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The inside track on John Eustace, Birmingham City’s ‘element of uncertainty’ and Swansea City’s chances of luring him
As things stand, Russell Martin is still in charge at Swansea City, but his exit doesn’t seem any less likely.
Yes, this saga has dragged on for longer than anyone would like, but barring a U-turn of epic proportions, Martin will be installed as the next Southampton manager.
Attention is understandably already starting to drift towards the matter of his successor, with a number of names already mentioned as being in the frame.
READ MORE: Russell Martin to Southampton Live: Updates as Swansea City boss remains on verge of exit
Swansea have already started initial discussions with possible candidates, although admittedly there’s only so far those conversations can go with Martin still in the hot-seat.
One name who has been heavily linked is Birmingham City manager John Eustace – and for good reason too.
Eustace is a coach with plenty of admirers in SA1, having twice come close to the job.
Indeed, he was offered the position following the departure of Steve Cooper, only to pull out due to personal reasons. There’s now been a suggestion he could be back on the radar of the Swans’ hierarchy this time around, although the landscape has clearly shifted since then.
Eustace is understood to be settled at St Andrew’s, and there’s no indication at this stage that he’d be interested in moving to south Wales, although the arrival of new ownership at the Blues has perhaps complicated things.
The 43-year-old is yet to receive assurances from the club’s new owners ahead of the new campaign, although he’s believed to have held a brief chat with prospective boss Tom Wagner following the club’s last game of the season.
So, could a move to Swansea realistically happen? We spoke to Alex Dicken, senior football writer at BirminghamLive to get the full lowdown on where things stand.
How has John got on at Birmingham? Seems from the outside that he’s done an excellent job under difficult circumstances.
I think the general perception of it is that he’s done quite a good job in very challenging circumstances. Last year they’d just started pre-season training and Lee Bowyer got sacked in around the second week. So Eustace didn’t really have a full pre-season. He pretty much flew straight over to Portugal with the team.
He wouldn’t have had a great involvement in a lot of the signings that summer and a year into the job, he’ll probably have more of a chance to put his own stamp on recruitment this summer.
I would probably say the players don’t suit his style of football. He had to adapt to them. Before Christmas they were on the cusp of the play-off places and then obviously a bad run of results after the new year saw some supporters start to question him. But in terms of the players, there was never a suggestion he once came close to losing the dressing room even when on a bad run. He’s hugely popular with his players and that’s worked really well.
The challenge for him now is how to improve on that and implement a more attractive style, which I know he wants to, and get the club moving further up the Championship table.
What’s the latest on his current situation at St Andrew’s? There’s obviously new ownership coming in. Has that created any uncertainty at all?
Knighthead are a hedgefund in America and they’ve agreed a deal to buy just over 45 per cent in the club. They’re led by Tom Wagner, who’s an American businessman. They were given the approval by the EFL on Friday and now they’re awaiting approval from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which will hopefully come at the beginning of next month. They have to put it before shareholders and that was delayed but it’s due to go again by the end of this month. So then it will take 10 days or so after that.
It’s hugely positive for supporters, but it does create some uncertainty. I’ve not heard anything in terms of Eustace other than he’s expected to go forward into pre-season and prepare as usual. I think we’ll hopefully get more clarification on that from the new owners soon.
Has he spoken about his future recently?
He’s not one to speak publicly about these things. The one thing I will say is that John’s a local guy. He’s based in Birmingham and this is all very convenient for him. He has a young family and he’s hugely determined to be successful with Birmingham City as he’s mentioned that numerous times. He wants to be the one to lead the club forward, and hopefully the new owners will give him that chance.
What style of football has he implemented there? What sort of players does he seem to favour?
It’s an interesting one. The football’s not always been the easiest on the eye at times. I think that’s a lot to do with the players he inherited. There were five loan players who came in last season and I don’t think it was a squad that really suited the style he played at QPR or Kidderminster. They were two teams that played more attractive attacking football.
That’s something he would like to do. I don’t think this Birmingham team and the players he’s got here at the moment are going to be playing tiki-taka Barcelona football, but from what I can understand I think he would like to be more of a front foot team, a faster team, a more competitive team.
He likes a 3-5-2 formation and he really likes his number 8s being real box-to-box players. That’s something he’s really picked up this season and something I’m sure he’ll look at going forward as well. I think Swansea are one of the better footballing sides in the league. I don’t think Blues are capable of playing that kind of way yet, but he’s a manager who can play good football, and I think that’s probably why Swansea and some others have shown an interest.
Swansea would obviously need to cough up a compensation package if they were to make a move. Any idea on what sort of sum they might be looking at?
No idea on that one!
John’s already turned Swansea down twice, although the second time was largely due to personal reasons. Would he realistically be interested this time around?
It’s difficult. He obviously lives locally and has a young family, and he probably wouldn’t want to up sticks and go somewhere like Swansea. In an ideal world, I think he would stay at Birmingham City and start progressing them up the table and get to the point where they’re in the promotion conversation again, which they obviously haven’t been for some time.
Then again, the ownership situation does create an element of uncertainty and Eustace, like everyone else, will be searching for assurances. Hopefully everyone will get that when the new owners do get their feet under the table.
READ MORE:
The compensation snag holding up Russell Martin’s Southampton move and the substantial cash windfall at stake for Swansea City
Swansea City transfer news as Joel Piroe attracts Premier League interest and Rangers tipped to end Whittaker chase
The reasons Welsh rivals Cardiff City and Swansea City have each been eyeing up Oscar Garcia
The latest on Swansea City’s boardroom shake-up
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