2021–22 Birmingham City F.C. season

All Birmingham's home matches in the 2020–21 season were played behind closed doors because of the COVID-19 pandemic.^[6] Under head coach Aitor Karanka, Birmingham City gradually slid down the 2020–21 Championship table until, with ten games remaining and in serious danger of relegation, former Birmingham player Lee Bowyer resigned as manager of Charlton Athletic to take over as head coach.^[2] The team lost only one of the next eight matches and retained their Championship status with two games still to play.^[7] On 11 May 2021, CEO Ren Xuandong resigned.^[8]

In June 2020, the club announced a four-year partnership with Nike as supplier of kits, which carry the logo of the club's principal sponsor, Irish bookmaker BoyleSports.^[9] The home shirt has a camouflage-patterned front in two shades of blue, worn with white shorts and blue socks, while the away kit has a yellow shirt with blue pinstripes and trim, similar to the Europa League kit of ten years before, with blue shirts and white socks.^[10] In November, they brought out a limited-edition third kit; the shirt has a camouflage front in orange and green and a predominantly green back, and is worn with orange shorts and socks.^[11]

After a training camp in Scotland, Birmingham planned five pre-season friendlies: away to Cheltenham Town and Northampton Town, behind-closed-doors games at the Wast Hills training ground against Oxford United – who cancelled due to COVID-19 and were replaced by a Salford City XI^[12][13] – and Barrow, and one match at St Andrew's against West Bromwich Albion.^[14]

Birmingham City were drawn at home to League One club Plymouth Argyle in the third round.^[68]

Birmingham were drawn to play League One club Colchester United at home in the first round.^[70] Bowyer made 11 changes from the team that started at Sheffield United 72 hours earlier, giving debuts to Chuks Aneke, Jordan Graham and Marcel Oakley, and it was Oakley who scored the only goal of the game with a 75th-minute deflected shot. Tate Campbell made his Birmingham debut as a substitute, and Jobe Bellingham, the 15-year-old brother of England international Jude, was also named on the bench.^[71][72] In the second round they fielded a slightly less weakened team, but still made 10 changes from the previous league match, with Mitch Roberts, Dion Sanderson and (as a substitute) Alfie Chang making their first Birmingham appearances and Neil Etheridge returning in goal after recovering from COVID-19. Opponents Fulham, newly relegated from the Premier League, scored midway through the first half after an error by Ivan Šunjić, but Birmingham held out until stoppage time before conceding a second.^[73]

For those players released or contract ended before the start of this season please see 2020–21 Birmingham City F.C. season.

† Brackets round a club's name indicate the player's contract with that club had expired before he joined Birmingham.

† Brackets round a club's name denote the player joined that club after his Birmingham City contract expired.

Sources:^{[127][128][129]}

Numbers in parentheses denote appearances made as a substitute.

Players marked † left the club during the playing season.

Players with names in italics and marked * were on loan from another club for the whole of their season with Birmingham.

Players listed with no appearances have been in the matchday squad but only as unused substitutes.

