New Town signing Stephen Gleeson has admitted he was delighted to exit Birmingham this month — but is adamant he has no axe to grind with former boss Steve Cotterill.
Gleeson, 29, was largely out in the cold under Cotterill and predecessor Harry Redknapp this season, starting just three Championship games and appearing in a further two as a substitute, as well as clocking up another two outings in the Carabao Cup.
He said: "Was I desperate to leave Birmingham? Yes, but the manager there was brilliant. He’s a lovely manager and I have a lot of time for him.
"He was brutally honest and said I probably wasn’t going to play in his team, so he allowed me to go. It was a rough, rough year with three managers and not playing when I thought I should have been.
"They’re a great club and I wish them all the best but it was time for me to move on. Things were a bit stale between me and the club.
"I like honesty. I don’t like people saying one thing to your face and quite another behind your back. Steve Cotterill told me straight that I wouldn’t be in his starting 11 but that he might need me from the bench.
"I wanted to play and I was always available for him if he wanted me. I felt we had a good relationship and I told him when I left that I felt it was bad that he was the manager telling me I could go.
"I would have preferred it to be the manager before him. I actually really like Steve Cotterill and I hope he does well. I think we have a mutual respect for each other.”
Asked if he felt he was a victim of so many different managers coming in at Birmingham, imposing their own ideas on players, he replied: "Probably. From just over a year ago when Gary Rowett left there’s been three new managers in charge and everyone has their own opinions on players. I don’t know but maybe the owners want their own players.
"It’s frustrating when you think you should be involved and good enough to be playing. You train at your best day in, day out, but there’s no game at the end of it. There’s nothing more frustrating in football.
"I had a chance to move on last summer, which was blocked, and that was also frustrating.
"It’s been a long year and I just want to play and enjoy football again. It was probably a case of too many managers bringing too many players in but that was how they wanted to go.
"I didn’t find it hard to remain motivated but that’s me. I have high standards when it comes to training and I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I’ve sacked off training. It’s not in my character to do it.”
Referring to the bizarre sacking of Gary Rowett in mid-December 2016, at a time when Birmingham were in seventh place in the Championship table, Gleeson added: "You need to ask the club what happened there. Gary was a great manager for me personally, as well as the club, and what he’s doing at Derby just proves what a good manager he is.
"It hasn’t worked out for Birmingham since then but there are some great people at the club and hopefully they can get it right this year. It would be sad to see such a massive club like that be anywhere near the bottom of the league.
"I didn’t feel part of a relegation battle when I was there. It was the fact that I didn’t feel part of it there that I wanted to get out and move on. Good luck to Birmingham and hopefully they will get out of it because it’s a massive club.
"Hopefully we can push on and bring Ipswich into contention for the play-offs. I haven’t looked at the table much but we’re not far off the play-offs. If we can string a few results together we’ll be right back in the mix.”
Dublin-born Gleeson revealed that he heard of Town’s interest in signing him last summer but admitted: "It wasn’t anything concrete but I knew that he knew about me and what I could do. It popped up again for about 10 days and then went off.
"It was pretty much Wednesday and Thursday last week that it was back on again and I couldn’t get down here quick enough. I wanted to play in the Championship. I had offers from clubs in the top half of League One and also clubs low in the Championship but when I knew the manager wanted me here I couldn’t wait to get down here and play for him.
"I didn’t play much for him and TC at Wolves. He’s probably calmed down a little bit but TC’s got a bit more aggravated!
"No, they both seem to be the same people that I knew nine or 10 years ago and it’s good to see them again and to get the chance to work with them. I enjoyed my time with them first time around.”
Meanwhile, Gleeson was pleased to see a couple of familiar faces when he reported for training last Friday — fellow Republic of Ireland international David McGoldrick and former MK Dons team-mate Jordan Spence.
He said: "Jordan also came on trial to Birmingham last year before he signed for Ipswich. It’s always nice to see a familiar face or two because it’s a bit like your first day when you start school.
"It takes me a while to come out of my shell so it was nice to see people that I knew. I’ve heard the players also like to get together away from the club as well and I’m definitely up for stuff like that.”