Birmingham City and Leeds United don’t do dull. Never have, never will and the 12pm kick-off notwithstanding it would be highly surprising if tomorrow’s fourth round FA Cup showdown is anything other than raucous and frenetic.
Bound by tragedy and enmity in the stands and a bitter rivalry on the field, for decades clashes between the Blues and the Whites have always been just that. Clashes.
The last time the clubs met was at Elland Road on New Year’s Day 2024 when Wayne Rooney’s pretence at managerial competence was shown up for what it was – vanity. Leeds hammered Blues 3-0 and Rooney was sacked hours later after the visiting fans turned on the former England striker.
The most recent meeting at St Andrew’s was a big one for Birmingham City, on the first day of the 2023/24 season and after 14 years of ownership grief, the first game of the Tom Wagner and Tom Brady era was won by a last minute Lukas Jutkiewicz penalty. The euphoria was intoxicating.
In October 2019, a match that by Leeds-Blues standards was fairly run-of-the-mill was marred by crowd trouble described as the worst at Elland Road for over a decade.
Later that season the teams cooked up what was the most frantic and remarkable game St Andrew’s has seen in many a year. Birmingham City 4 Leeds United 5.
Blues equalised three times before losing out to an own goal against a team that would go on win the league by ten points.
Ensure our latest headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search
You get the picture. There’s feeling in this fixture.
Pep Clotet has experienced it from both sides. First at Leeds in 2016/17, as Garry Monk’s assistant manager when Blues won at Elland Road in August 2016 and then in March 2017 as Leeds overcame a spirited performance from Gianfranco Zola’s side to win 3-1 and move within a point of third.
At one stage in that season Monk and Clotet had harnessed the goals of Chris Wood to flirt with automatic promotion. In the end injuries and Wood’s barren spell saw them finish seventh, with 75 points but outside the play-offs.
More pertinently he was Blues’ head coach in December 2019 when Jude Bellingham almost singlehandedly threw a spanner into Marcelo Bielsa’s machine in that nine-goal thriller.
By way of a reminder Blues’ best laid plans were ruined when they were 2-0 down to goals from Helder Costa and Jack Harrison, inside 20 minutes. Bellingham produced an adroit first half finish for the third of his four goals in a Birmingham shirt, before Jutkiewicz levelled on the hour.
Midway through the second half the irrepressible Luke Ayling arrowed in a free hit for 3-2, only for Jeremie Bela to head home for 3-3. Stuart Dallas restored the lead with six minutes to go and Blues thought they had salvaged a point when Jutkiewicz slide home Bela’s back-post cross.
Ayling had other ideas, free in the box deep into injury time, he fired over a low cross that Harrison would surely have tapped home had Blues’ Wes Harding not done it for him.
“I have a lot of memories from that game,” Clotet told the Keep Right On podcast. “Leeds looked unstoppable, on top of form, they were like in fifth gear and we were in third gear and very difficult to counterbalance.
“Actually, we deserved at least the draw because in second half, I think we were outstanding, because we had an outstanding opposition in front of us.
“Maybe more in terms of character, in terms of integrity, in the effort of believing and all these details which are important as well in games, more than in our ability to produce football. I don’t think any of the teams could produce much football because it was a very emotional game, everything happening so quick.”
WATCH: The full 30-minute interview with Pep Clotet
Six years on Clotet remembers clearly the feeling of injustice that having hauled themselves back to 4-4 Blues were denied a corner moments before Leeds swept down the field for the winner. He was fuming at the time and sailed dangerously close to the ‘big clubs get all the big decisions’ line.
But he also remembers the prospect of going up against the legendary Bielsa, the coach’s coach who remains loved at Leeds and feted by the likes of Pep Guardiola.
Clotet first came across Bielsa when he was Espanyol coach in 1998, he has remained a devotee ever since.
“It was a big thing for me personally because he’s always been like a lighthouse for me, when it comes to the football ideas and the methodology and how he lives football and lives this work.
“I’m a true admirer of the football he instils in every team, because it doesn’t matter what team he picks, the teams always play the same.
“It doesn’t matter what shirt they use, you can see it’s Bielsa’s team. And that for me is something that we must credit him so much for. I stole a lot of his work which afterwards became important in the way that I coached.
“I was so happy when he went to Leeds because I knew that it was the kind of club that he could make a huge impact. And Leeds was in need of this kind of manager as well.
“So it was very emotional as well for me to play against him and to play against Leeds, which is a club that I really love as well.”