Key to positions: GK – Goalkeeper; DF – Defender; MF – Midfielder; FW – Forward

Players' appearances and goals by competition

No.	Pos.	Nat.	Name	League		FA Cup		EFL Cup		Total		Discipline
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1	GK	PHI	Neil Etheridge	21	0	1	0	1	0	23	0	2	0
2	DF	FRA	Maxime Colin	31 (2)	1	1	0	0	0	32 (2)	1	2	0
3	DF	DEN	Kristian Pedersen	37	2	1	0	0	0	38	2	11	1
4	DF	ENG	Marc Roberts	39	2	0	0	0	0	39	2	7	0
5	DF	ENG	George Friend	12 (2)	0	1	0	2	0	15 (2)	0	2	1
6	MF	ENG	Ryan Woods	25 (5)	0	1	0	0	0	26 (5)	0	7	1
7	MF	NED	Tahith Chong *	19 (1)	1	0	0	0	0	19 (1)	1	2	0
8	MF	ENG	Taylor Richards *	2 (4)	0	0	0	0	0	2 (4)	0	1	0
9	FW	IRL	Scott Hogan	28 (8)	10	1	0	0	0	29 (8)	10	2	0
10	FW	ENG	Lukas Jutkiewicz	17 (19)	2	0	0	0	0	17 (19)	2	1	0
11	FW	FRA	Jérémie Bela	26 (5)	2	0	0	0	0	26 (5)	2	3	0
12	DF	ENG	Harlee Dean	14 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	14 (1)	0	2	0
13	GK	MNE	Matija Sarkic * †	23	0	0	0	0	0	23	0	0	0
14	FW	ENG	Jonathan Leko	1 (3)	0	0	0	2	0	3 (3)	0	1	0
15	FW	ENG	Chuks Aneke †	1 (17)	2	0 (1)	0	2	0	3 (18)	2	2	0
17	MF	ESP	Iván Sánchez	0 (2)	0	0	0	1	0	1 (2)	0	0	0
18	MF	AUS	Riley McGree * †	10 (3)	2	0	0	1 (1)	0	11 (4)	2	5	0
18	DF	ENG	Teden Mengi *	9	0	1	0	0	0	10	0	1	0
19	MF	WAL	Jordan James	13 (7)	1	1	0	0	0	14 (7)	1	1	0
20	MF	ENG	Gary Gardner	31 (4)	6	1	0	0	0	32 (4)	6	9	2
21	DF	ENG	Dion Sanderson * †	14 (1)	0	0	0	1	0	15 (1)	0	2	0
21	MF	CUR	Juninho Bacuna	16 (1)	2	0	0	0	0	16 (1)	2	4	0
23	DF	NED	Juan Castillo * †	1 (2)	0	0	0	2	1	2 (2)	0	1	0
24	MF	ENG	Jordan Graham	18 (6)	0	0	0	2	0	20 (6)	0	1	0
25	MF	CUB	Onel Hernández *	22	3	0	0	0	0	22	3	3	0
27	GK	ENG	Connal Trueman	0 (1)	0	0	0	1	0	1 (1)	0	0	0
31	MF	ENG	Charlie Lakin †	0	0	0	0	1 (1)	0	1 (1)	0	0	0
33	FW	MSR	Lyle Taylor *	14	5	0	0	0	0	14	5	3	0
34	MF	CRO	Ivan Šunjić	33 (8)	3	0 (1)	0	2	0	35 (9)	3	8	0
35	MF	ENG	George Hall	1 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	1 (1)	0	0	0
36	FW	ENG	Troy Deeney	15 (6)	4	1	0	0	0	16 (6)	4	0	0
38	GK	ENG	Zach Jeacock	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
39	MF	ENG	Jobe Bellingham	0 (2)	0	0 (1)	0	0	0	0 (3)	0	0	0
41	MF	ENG	Remi Walker	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
42	MF	ENG	Alfie Chang	0	0	0 (1)	0	0 (1)	0	0 (2)	0	0	0
43	DF	ENG	Mitch Roberts	1	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	0	0
45	DF	ENG	Renedi Masampu	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
46	MF	ENG	Brandon Khela	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
48	MF	ENG	Josh Williams	0	0	0 (1)	0	0 (1)	0	0 (2)	0	0	0
50	DF	ENG	Nico Gordon	11	1	0	0	1	0	12	1	2	0
52	DF	ENG	Marcel Oakley	2	0	0	0	2	1	4	1	1	0
53	MF	ENG	Tate Campbell	0	0	1	0	0 (1)	0	2 (1)	0	0	0
54	FW	ENG	Keyendrah Simmonds	0	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	0 (1)	0	0	0

Players not included in matchday squads

No.	Pos.	Nat.	Name
16	FW	ENG	Sam Cosgrove
37	MF	ENG	Odin Bailey
40	FW	ENG	Adan George
44	MF	NIR	Caolan Boyd-Munce †
47	MF	WAL	Ryan Stirk
51	MF	ENG	Kyle Hurst