Birmingham City did not have the best of seasons in 2021/22.
Under Lee Bowyer, the Blues were poor this campaign, and could only manage a 20th place finish in the final Championship standings.
This is the joint-worst finish at the club in the last five years, matching their 20th place in the 2019/20 season.
That being said, the club's recent history has certainly not been their most glowing period, with their best finish in the last five seasons coming in 2018/19 when the Blues finished the season in 17th.
To put it bluntly - a club of Birmingham City's size should not be languishing regularly at the bottom of the second tier.
Despite their overall poor performance, there have been some star individual performances at St Andrew's during this period - the crown jewel of which is surely former Blues midfielder and current Borussia Dortmund and England midfielder Jude Bellingham.
With that in mind, we've picked out what we think is the best combined XI from Birmingham City over the last five seasons.
With plenty of options to choose from, this could be a controversial one.
In between the sticks, we've selected current Birmingham City goalkeeper Neil Etheridge as our best Blues shot-stopper from the last five seasons.
Joining the club in 2020, the 32-year-old has gone on to feature 66 times for the Blues so far, keeping 17 clean sheets during those matches.
His competition for the spot was Lee Camp, however, we felt Etheridge was the clear winner between the two at their respective stages of their own careers.
At right-back there could only be one man for the job and that is Maxime Colin.
The Frenchman joined the Blues back in 2017 from Brentford and has gone on to have a stellar career at St Andrew's.
Over the last five seasons, Colin has made the right-back position his own, making 205 appearances for the Blues – a real demonstration of his service to the club.
The 30-year-old appeared 33 times in the Championship for the club in 2021/22.
Alongside George Friend, we’ve selected Harlee Dean at right-centre-back.
Despite how his time at Blues has seemingly ended, there is no denying that Dean has made a significant contribution to Birmingham City’s efforts over recent times.
The now 30-year-old racked up 184 appearances for the club during his time at St Andrews and was a regular for them right up until his loan departure midway through this season.
With Dean claiming recently that he will leave Birmingham City on a free transfer this summer, it looks as though his time with the club may be up.
At left centre back, we’ve elected for a bit of a fan favourite here and that is George Friend.
Although more of a natural left-back, Friend has been used as a centre half at times under Lee Bowyer and as such gets our nod - although we are selecting a back four rather than three.
At 34, he had a difficult season with injuries, and the Blues certainly missed having him out on the pitch.
Having made 45 appearances over the last two seasons, if fitness was a factor we perhaps would have looked elsewhere, but there is no doubting Friend’s ability as a defender.
At left-back, like in some of the other positions we will discuss, there could only be one option.
On the left-hand side of defence, we’ve selected Danish full-back Kristian Pedersen in our best Blues XI from the last five seasons.
The 27-year-old has been a regular for the Blues since joining from Union Berlin back in 2018 and has made 161 club appearances.
His time at the club is set to come to an end this summer when his current contract expires.
On to the midfield now and potentially a controversial one here. On the right-wing, we’ve elected to go with Manchester United player Tahith Chong.
Chong spent the 2021/22 campaign on loan with the Blues, appearing 20 times in the second tier for Birmingham City.
His lack of appearances were as a result of injury, rather than a reflection of his abilities, though, and going purely on the talent he exhibited at times, Chong gets a place in our best Blues XI from the last five seasons.
In the centre of the park, and the standout in this team by some way, former Blues midfielder Jude Bellingham gets a spot in our side – obviously.
Bellingham has starred at Borussia Dortmund in recent seasons, but also did so at Birmingham City before swapping the West Midlands for the Westfalenstadion.
Still only 18-years-old now, Bellingham made 44 appearances for Birmingham City during his time with the club, making his debut at just 16 years of age.
Alongside Jude Bellingham in the Blues' best XI midfield, we’ve selected Croatian Ivan Sunjic.
The 25-year-old has racked up an impressive 133 appearances for Birmingham City since making the move to St. Andrews in 2019, and has been a mainstay in the side over recent seasons, making at least 40 league appearances every season since he arrived at the club.
For both his durability and his ability, Sunjic easily makes his way into our best XI.
On the left-hand side of the midfield, attacking down the left-wing, we selected Jeremie Bela as our choice here.
Bela joined the Blues in 2019 and has gone on to make over 100 appearances for the club.
During those matches, the Angolan winger has scored nine goals and registered an impressive 18 assists for the Blues.
This past season, the 29-year-old scored two goals and laid on five assists for his teammates in 31 league matches.
On to the strikers now and the players that are going to score the goals for our Blues' best XI.
One man we could not look past in this department is former Blues striker Che Adams.
Adams was prolific during his final season at St. Andrews in 2018/19, scoring 22 goals and earning himself a move to Premier League side Southampton.
In 123 appearances for Blues, Adams racked up 38 goals and registered 13 assists.
Last but not least, the player that takes the second striking spot, and the last spot in our best Birmingham City XI from the last five seasons is Lukas Jutkiewicz.
The now 33-year-old has been at the club since 2016 and has racked up 56 goals and 24 assists in 252 Blues appearances.
The centre-forward gets the nod for our squad having hit double digits in goals three times during his time at the club and due to his ability to assist others.