Tom Brady has made a specific request to Birmingham City chief executive Garry Cook, after being ‘blown away’ during his recent trip to the UK.
Birmingham City investor and minority owner Brady was recently in the UK where Cook arranged for the NFL legend to visit Manchester City’s Etihad Campus.
Cook was formerly the CEO at Manchester City, and Brady has now asked the Blues chief to give Birmingham City a similar training complex to City’s state of the art Etihad Campus.
Tom Brady dreaming big at Birmingham City
Speaking to Birmingham Live, Cook revealed:
“We went to see another Premier League football club and look at all their facilities. It was one I was involved in previously and they have built an academy and a training centre, which is attached to the stadium, which is absolutely magnificent and Tom Brady was blown away.
“His first question is: ‘How do we get this? How do we make this happen?’ And his questions during the game: ‘How do we get better? What are the challenges we face?’”
Brady invested in Birmingham City earlier this year and was soon after made chairman of an advisory board at the club.
He appears to have a quite key role at the club with Brady having recently visited the club’s Elite Performance and Innovation Centre (EPIC) to speak with the players, and offer some insight and inspiration during this tough vein of form.
It was recently announced that Blues would be staying at EPIC for the next three seasons after a fire at the Wast Hills training ground earlier this year.
Can Cook deliver Brady’s ambitions?
Ambition is one thing, but being realistic is another.
Birmingham City are currently at a decent training facility and so whether or not a training complex the size and stature of City’s is something they could achieve in the near future remains to be seen, if not unlikely.
But with Birmingham City and Brady dreaming big for the future, a new training complex is certainly something they’ll need, and Cook could definitely get the ball rolling.
Land is obviously needed and plenty of capital too, so it’s not an overnight job for the Blues chief.
Brady definitely has the vision and the experience of playing for a highly successful sports team, with that experience bound to have an influence at Birmingham City over the next few years.
Right now though, times are tough.
Wayne Rooney is coming under increasing pressure having taken just one win from his opening nine games in charge.
Up next for Blues is a trip to Cardiff City tomorrow night.