Birmingham City have been relegated from the Championship, ending a difficult first season for the club's American ownership group, which includes NFL legend Tom Brady.
Birmingham endured a roller-coaster campaign that saw them use three different head coaches -- including Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney -- but ultimately ends in relegation despite a final-day victory over Norwich City.
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"Thank you for your support in a tough first year Bluenoses. We have a long way to go but it's because of all of you that we'll achieve great things in the future," Brady said in a post on X.
Brady became a minority investor in Birmingham in August, entering into a partnership with the club's new owners, Knighthead Capital Management LLC. He also holds a position as advisory board chairman.
Birmingham enjoyed a promising start under John Eustace with five wins from their opening 11 games. However, the club opted to replace Eustace with Rooney, a decision that would prove disastrous and resulted in nine defeats in their next 15 games.
The club sacked Rooney in January with the club on the brink of the relegation zone, although his replacement, Tony Mowbray, was unable to keep the club up.
Birmingham faced a tall order to stay up entering Saturday. They were required to beat Norwich but also needed one of three other games to go their way -- Plymouth at home to Millwall, Sheffield Wednesday at Sunderland, and Eustace's Blackburn Rovers at Leicester.
When all of Plymouth, Wednesday and Blackburn won, Birmingham's future was out of their hands.
The club will play in England's third tier next season for the first time since 1995. They were relegated alongside Rotherham and Huddersfield Town.
