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Built in Birmingham, the Amazon Prime documentary chronicling Tom Brady\u2019s unexpected leap from NFL icon to co-owner and figurehead at Birmingham City Football Club, it\u2019s fun if albeit a little head-scratching in parts but I\u2019m invested and along for the ride all the same.<\/p>\n
Tom Wagner, financier and founder of investment firm Knighthead Capital Management acquired Birmingham FC in 2023 and features heavily in this documentary so having this first hand look at the clubs acquisition is actually fascinating but many questions arose when Tom Brady was linked to the club with Tom admittedly knowing nothing about football.<\/p>\n
Tom says in the documentary during an interview segment that Tom isn\u2019t in it for the self-promotion but here we are front and centre in a documentary about the club with his face showing in each and every episode of this insightful documentary promoting.<\/p>\n
On one hand I can see having Tom involved is key to driving the documentary in the same vain as Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mcelhenney are within their Wrexham series but if he\u2019s not in it for the promotion, why get involved?<\/p>\n
Anyways, my mild skepticism aside I\u2019m quite familiar with Birmingham City FC as only a few days ago my very own football team Port Vale played them in a friendly and aside from one goalkeeping mistake from our reserve keeper we managed to fend off their first-team rather well. We looked solid and despite their team being worth an absolute fortune I really didn\u2019t think there was much between the two teams during the game but it\u2019s a friendly and one game aside Birmingham are tipped to go up as promotion favourites in the Championship despite only being promoted to the Championship this past season.<\/p>\n
Built in Birmingham: Brady & The Blues is one of those rare sports stories that manages to be both entertaining and oddly moving and one particular line within the first episode resonates with me greatly \u2013 \u201cEveryone says Birmingham is a Sh**hole, but it\u2019s our Sh**hole.\u201d<\/p>\n
This resonates with me greatly living in Stoke-On-Trent and it\u2019s a phrase I\u2019ve used so many times myself. Both cities rugged and rough around the edges but full of wonderfully diverse people from all walks of life, real salt of the earth people.<\/p>\n
Fans of Birmingham FC were anxious when Tom Brady decided to throw money their way, a man who knows nothing about football now in control of their beloved football club but after seeing the rise of Wrexham football club owned by two guys who also didn\u2019t have a clue about football the mood wasn\u2019t entirely negative.<\/p>\n
Built in Birmingham doesn\u2019t dodge those questions from doubting fans. In fact, the documentary\u2019s greatest strength is its willingness to treat Brady not as a savior or caricature, but as a stranger in a strange land trying to figure it all out.<\/p>\n
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He\u2019s not the hero who rides in to save the club but it\u2019s very upfront and honest that he hasn\u2019t got a clue what he\u2019s doing but he wants to learn and he wants to find out.<\/p>\n
\u2018We\u2019ve had so many rebirths, but they\u2019ve all been phantom pregnancies\u201d jokes one supporter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The series opens with Brady\u2019s arrival in Birmingham\u2014a cold, grey, unmistakably English day\u2014and his first tentative steps into the club\u2019s hallowed-but-weathered St Andrew\u2019s Stadium. From the start, there\u2019s a palpable tension between the glamour and polish Brady brings and the gritty, working-class identity of the club and its fiercely loyal supporters. But what could have easily become a \u201cHollywood meets humble\u201d gimmick turns into something more nuanced and interesting.<\/p>\n
The club has been bruised and battered over the years with relegation and underperforming running through its veins yet the fans come back over and over again, gluttons for punishment as the club fails and fails again. As a Port Vale fan I know this feeling all too well over the years but one good owner can change all that and with Tom Brady arriving at the club in August 2023, the club got recent promotion to the Championship this season. That\u2019s quite the first impression.<\/p>\n
But at times throughout the documentary there\u2019s just a little niggle that all is not as it seems and that starts right from the first episode. Tom is in a car about to go into a pub and meet fans, you can clearly hear him saying \u2018this is not my thing\u2019and he\u2019s almost hesitant to go inside the pub and meet the fans. I find that ever so strange, I don\u2019t know the guy but meeting fans and doing this brand work is not exactly second nature to a man of his sporting stature so why the hesitation here?<\/p>\n
