For anyone doubting Tom Brady’s influence at Birmingham City, Alex Guerrero’s presence at their friendly against Solihull Moors on July 17 should provide enough information.
Forget the fact that Brady only attended two games last season. If Guerrero is involved, that means one thing: Brady is really involved.
Although the name may not be familiar to many English football fans, Guerrero is a household name across the Atlantic.
Brady describes him as his “body coach,” the pair have worked together for two decades, and Brady credits Guerrero with extending his NFL career past his 45th birthday. With Guerrero at his side, Brady has won four Super Bowls and three MVP (Most Valuable Player) awards.
Yet Guerrero is a controversial figure. He was investigated by the Federal Trade Commission, an arm of the US government, and in 2005 agreed to a $65,000 (around £51,000) settlement that prevented him from posing as a doctor and claiming that his products could cure cancer and concussions.
Birmingham City co-owner Tom Brady (pictured above) is keen to help the club reach the heights they once achieved
The presence of Alex Guerrero (right), Brady’s ‘body coach’, has shown that the NFL legend is really going for it with City
American Brady attended just two games last season as 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 that’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 vigorously defended Guerrero. In a 2015 interview, he said, “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 just buying a few pints for the fans in The Roost at St Andrew’s, as he did last year before the home game against Leeds.
The logo of TBRx, the fitness and performance company led by Guerrero and Brady, is on the wall of the gym and medical rooms on the training field. In one of those rooms, on the first floor, is a quote from Brady: “The real competitors, though, are those who always play to win.”
That means no more Sundays off for the Birmingham team. Brady believes the 24 hours after a game are vital, with players reporting to the training ground the day after each game for recovery sessions, led by TBRx staff member Peter Cummings and his team. One of his lieutenants, Rob Brennan, did one-on-one fitness work with injury-plagued Blues forward Tyler Roberts in Las Vegas during the closed season last 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 with recovery and preparation.
‘Tom was one of the best athletes in the world who played until he was 45. He brings a lot of experience as a top athlete in the field of nutrition, preparation, mindset and recovery.’
Chris Davies now leads 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 that matches the dimensions of St Andrew’s
The training ground has made a huge impression on potential new signings. It now has state-of-the-art pitches to match the size of St Andrew’s, an improved warm-up area and a revamped recruitment area for Technical Director Craig Gardner and his staff. The old players’ lounge has been demolished and replaced with an improved medical and treatment room.
Because make no mistake: Birmingham mean business. They’ve spent £15m on the stadium and training facilities and appointed Chris Davies, who has worked with Brendan Rodgers and Ange Postecoglou, as manager. Davies’ mandate is simple: 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 Division 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, at an estimated cost of £2-3 billion, by 2029. The site would have Birmingham’s stadium at its heart, as well as training, academy and wider business and entertainment facilities. It is hoped that this ‘Sports Quarter’, as officials have dubbed it, will create up to 3,000 jobs.
Knighthead’s ultimate aim is to move the Blues to a sports complex, at an estimated cost of £2-3 billion
That hasn’t stopped Knighthead from working on the here and now, though. Fans attending Saturday’s season opener against Reading will notice two LED screens at either end of the stadium. The corporate hospitality facilities have undergone a significant upgrade, with the boxes in the Gil Merrick Stand stripped out and replaced with a single space with a glass screen.
There is now a permanent fan zone in the car park of the Main Stand. Indeed, the Blues have sold around 18,000 season tickets and against Reading it will probably be a full house. In recent years the Kop and Tilton Stands have been closed for redevelopment and this is the first time since 2019 that Birmingham have opened their entire ground to supporters for a season.
“I believe this club is going to the top with or without me,” Davies said. “Despite the relegation, I was pretty confident because of the vision and support of the owners. That made me think I wanted to be the person to lead that journey.
“With the opportunities I had before, I didn’t get the same feeling and the timing was probably not quite right. The owners have great ambition, but have also proven that they are committed 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’s just been relegated and I wanted to be there.
‘It’s hard to put a definitive destination on it, but the journey is about becoming an elite club – first trying to reach the highest level and then being really competitive. That’s a long way off, but the ambition and the possibilities are clear. Now we have to try to climb that mountain, but we have a direction and the belief that we can go somewhere.’
Those in charge need to show their judgement off the pitch and get results with it, something that didn’t happen when Wayne Rooney was appointed manager.
No matter how small his actual financial stake, Brady doesn’t want to be associated with a failing project. This is a man used to success, and while Wagner and his staff have done everything they can to achieve it off the field, they now need to show that their judgment can produce results on it—something they failed at spectacularly last season.
With the Blues sixth in the Championship in October, the board – led by chief executive Garry Cook – sacked John Eustace and appointed Wayne Rooney, promising a ‘no fear’ philosophy. The move proved a disaster and by the time the Blues accepted the inevitable and sacked the former England captain in January, they were locked in a relegation battle that they would ultimately lose.
Things might have been different if Tony Mowbray, who replaced Rooney, had been in charge for the rest of the campaign. When Mowbray left for health reasons in February, the Blues were on the right track and would certainly have avoided relegation.
But the Eustace/Rooney debacle was a mess entirely of the owners’ making. The Mail Sport exclusive story of 24 June, which revealed that Birmingham had asked the EFL if their clash with American side Wrexham could be staged in the US, showed an alarming lack of sensitivity to the English game. If Knighthead don’t learn from these missteps, it won’t matter how many LED screens, upgraded pitches or luxury recruitment centres they’ve funded. Not even with one of the best athletes of his generation watching.