West Ham handed Birmingham City a club legend for just £1.7m: View

For everyone associated with Birmingham City, the late 1990s and early 2000s were a pleasant and comparatively prosperous time.

Following their ascent from the third tier abyss under Barry Fry in 1995, the Blues eventually lost their charismatic leader the following summer when Trevor Francis emerged as their greatest player to date.

After that, Francis oversaw three seasons in a row of growth at St Andrew’s. The team went from finishing in 15th place to a final 4th place at the end of the 1998–1999 season, when they were denied the opportunity to end a 14-year ban from the top flight after losing to Watford in B9.

Birmingham had many highs and lows in the ensuing years, as the club’s well-known anthem, “Keep Right On,” often mentions. Meanwhile, Francis was assembling a team that would include a number of future Second City cult heroes, one of whom would arrive in the summer of 1999.

Stan Lazaridis’ arrival at Birmingham City

At that point, West Ham United, who had made a tidy profit on their own £300,000 deal to bring the Perth-born winger to East London four summers earlier, lost out to the club for the reported £1.7 million that Australian winger Stan Lazaridis had paid to join.

After playing 31 games and scoring two goals for Blues in what is now the Championship in his first season at the club, Lazaridis was unable to break the play-off curse that plagued them for three years running, as they lost 5-2 on aggregate to Barnsley in the semi-finals.

The next season, the team advanced to the NFL Cup Final against Liverpool, and the Australian played in six games, including the team’s loss in a penalty shootout in Cardiff. He also had the same league record of 99/00. However, Birmingham was defeated by Preston North End in the play-off semifinals once more.

Despite having previously played for Aston Villa and West Brom, Birmingham City signed Kevin Phillips ahead of the 2008/09 season

Blues’ and Lazaridis’ eventual rise into the Premier League

All Bluenoses had a very happy season in 2001–02, but in November of that year, Francis left the team and was subsequently replaced by Steve Bruce.

But after being appointed, the former centre back managed to record 11 wins, with Lazaridis playing a consistent role throughout the season once more. Birmingham finished fourth and eventually defeated Millwall in a thrilling semi-final match to clinch their first-ever promotion to the Premier League since 1985. They then moved on from the heartbreak of the play-offs with a shoot-out triumph over Norwich City at the Millennium Stadium, in which he scored.

With two goals and as many assists in their return to the top flight, the Australian did manage to up his goal total. His first came against his former team, West Ham, where he set up Stern John for the game-winning goal and the Blues’ first away victory in the Premier League era.

But one of Lazaridis’ most memorable Royal Blue moments was during their away win over Aston Villa in the ‘Second City Derby’ in March 2003. On minute 74, he turned the ball past Peter Enckelman after a cross from Jeff Kenna, and Birmingham won 2-0 at Villa Park.

Once again, the 03/04 campaign yielded two goals for Lazaridis, with the second of those being an iconic solo effort in front of the Gill Merrick Stand against Everton in a 3-0 win back in February 2004.

The beginning of the end of Stan Lazaridis’ Birmingham City career

For Lazaridis and Birmingham, the 04–05 season marked the beginning of a rather downward spiral. His career was marred by a reoccurring thigh condition that started to cause problems in the summer of 2004.

He would appear in just 20 Premier League games that season before the team’s 2005–06 season proved to be catastrophic for everyone involved.

The seasoned winger would find it particularly difficult once more as the team finished 18th and made their second-tier comeback after four years, playing just 17 times, 11 of which were starts.

Weeks before his tragic last game for the team, an 11-minute cameo in a 3-1 loss to Villa on April 15, 2006, Lazaridis declared his love for the team and his willingness to forgive them should they decline an offer of a new contract in March 2006, which is precisely what happened.

“The club has a one-year option on me, but they will have to cut costs if we do end up going down.” According to the Irish Examiner, he stated, “It is probably more than likely that I will go, but there is no bitterness at all if that happens.”

“My seven years at Birmingham have been fantastic. I will always hold a special place in my heart for this club, in my opinion. Since I’m the only player who has truly played since the manager arrived, if I leave, it will mark the end of an era,” Lazaridis said.

He would eventually leave the team in the summer of 2006 to play for Perth Glory, an A-League team based in his hometown. During his 212 appearances at St Andrew’s, he scored eight goals and became known to Blues supporters as “Stan the Man.”

Even now, the £1.7 million proven to be well-spent money.

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