I did find that rather odd and even more odd that the director decided to leave this particular moment (and a few others) in the documentary when it comes across as though he\u2019s not entirely too keen on meeting the fans and then other comments about some of the facilities etc. I like how they left it in the doc to give it that raw edge but there\u2019s just some little niggles that I would have if I was a fan watching that and your new owner was making those comments. But that\u2019s just me. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Steven Knight features heavily within Built in Birmingham: Brady & The Blues and it\u2019s perfect timing as the Peaky Blinders writer was today announced to be the man behind the brand new James Bond movie script. No pressure Steven!\u00a0<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s great to get an insight from fans from all walks of life as Birmingham was stepping into familiar territory with new owners but also with cautious optimism of what awaits them in the future.<\/p>\n
The sacking of John Eustace sent the club into decline from the Championship when they were doing well and playing well. The upper level management had some answering to do when Wayne Rooney was appointed and then sacked 4 months later as his commitment was questioned by the owners as stated in the documentary.<\/p>\n
As soon as Rooney arrives, the first meeting between him and Tom had Tom questioning his work ethic in a candid behind the scenes clip in the car and whilst I cannot say I agree with this statement I can agree that the footage shown in the documentary certainly don\u2019t help Wayne, he seems out of his depth and in his brief interactions with Tom the mood is very lethargic and lazy in tone but that could just be clever \/ bias editing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s safe to say the owners didn\u2019t quite find their feet straight off the bat and as a result the club toppled down into League One with a serious mountain to climb but as of the 24\/25 season Birmingham shot straight back into the Championship at the first time of asking with Chris Davies at the helm who had never managed a football club before but had served as a coach and more recently the senior assistant coach at Tottenham Hotspur before taking the leap into management in June 2024.<\/p>\n
What I\u2019ll also say is that I expect a LOT of football fans around the world to fall in love with striker Alfie May (who\u2019s now joined Huddersfield, coincidentally the club he was linked to before signing for Birmingham). He comes across incredibly well in the show, humble, down to earth but with a desire to win and a desire to keep playing to provide for his family. He really is a shining star in this documentary for the brief time he\u2019s on screen.<\/p>\n
At the first time of asking Birmingham swept League One aside with one of the leagues most expensive squads and now they\u2019re back in the Championship ready for the 25\/26 season with Premier League in their sights.<\/p>\n
But what you can take away from this is that appointing Wayne Rooney, who didn\u2019t have much managerial experience himself and then appointing Chris Davies who has never managed a team before, this ownership aren\u2019t afraid of taking risks and as a Birmingham fan that must be equal parts terrifying but equal parts fun.<\/p>\n
Tom Brady forever speaks about power of belief, of culture, of setting high standards. And whether or not you buy into that, you can\u2019t deny his commitment to it.<\/p>\n
By the end of Built in Birmingham, what stays with you isn\u2019t just the novelty of Tom Brady in a blue scarf\u2014it\u2019s the resilience of a club that refuses to die quietly and whilst Brady\u2019s influence will determine the future trajectory of the club there\u2019s certainly a feeling currently of stabilising the ship and getting them back into the championship was step one after an initial slip.<\/p>\n
Welcome to Wrexham will forever be the documentary that inspired this one and all of the others thereafter but it works because it\u2019s a lower league team working their way up whilst Birmingham were already at a higher level so the investment for a non-Birmingham fan in this documentary sadly just won\u2019t be as deep but there\u2019s still a lot of positives within this documentary to enjoy and invest in.<\/p>\n
This is more than a sports documentary. It\u2019s about risk, reinvention, and respect but I admire the honesty told throughout (even a little brutally at times) but even as a non-fan I thoroughly enjoyed the documentary and whilst it\u2019s no Welcome In Wrexham it\u2019s a rather nice little watch all the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Our Rating<\/p>\n
Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n Whilst it\u2019s no Welcome to Wrexham it\u2019s a rather nice little watch all the same and for fans of Birmingham City FC it\u2019s a stepping stone for the future and as it stands, it looks to be a bright one indeed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Built in Birmingham, the Amazon Prime documentary chronicling Tom Brady\u2019s unexpected leap from NFL icon to co-owner and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-310852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114956918122840598","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}