Before the ink had dried on the rubber-stamping of Blues’ relegation, the club’s leadership would have been more than aware of the naivety which sent us down. While reviving an ailing company might be Knighthead’s stock in trade, breathing life into a failing football club isn’t just about investment and positive spin in the media. Those things certainly help. But, as Tom Wagner has said many times, “the product” is all-important.

While Mr Wagner has moved quickly to improve the matchday experience, that is not the product which ultimately fulfils the needs of Birmingham City fans. What happens on the pitch trumps everything from fan parks to £2 pints, much as we love them. He and his business associates have learned this the hard way this season.

The irony that we go down with ambitious new owners, ready to mortgage the farm to make us the Man City of the Midlands, while our ludicrous Chinese owners managed to keep us in the division, won’t be lost on anyone. No matter how close they came, even with the disastrous tenure of Gianfranco Zola and the Supermarket Sweep buying spree of the Cockney wide boy, we retained our Championship status.

It may well turn out to be a blessing in disguise to spend a season or two in League One getting our house in order. And developing a squad which cares more about winning than dropping a post on Instagram, or having a crafty pint when you should be keeping your body in tip-top condition for a relegation battle.

I think it’s an unnecessary and dangerous slip-up which could set us back years if we don’t get the footballing side right. But I live in hope.

If we don’t get a new stadium and sports village in the next five years but build a team which lives up to the very best ethos of our club, a side which fights until the end at places like Rotherham or Huddersfield, I’ll take that. That lack of a determined culture, that cohesive team ethic running through the squad like a stick of rock, was hinted at by Gary Rowett in his parting shots. However much money you have, you cannot buy that.

A winning DNA, a culture of defiance and a willingness to learn and improve is built from the ground up. But it is inspired from the top. And therein lies the naivety of the board and our new owners, trying to run before we had even taken baby steps towards our new future. It’s easy to get swept up in the atmosphere when you’re feted as the Messiah and everyone loves your ambition and the free pints. But it’s all about the football Tom.

We can probably buy a team capable of winning League One. However, if they come for the money they will leave for the same reason. It’s basic economics. We need to build something better and longer-lasting. We need to build something in the image of the incredible support which packed out St. Andrew’s three times to watch a team which could only produce when 25,000 fans or more demanded it.

John Eustace epitomised that commitment. His classy response to our relegation, after leading Blackburn to safety, only sought to highlight his decency and respect for our fans. And the irony of our respective fates. He deserved better treatment. What was Wayne Rooney thinking as we slipped into League One? Something less charitable would be my guess.

The big lessons for Tom Wagner, CEO Garry Cook, Craig Gardner and our wider board are about choosing the company we keep wisely, and building a team more solid than the crumbling stands they inherited. It will take time and we are all prepared to wait, as long as we see progress.

While financial investors may look to get a quick return, those fans who invest their lives into the club are happy enough with progress. We enjoy the building process as much as the finished article, and we’ll all make the best of Wycombe away and Shrewsbury at home on a dank November evening. The relationship between fan and club is like no other. It’s a love affair which repeatedly forgives the abuser if they promise to be better next time.

So let us be better from the top of the club next season. Let’s build a young and hungry team, jettison anyone who isn’t 100% committed and add a sprinkling of seasoned pros who are hungry for a last hurrah. And at a venue where they’ll be treated like Gods for 90 minutes every Saturday. I would give the Juke at least another year to help forge that new dressing room spirit. He epitomises everything good about our club.

I would much rather watch a team who will give total commitment in February on a rainy Tuesday night in Mansfield, than a team of artisans who’ll trot out a 1-0 win against a side hoping not to get injured for the play-offs, after the damage has been done. You can blame the players all you like but that spirit is dictated from the top of any successful organisation by creating good foundations at the bottom.

The fact we had a disjointed team, which ultimately didn’t have the heart to do the ugly stuff, was a product of that rush to have it all now. Get a big name in and the rest will take care of itself? It backfired spectacularly amid the ashes of “no fear” football and dressing room unrest, ultimately created by our Board. No one had heard of Kieran McKenna before last season. Look at Ipswich now.

I trust the Board to learn and to set the foundations for a proper team with the values we all want to see. It would be business suicide not to. It’s what will pack out the stands and forge a bond between the team and its fans. I think our Board knows this, and Cook and Gardner owe us one for the Rooney debacle.

So, let’s give them the opportunity to put things right, despite the road now being a little bit longer than it needed to be. We all make mistakes and Knighthead has admitted it made a whopper this season. I’m looking forward to them putting it right, in style.

Jez Hemming