Welcome to BirminghamLive's coverage of all things Blues on Wednesday, November 22.

Jude memory

Aitor Karanka has recalled the first time he saw Jude Bellingham play for Birmingham City and remembers how the 17-year-old insisted on playing on until Blues were safe from relegation.

That was in 2020 when having made his breakthrough the youngster was on the brink of moving to Borussia Dortmund. However, he returned after a break for the pandemic and played his part in making sure a largely rudderless team stayed up.

By that time plans were in place for Karanka to succeed the departed Pep Clotet – but the former Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest boss had already been told he wouldn’t have Bellingham at his disposal.

Speaking to Cadena Ser Karanka said: “When I signed there were 3-4 games left, it was the pandemic year. The first Birmingham game I saw, when I called the general manager and asked him about that kid, he told me ‘No, no. Forget that, he is no longer going to be around.' The truth is that there you realise what Bellingham is.

“The next game I saw him again and I told the director that he was going to get injured and we were not going to enjoy it and that we were not going to earn anything. He told me that he was 17-years-old, but that the team needed three points and that he said that until he saved the team he was going to give everything. At 17 years old he already had that thought of wanting to give everything. That's why at 20 he is where he is.

“When you meet him and his family and see that maturity he has, it is not surprising. After Dortmund he had many Premier League offers, but he was clear that he wanted to play for Real Madrid. That maturity that he has off the field is combined with quality and physicality and there is the result.”

Whatever

Bellingham should not have won the 2023 Golden Boy award, claims Barcelona legend Hristo Stoichkov.

Striker supreme Stoichkov, who scored 108 goals in more than 200 games for Barcelona between 1995 and 2000, questioned what Real Madrid midfielder Bellingham had done to deserve the award. He says it should have gone to a Bayern Munich or Barcelona player instead.

However, Stoichkov does believe Bellingham has a brilliant future ahead of him, sharing which three legendary footballers he thinks the Birmingham City academy graduate is a mix of. He added: "The future is his."

The 57-year-old was asked if Bellingham should have won the award, and he told SPORT: "No. I do not dispute the value of [Bellingham], he is one of the strongest talents in the world: he has a lot of class and a lot of brain. For me he is a mix between [Michael] Laudrup, Kaka and the first [Paul] Pogba. The future is his.

"He will fight with Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland for the next Ballon d'Or, but I would like to know what he won in 2023 between Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid. Nothing."

Curbs' enthusiasm

Alan Curbishley believes Wayne Rooney would benefit from adding someone of his experience to the Birmingham City coaching staff.

Rooney has four coaches working underneath him at St Andrew’s. Fellow Premier League greats Ashley Cole and John O’Shea are learning their trade alongside more experienced coaches Carl Robinson and Pete Shuttleworth, both of whom followed Rooney to Birmingham from DC United.

However, former Charlton and West Ham boss Curbishley reckons Rooney, 38, needs some additional experience to assist him. Curbishley, 66, said: “I don't know who his staff is, but I'm saying he could benefit from someone like me - I'm not advocating myself - but someone around him who's senior that's been through it and that saying, 'What you're doing on the pitch is good and that will see you through, don't start worrying about things you can't do anything about.’”

Set Bac?

Juninho Bacuna appeared to pick up an injury during Curacao’s 1-1 draw with El Salvador in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The Blues midfielder was substituted in the 77th minute after a collision with an El Salvador player.

While Bacuna isn’t expected to start against Sheffield Wednesday due to his international exertions, Rooney will be hoping the 26-year-old has avoided serious injury. Bacuna has started three of the four games under Rooney that he has been available for.

Blues can ill-afford another injury with Kevin Long, Lee Buchanan, Keshi Anderson, Tyler Roberts and Alfie Chang all out of action. Ethan Laird and George Hall have only just returned after respective hamstring problems.

You can listen to the full Keep Right On podcast below…

Gary row

Gary Rowett has opened up on the events that led to his shock Birmingham City sacking.

The football world was stunned on December 14, 2016, when Blues ruthlessly dismissed Rowett and replaced him with Gianfranco Zola. Blues were on the cusp of the play-off places in the Championship at the time and had just beaten Ipswich Town 2-1.

Results deteriorated under Zola and Blues nosedived down the table before Harry Redknapp’s late rescue act. Rowett joined Derby County later that season and led the Rams to a ninth-placed finish.

Almost seven years on, Rowett spoke openly on the Keep Right On podcast about Trillion Trophy Asia’s decision to sack him and the events which led up to his departure.

“I didn’t know before the Ipswich game,” Rowett began. “I got a call the next day. I was due to have a meeting on Pride Park with a financial company and I can’t remember if it was Jules (Julia Shelton - former club secretary) who rang me and said, ‘The owners are over, they want to meet you’. I said I had a meeting. ‘No, they want to meet you at 11 O'clock.’

“I hung up and asked if they could do it at one O'clock, but my missus said maybe you should just go. I cancelled my meeting and went. I wasn’t sure what it was about.

“People in football are usually outraged by the decision but usually when you’re on the inside you know there’s little things going on. I had just been offered a new contract but I had turned it down for different reasons, it wasn’t because I wanted to leave. There was this thing around at the time that I wanted to leave and I was speaking to other clubs or whatever, but it’s really simple as a manager. I had a clause in my contract and if a club paid it and I wanted to go, I could go and nobody could stop me. If I wanted to go, I would have gone. And there was a lot of outside interest from other clubs because we had done a good job."