Tom Brady stands proud like a sore thumb in Birmingham.
The previous New England Patriots quarterback is a minority proprietor of Birmingham Metropolis, a working-class membership in a working-class city, and seeing him at the back of a automobile being pushed alongside acquainted streets is a peculiar expertise.
Brady was delivered to Birmingham by fellow American and Metropolis chairman Tom Wagner – ‘My pal Wags’, as Brady calls him – and it was Wagner’s drive that underpinned a record-breaking 2024-25 promotion season and main regeneration plans off the pitch.
Singing the Blues to a distinct tune
Naturally, Brady’s involvement means a behind-the-scenes documentary collection on Prime Video.
Each Wagner and the NFL legend communicate extensively throughout 5 episodes of Inbuilt Birmingham: Brady & The Blues, which will probably be launched on Friday, August 1.
Birmingham, the town, isn’t dressed up or shied away from, and the assortment of supporters featured within the documentary, between mercifully rare clips from Peaky Blinders, displays the self-effacing gallows humour that’s half and parcel of being a Brummie soccer supporter of any stripe.
Inbuilt Birmingham introduces us to folks who’re precisely that.
Steven Knight, the creator of Peaky Blinders and a bred, if not born, Brummie, leads a forged of characters who’re virtually uniformly charming, relatable, on a regular basis English soccer followers.
Birmingham Metropolis being Birmingham Metropolis, their story begins within the doldrums and will get worse.
After generations of householders totally unfit for the position, the membership is stagnating within the Championship. The one approach just isn’t up.
Supervisor John Eustace seems briefly earlier than being sacked in favour of Wayne Rooney, ranked at no.50 in FourFourTwo’s checklist of the best gamers of all time.
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Blues followers – whose ranks additionally embody Dan and Paul Collins, steward Sam Pitt and vlogger Brummie Joe – are stunned.
Rooney’s tenure is a catastrophe, and Birmingham are relegated to League One. The previous Everton and Manchester United striker’s sacking is framed in a approach that seems determined to show that ruthless co-owners Brady and Wagner win, solely win, and solely care about profitable.
The collection ends with defeat at Wembley within the EFL Trophy remaining, however with the Blues promoted as League One champions and the house owners accepting accountability for the questionable choices in addition to the nice ones.
Their best option of all was to nominate Chris Davies as Rooney’s everlasting alternative.
Inbuilt Birmingham reveals a complete recruitment course of interrupted by the previous Tottenham Hotspur coach’s instantly apparent suitability for the job.
Davies, as anticipated, is spectacular all through.
The Blues, not Brady, are the story
Whereas Brady’s contribution is centred totally on reminders that he’s a winner who is aware of what it takes to win, the collection general is circumspect in regards to the realities uncovered alongside the way in which, given the extent of ambition concerned.
The second episode takes the viewer behind the web curtain of a destiny-shifting summer season switch window and affords real perception into the signings of strikers Alfie Could and Jay Stansfield.
Wagner cuts a decided determine, and Craig Gardner, now sporting director, is proven to be a educated recruitment head.
In episode three, a Blues crew firing on all cylinders face an away fixture towards Exeter Metropolis. Stansfield, a former Grecian, is the son of Exeter legend Adam, who was taken by bowel most cancers when Jay was simply seven years outdated.
He scores and Birmingham win, info that aren’t ignored because the Stansfield story is handled with respect however deftly confined to its correct soccer context.
Stansfield is stretchered off and hospitalised within the remaining episode and Could is tasked with deputising.
However he’s struggling a purpose drought, into which the cameras are given actual private perception.
With assist from Gardner and Davies, Could finds his scoring contact. “I like his juice,” Brady says earlier within the collection.
Reality might be uncomfortable, and the collection pulls few punches with regards to Birmingham Metropolis’s hooligan previous.
It’s addressed head-on and, unusually, not totally condemned.
That the origins of the Zulu Warriors are excused is a stunning selection however finally, it’s a case of genuine voices talking about their very own experiences.
Inbuilt Birmingham: Brady & The Blues will give Birmingham supporters a wealthy look right into a historic season for his or her membership, however pays the worth of not being the primary to take viewers behind beforehand locked doorways, and it dabbles in rawness somewhat than truly possessing any.
The collection is a compelling three-hour story in a five-hour bag.
It wastes a couple of seconds on Simon Jordan, however there’s additionally an excessive amount of give attention to Brady when he’s not in England.
He’s afforded McElhennian protagonist standing even in his absence, arguably on the expense of components of the story not informed.
Viewers who’re conscious of the extent of Wagner’s plans for the membership and the town off the pitch will realise that when the membership is the main target, it’s all the time to do with what’s taking place on the pitch and within the first crew.
Highlighting a number of the extra infrastructural and community-based plans for the membership might need higher anchored the story in a metropolis that’s too typically ignored.
Inbuilt Birmingham: Brady & The Blues is out on Friday on Prime Video.
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