For anyone who doubts Tom Brady’s influence at Birmingham City, Alex Guerrero’s presence in the friendly against Solihull Moors on July 17 should tell them all they need to know.
Forget the fact that Brady only attended two games last season. If Guerrero is involved, it means one thing: Brady is really involved in this.
Although the name will not be familiar to many English football fans, Guerrero is well known across the Atlantic.
Brady describes him as his “body trainer.” The two have worked together for two decades, and Brady credits Guerrero with extending his NFL career beyond his 45th birthday. With Guerrero at his side, Brady won four Super Bowls and three MVP awards.
Guerrero is a controversial figure, however. He was investigated by the Federal Trade Commission (a branch of the US government) and accepted a $65,000 (around £51,000) settlement in 2005 that prevented him from presenting himself as a doctor and claiming his products could cure cancer and concussions.
Birmingham City co-owner Tom Brady is looking to help the club reach the heights it once attained
The presence of Alex Guerrero (right), Brady’s body coach, has shown that the NFL legend is truly committed to City.
American Brady attended just two games last season when his club were relegated from the championship.
“I have tremendous confidence in Alex and what he’s accomplished with me,” Brady said in 2015. “That’s part of his life and it’s something that happened 13 years ago.”
Guerrero also clashed with Bill Belichick, the legendary coach of Brady’s NFL franchise, the New England Patriots, though Brady again staunchly defended Guerrero, saying in a 2015 interview that “in the 10 or 11 years we’ve been working together, he’s never been wrong.”
So Brady will be doing a lot more in Birmingham than buying a few pints for fans at The Roost near St Andrew’s, as he did before the home game against Leeds a year ago.
The logo of TBRx, the fitness and performance company led by Guerrero and Brady, is on the wall of the training camp’s gym and medical rooms. In one of those areas, on the first floor, it is accompanied by a quote from Brady: “The real competitors, however, are those who always play to win.”
That means the Birmingham squad will no longer have any Sundays off. Brady believes the 24 hours after a game are vital and players will report to the training ground for recovery sessions the day after each game. These sessions will be led by TBRx staffer Peter Cummings and his team. One of his lieutenants, Rob Brennan, did some individual fitness work with Blues forward Tyler Roberts, who was plagued by injuries last season, in Las Vegas during pre-season.
“I speak to Tom regularly and he has a real passion and interest in what we do,” said manager Chris Davies. “We have the TBRx people here and they help us with recovery and preparation.
‘Tom was one of the best athletes in the world who played until he was 45. He brings a wealth of experience as a high-level athlete in terms of nutrition, preparation, mindset and recovery.’
Chris Davies is now in charge of the team, with Brady’s TBRx team helping the team with recovery and fitness.
Birmingham’s training ground has been revamped, including a new pitch matching the dimensions of St Andrew’s.
The training ground has made a big impression on potential new signings. It now boasts state-of-the-art pitches matching the dimensions of St Andrew’s, an improved warm-up area and a refurbished recruitment suite for manager Craig Gardner and his staff. The old players’ lounge has been knocked down and replaced by an improved medical and treatment room.
Let’s face it, Birmingham mean business. They have spent £15m on the stadium and training facilities and appointed Chris Davies, who has worked with Brendan Rodgers and Ange Postecoglou, as manager. Davies has simple instructions: automatic promotion.
Knighthead have backed Davies in the transfer market, bringing in eight players for a fee of around £9m – a colossal sum for a third-tier club, especially in the post-Covid era. And as well as investing in the squad and training ground, Knighthead have also given St Andrew’s a lick of paint.
Knighthead’s ultimate aim is to move the Blues to a sports complex similar to Manchester City’s Etihad Campus, estimated to cost £2-3bn, by 2029 at the earliest. The site would house Birmingham’s stadium, as well as training facilities, an academy and wider retail and leisure facilities. The “sports quarter”, as officials have dubbed it, is expected to create up to 3,000 jobs.
Knighthead’s ultimate aim is to move the Blues into a sports complex estimated to cost between £2bn and £3bn.
That hasn’t stopped Knighthead from getting to work on the present, though. Fans attending Saturday’s season opener against Reading will notice two LED screens at either end of the stadium. The corporate reception facilities have undergone a major upgrade, with the Gil Merrick Stand’s boxes removed and replaced with a single room with a glass screen.
There is now a permanent fan zone in the Main Stand car park. The Blues have indeed sold around 18,000 season tickets and a full house is likely against Reading. In recent years, the Kop and Tilton stands have been closed due to rebuilding work, and this is the first time since 2019 that Birmingham will have their entire ground open to supporters for a season.
“I believe this club is going to go to the top, with or without me,” Davies said. “Despite the relegation, I was pretty convinced of it because of the vision and support of the owners. That made me think I wanted to be the person to lead this journey.
‘With the opportunities I had before, I didn’t have the same feeling and probably the timing wasn’t right. The owners have great ambition, but they have also shown their commitment not only to the club, but also to the city.
‘Look at the renovation work going on at the training ground and the stadium. It’s unusual for a club that has just been relegated and I wanted to be involved in it.
“It’s difficult to set a definitive destination, but the goal is to become an elite club, trying to reach the highest level first and then be really competitive. It’s a long road, but the ambition and the possibilities are clear. Now we have to try to climb that mountain, but we have a direction and we believe we can get somewhere.”
Those in charge must prove their judgement off the pitch can produce results on it, something that failed to happen when Wayne Rooney was appointed manager.
However small his actual financial stake, Brady doesn’t want to be associated with a project that fails. The man is used to success, and while Wagner and his associates have done everything they can off the field to achieve it, they must now prove that their judgment can produce results on the field, something they failed to do in spectacular fashion last season.
In October, with the Blues sitting sixth in the Championship, the board, headed by chief executive Garry Cook, sacked John Eustace and appointed Wayne Rooney, promising a “no fear” philosophy. The decision proved a disaster and by the time the Blues accepted the inevitable and sacked the former England captain in January, they were already in a relegation battle that they would ultimately lose.
It would probably have been different if Tony Mowbray, who replaced Rooney, had remained in charge for the rest of the campaign. When Mowbray stepped away in February for health reasons, the Blues were on the right track and would surely have avoided relegation.
But the Eustace-Rooney debacle was a disaster that was entirely down to the club’s ownership. Mail Sport’s exclusive story on June 24, which revealed that Birmingham had asked the EFL if their clash with American-owned Wrexham could be held in America, showed an alarming lack of sensitivity towards the English game. If Knighthead do not learn from these mistakes, it will not matter how many LED screens, improved pitches or fancy recruiting rooms they have funded. Not even with one of the greatest athletes of his generation as a spectator.
