them excited again.

St Andrew’s has become a buzzing arena once again (Morgan Harlow/Getty Images)

This week is an important one for the academy which produced Jude Bellingham, the England international now starring for Real Madrid, and his highly-rated brother Jobe, who plays for Championship club Sunderland. A four-day audit is taking place as the club attempts to regain Category One academy status next season — the club will know more about whether those plans are successful in a few weeks.

The first team is already replete with quality, including centre-back Christoph Klarer, former Manchester United full-back Ethan Laird and the energetic attacker Jay Stansfield, signed from Fulham for £15m, a record for a League One club.

Already there is a belief within the club that this group have the potential to compete at a high level in the Championship but for now the focus is on, as Davies puts it, “avoiding complacency at all costs”.

Birmingham seem a grounded group. Paik Seung-ho, the South Korean midfielder who arrived in January 2024 and one of the team’s most impressive performers, is in early for breakfast when The Athletic arrives. The 27-year-old has been charged with the task of welcoming his compatriot Lee Myung-jae, who will later be announced as Birmingham’s only new arrival on deadline day. The 31-year-old left-sided defender is shown around the training ground by Paik while his representatives, who form a considerable entourage, assist club staff with the obligatory announcement video.

Lee isn’t the most comfortable English speaker so his agent agrees to translate a handful of questions for the video, which the club plans to release in the evening UK time to attract a wider global audience.

In the meantime, the work starts on another announcement, the future signing of Taylor Gardner-Hickman on a permanent deal from Bristol City following a successful start to his loan spell. The midfielder had been at the centre of controversy in a recent game against Rotherham, when he stayed down after a heavy challenge and then crawled back onto the pitch to help run down the clock. Rotherham manager Steve Evans was far from impressed and confronted Gardner-Hickman at the final whistle before taking up the argument with Davies.

In a light-hearted attempt to poke fun at the moment, the 23-year-old agreed to run through the incident again, only this time extending his crawling over a bridge at the EPIC, up a set of stairs and then into a chair where he acted out the signing of a new contract.

pic.twitter.com/13XCqOlTra

— Birmingham City FC (@BCFC) February 3, 2025

It goes down well with the locals, even if the wider world may have been slightly bemused at the back story. Like every big football club, creating engaging social media content is high on Birmingham’s list of priorities to try and draw more eyeballs to their journey but the reality is that League One remains on the fringe of the conversation. Promotion is essential.

In the meantime, Birmingham must work with what they have. The Wrexham game in September was one opportunity to raise the profile, especially as Beckham shared some of his thoughts on U.S. broadcaster CBS Sports a day later during the Champions League show, and the size of Birmingham’s home crowds (they average just under 27,000) and the scale of their commercial operation.

Firms have been encouraged to join the journey and Birmingham are pushing hard to increase revenue. The automotive retailer, Vertu, the sponsors of the EFL Cup and whose original dealership, Bristol Street Motors, is located less than two miles from the stadium, agreed a deal to join the likes of Nike, Undefeated, Heineken and Delta Airlines as partners of the club. The pub giant Stonegate Group and IT and communication firm Intercity, have since followed.

Ultimately, big brands like winners and Birmingham have been doing a lot of that this season.

The latest came in that Vertu Trophy game at Stevenage, a 1-0 victory taking them into the semi-finals and one game away from a trip to Wembley. Davies made some changes with one eye on the Newcastle tie but a strong team selection — including Stansfield, who came off the bench to score late on — highlighted his determination to take every game seriously.

Wednesday was a light recovery day for the players and a chance to look a little deeper into some of the ideas that the manager has for the weekend; yesterday was devoted to work on team shape.

This is Davies’ first senior managerial appointment: he left his position as Ange Postecoglou’s assistant at Tottenham Hotspur to take the Birmingham job, having spent most of his career assisting Brendan Rodgers in various roles at clubs including Liverpool, Celtic and Leicester City.

A mural of former Birmingham players Jude Bellingham and Trevor Francis at St Andrew’s (Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)

Davies, whose own playing career ended when he was 19 due to an arthritic condition in his foot, is a workaholic who watches opponents at least 10 times before presenting a game plan to his team. He believes that every message he sends to his players is crucial.

“I put a lot of thought into that,” Davies says. “I try to push them and challenge them to improve regardless of if we win, lose or draw. But at the same time, I support them. I can’t just hit them with a hammer every day. It’s about empathy and compassion, but making sure I’m driving a high standard every time.”

Birmingham were already working towards building a new culture before Davies’ arrival but his presence has injected urgency. Brady, whose stake amounts to around three per cent and does not include voting rights, is not particularly involved but the players use his body coach, Alex Guerrero, as the physical demands have increased and the club want to provide the world-class recovery service that worked so well for the NFL legend during his career. Each morning, there are hugs, handshakes and fist-bumps, all encouraged by staff to foster a sense of shared purpose.

