Chris Davies reunited Christoph Klarer and Phil Neumann in defence for Birmingham City’s win at Preston in midweek
Birmingham City’s Phil Neumann and Christoph Klarer during a warm up
Chris Davies has responded directly to rumours that defensive duo Christoph Klarer and Phil Neumann don’t see eye-to-eye.
Neumann returned to Birmingham City’s starting XI on Tuesday and produced a man of the match display alongside Klarer against Preston.
For the last few weeks, social media has been awash with speculation that the pair don’t get on after Neumann was dropped from the line-up. Davies has explained that Neumann’s five-game exclusion was due to him wanting to play with a left-footed centre-back.
So the Blues manager was surprised to face a question about Klarer and Neumann in the Q&A section of Wednesday night’s Open House at St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park.
“Firstly, I hadn’t heard that,” began Davies. “One of the good things that I’ve done is I don’t look at social media, I have never engaged in any of it, so I don’t really know what’s going on but if there was a fight between those two then Neumann wouldn’t be standing up.
“If Klarer had a fight with anyone then he’s going to win it, basically. There’s absolutely none of that going on.
“We have got a great captain in Klarer, he is one of those guys that will tell people to have high standards day-to-day, but he’s actually one that Neumann has got on well with because of the language and he’s helped him settle in. So, absolutely no fight, but I would like to see it if there was.”
Chief executive Jeremy Dale quipped: “Maybe we can put that on in the stadium and make a bit more money. Can we do that?”
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