Birmingham City
Cunningham moved to Birmingham City, newly promoted to the Premier League, in 2002 for a £600,000 fee. He went straight into the starting eleven, playing at centre back in place of injured captain Steve Vickers rather than his customary right back. He formed a fine defensive partnership with Matthew Upson, who joined in the January transfer window, and at the end of that campaign, his teammates chose him as their Player of the Season.
After the first few matches of 2003–04, Birmingham's manager Steve Bruce was describing Cunningham as "on current form ... the best defender in the Premiership". Nicknamed "King Kenny" by the fans, Cunningham had a reputation as an organised solid defender, and Manchester United and Ireland full-back Denis Irwin suggested in November 2003 that, though his ability had been under-rated in the past, "this year ... people are realising how good he actually is".
However after the club's relegation at the end of the 2005-06 Premier League season, Cunningham was released along with seven other first team players. On 11 May 2006, Cunningham launched a scathing attack in the press on Bruce and the board, blaming the club's relegation on a lack of preparation throughout the season and likening the club to a "stiff corpse" that has "no heartbeat and, more worryingly, no soul". While fans were in the main supportive of Cunningham's views, the club reacted furiously, and chairman David Gold wondered "if Kenny would have said the same things if we'd stayed up, Portsmouth had gone down and he'd been given a lucrative new contract".
Read more about this topic: Kenny Cunningham
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