Craig Gardner makes Tom Wagner revelation after "disastrous" Birmingham City moment | OneFootball

Blues' Director of Football has revealed what the club's owner said to him after relegation last season.

Birmingham City's Director of Football Craig Gardner has revealed what Tom Wagner said to him after the club suffered relegation from the Championship last season.

Blues are on course to return to the second tier at the first time of asking, and after beating Stevenage 2-1 at St. Andrew's on Tuesday evening, their lead at the top of the League One table has stretched to 14 points.

Chris Davies' side are just weeks away from securing promotion to the Championship and he deserves a huge amount of credit in helping the West Midlands outfit to take that first step back towards their end goal of reaching the Premier League.

Birmingham make the trip to Northampton Town on Saturday as they look to extend their command over the division and continue their push to break the League One points record, which is currently held by Wolverhampton Wanderers when they won the title with 103 points in 2013/14.

Craig Gardner drops Tom Wagner post-relegation reveal

Blues' relegation feels like a lifetime ago to many supporters, with this season instilling belief back into the foundations of St. Andrew's and putting the club back on the map.

While it is only the start of this journey, it must be stated how far Birmingham have come in the last 10 months, and it began straight after the final whistle against Norwich City in May 2024.

Director of Football and former player, Gardner, revealed what Wagner said to him once the Blues' third tier status was confirmed.

Speaking to Birmingham's match day programme, Blues News, he said: "It was a real low moment for me.

"I can remember sitting there in my seat after the game, all the fans had gone and I was just thinking, ‘This is disastrous.’

"And then I saw Tom Wagner walking over. He sat with me, put his arm around me and said, ‘Are you OK?’ I was just like, ‘No, not really!’ And his immediate response was, ‘Don’t worry.’"

Gardner continued: "I said, ‘Tom, we’ve just been relegated, what do you mean don’t worry?’ And he said, ‘We are going to make sure we give you what you need to get this club back into the Championship, to get this club back into the Premier League, and to put this club where it deserves to be. And you are going to lead that.’

"When you look at that moment, that is proper leadership from an owner to come down and make sure that, A, I’m OK, and B, to spell out just where we are going."

Birmingham are showing no signs of slowing down this season

Blues tasted defeat in the league for the first time since November last week against Bolton Wanderers, but they have responded excellently with back-to-back victories over Lincoln City and Stevenage.

Promotion is within reach, and it looks incredibly likely that they will secure their return to the Championship at the start of April, something that will delight both Gardner and Wagner as they look to right the wrongs of last season.

Davies will not allow his Birmingham to show any signs of complacency, however, and League One teams must expect Blues to be firing on all cylinders from now until the final kick of the campaign as they edge closer to the league title.