Jude Bellingham celebrates after making it Birmingham City 1, Leeds United 2.
Clotet’s emotion would have been of an entirely different kind at 2-0 down and it took a very special player to inspire belief. Step forward 16-year-old Jude Bellingham, who was Blues’ best player that day both in possession and out.
“I remember that week, I didn’t want to put too much pressure on him,” Clotet recalls. “I just told him ‘Listen, you need to be on top of your performance here because it’s going to be demanding for you. They attack with many players, you will have to track back, you will have to work very hard defensively – and you still need to punish them’.
“We were playing an opposition that was on a very good form, physically and technically, and they’d played together for a couple of years in the same system. You could see in his eyes that ‘Yeah, well, I’m not worried for me’. And I thought, ‘OK, fair enough, fair enough’. He proved it, but he kept proving it.
“Jude has this thing, the more important the game or the more important the occasion, the better he is. I think, for example, even with England, when we saw the more important the game, Jude’s always been always there.
“I was happy when he scored because the goals always give them this reward on the performance but even without that goal, he was our standard that day.
“That game actually opened a lot to him because there came a lot of interest for him. Remember there was a time with Man United. So possibly that performance changed a lot of minds as well, or started to change a lot of minds, about him in the top clubs in England.”
Pep Clotet comforts Jude Bellingham as he is substituted(Image: TIM EASTHOPE/BIRMINGHAM MAIL)
In the end not even Bellingham’s youthful brilliance could halt Bielsa’s incessant team. Ironically after the Blues match they had a wobble and lost four of five matches – but they pretty much led the league from gun to tape – a streak of six consecutive victories sealing title and promotion.
By contrast the pandemic interrupted Blues and they ended up limping over the line to safety.
Fast forward to today and after a nomadic few years travelling Europe with his coaching career, Clotet is now back in Spain focusing on his family and building his hotel business. He remains a lover of Blues and Leeds, however.
He was at the 1-1 draw with Swansea last month and was impressed by what he has seen of Chris Davies’ team: “They got a very good point in a horrible away form, but the fact that we build on something and at home we are strong, I think it could lead to very good things for the rest of the season.
“It gives me a lot of happiness because we’ve been in the middle of a storm for so many years, at least the two-and-a-half years that I was in Birmingham, it felt like we were in the middle of a storm all the time.
“Now it feels that there’s a stability at the top of the club, that brings the stability down, there’s investment with a good direction, with a purpose. That can benefit the club, can benefit the city, can benefit the fanbase. I would have liked to have had this situation when I was there!
“It’s very good project they have for the club, it’s very important as well that they think the last part is the most difficult thing. Now we have a team hanging close there to the playoffs but that last bit is the most difficult one.”
FOLLOW ON FACEBOOK! All the latest Blues news on Birmingham Live’s Birmingham City FC Facebook page
As for Leeds, Clotet says they are back where they belong: “But we need to remember that we have been a team that has gone down and up again, so we have some strength but we need adaptation as well into the league – not only for the team but as well for the for the manager.
“He came out of the difficult start and I think that deserves credit, I think the more stable the team is and the more stable that the manager is the better it’s going to be for Leeds.
“Now they are in a good position to be able to say that they’ve gone out the worst of it. Of course it’s not finished because the whole league is very difficult and very competitive and we need to make sure that Leeds stays in the Premier League and slowly grows.
“I always had very, very good impression of of Daniel [Farke] especially when we competed a lot at Norwich. He proved he got Norwich to good position, he proved in Leeds he got to a good position. so I would like to give this same message.
“I would like the fans to get behind the manager, get behind the team and make assumptions or make conclusions after the season. And I’m sure the conclusion after the season will be that it’s been a very good season.”
As for today, Clotet has seen enough Birmingham and Leeds matches to know there will probably be less stability and more chaos.
“In my opinion it’s going to be a very intense game. I think it’s going to be a pressing game. I think it’s going to be a high intensity. It’s what Daniel likes, it’s what he showed not only in Leeds, but as well in Norwich. I don’t know exactly if he’s going to rotate players, if he’s going to put a strong side, but he should give a strong game.
“But at the same time, I think Birmingham at home can be in a position in the game. So possibly both teams will have chances and in the cup they get crazy games, anything can happen.”
When Birmingham City and Leeds United clash, it usually does.
Sky Sports discounted Premier League and EFL package
This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more
£49
£35
Sky
Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle for the 2025/26 season, saving members £336 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
Sky will show at least 215 live Premier League games this season, an increase of up to 100 more.