Chris Davies gives nod to Tom Brady for helping Birmingham City ace ‘in great form’

Birmingham City investor Tom Brady has played his part in helping Ethan Laird reach new heights this season

Ethan Laird has been one of the many success stories of Birmingham City’s rip-roaring start to 2025.

After an indifferent 2024, where Laird struggled to hold down a regular place in Chris Davies’ line-up, the right-back has moved through the gears since the turn of the year to make himself an essential part of the set-up.

An eye-catching display in the 3-0 victory over Wigan Athletic on January 4 saw Laird create all three goals and the 23-year-old has kicked on. He scored the winner against Exeter, the opener against Newcastle and won the penalty which kickstarted Blues’ thumping of Cambridge in midweek.

“I think he’s in great form,” Blues managed Davies told BirminghamLive. “He’s in a really good place mentally, really focussed, and enjoying his football.

“I speak to the players and keep in touch with them on how they’re feeling and where they are and I know from speaking to him that he’s in a really good place, feeling very confident, enjoying his football and hungry for more. It’s exactly the place you want to be in as a footballer.

“He’s had to earn it and work for it because there was a time when it wasn’t going that way this season and that’s a great story for all the players. If you respond to adversity and get back and go again, you can get into this sort of form.

“He’s been a really important player for us and there won’t be many full-backs in the league in that kind of form.”

Key to Laird’s improvement has been significantly less time in the treatment room compared to last season. The ex-Manchester United trainee has only suffered one injury this season, and that was an ankle issue, after a series of muscular problems last term.

Davies credits the influence of Blues investor and seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, whose TBRx ‘body coaches’ have been stationed at the club’s training ground in Henley-in-Arden throughout the season, for improving Laird’s availability record.

Davies said: “We’ve got a very strong recovery, physical, medical department anyway but there’s obviously a lot of ideas we have implemented here around the TBRx, Tom Brady method as well. We’ve got some people from America supporting our departments with that.

“For someone like Ethan, recovering from games is almost as important as training for games. He’s a finely tuned athlete, a fast-paced player, so we’ve looked after his body well and he’s looked after his diet.

“All those things added in the pot would probably make it more possible to stay fit and that’s why he’s managed to do it.”