“It didn’t come overnight,” says Klarer, a contender for player of the season following his £2.5m move from Darmstadt in the summer. “We had to start building it in pre-season with the right character and people. Everyone lives up to the behaviour, standard and energy. It’s not just on the matchday, It’s Monday to Friday. You can’t come in and have an off day because it won’t be tolerated.”

Christoph Klarer says high standards are demanded at Birmingham (Photo courtesy of Birmingham City)

Klarer was scouted by the club before relegation and identified as a player for the Championship. Yet in another example of how undeterred the owners were by playing in League One, they pushed on with the signing, paying the 24-year-old Austrian more than he was on in the Bundesliga, and reiterating their plans for the future.

“I’ve got a dream, that’s why I came here,” he says. “I want to play at the highest level. Playing against Newcastle is a great opportunity to see how we shape up against an elite team. I find it really interesting to play against world-class strikers because I can see where I need to improve to become a top-level player. Last season I faced Harry Kane when he just signed for Bayern Munich and even though we lost the game, it was a highlight for me.”

Davies has some non-negotiables; first, that his team work hard and outrun opponents before finding a way to outplay them. The challenge against Newcastle will be different to a League One game but the approach will be similar.

“It will be a measuring stick for us,” says Davies. “Eddie Howe is the best English manager there is so it’s a great test for us. And we want to be playing Newcastle in the Premier League one day. That’s the dream.”

Birmingham make no apology for being disruptors. The aim is to be back in the top flight by 2026 and then pressing ahead with even bolder plans by 2030. Their slogan is to “be a beacon of excellence for Birmingham on the global stage,” representing not only the football club, but the city.

Their bullishness has not always won friends. Club captain Krystian Bielik’s comments in September that Birmingham were “too good for League One” and talking about promotion as being virtually guaranteed sparked controversy: on the rare occasions the team has stumbled this season, rival fans have taken pleasure in resurfacing them on social media.

“We have a healthy arrogance where we are going out to win every game, but our first thought is, ‘We are Birmingham and we are going to show why we’re Birmingham’,” says Laird. “We feel like we are never beaten because that’s the mentality of the new Birmingham. We never die.

“It shows from our running stats, our passion on the pitch and the effort we put in. It’s easy to pat ourselves on the back but the gaffer won’t allow us to do that. He’s made it very clear: no complacency.”

At St Andrew’s, the queues begin forming three hours before kick-off now, which is a stark contrast to the days of the past when the stadium was often half empty.

The matchday experience has been enhanced significantly with a new fan zone and street food now on sale. In the top-level suite, The Alliance, located next to the Chairman’s Lounge, places are secured by invite only. This was an area refurbished in less than a month and looks every bit the kind of premium offering that would be the pride of a top-end Premier League club.

Another area, The Garrison, is named after the pub in Peaky Blinders, the hit television show chronicling the lives of a 1920s Birmingham crime gang which was created by supporter and sponsor Stephen Knight. Both will be thronged with fans for the visit of Newcastle.

The Garrison hospitality area at St Andrew’s (Photo courtesy of Birmingham City)

Birmingham’s work in the community is also progressing after previously taking a hit. The club have representatives in nearby schools offering coaching and guidance and have recently linked up with the University of Birmingham to help fight poverty in the city among other initiatives. 

Dale, a lifelong supporter who assisted Knighthead in the takeover, says he loves his job so much that he “no longer wants to sleep.” A part of the leadership group before Cook’s exit — a bump in the road which was attributed to “personal reasons” — the interim CEO insists that City fans have been given “their club back. We’ve got the owners this club deserves and we won’t settle for mediocre.”

Alongside chief fan experience officer, John Clarke, it was Dale who helped drive the opening of the Official Supporters Club which went from zero members to 7,000 in a year and already has 72 branches.

In 2011, when Birmingham beat Arsenal in the final of the Carling Cup to claim their second major trophy, Dale ditched plans to climb Machu Picchu to get to Wembley to watch his team.

“I’d been in Peru the day before and was in Seattle the day afterwards but I had to fly back to do it,” he says. “The picture I have with my daughters immediately after the game is one of my favourites, but the most amazing thing for me on that day, when we scored in the last minute and held on, was how everyone was saying, ‘It’s unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable.’

“One of the early challenges we set ourselves here was to make everything ‘unbelievable’.”

On Saturday, Birmingham want to show that he is sticking to his word.

(Top image: Illustration by Dan Goldfarb/The Athletic; photos by Eddie Keogh, Morgan Harlow, Jacob King/PA Images, all via Getty Images)