Birmingham City back in Blighty

Wednesday:

Well there we have it.

The historic tour of China has come to an end and Blues are back on home soil.

I'd be lying if I said the majority of the squad weren't glad to be back home. It was a tiring trip that felt more like a month than two weeks for Alex McLeish's men, but one that I'm sure they will feel the benefits from.

And the truth is that the ones that see themselves at the club come the end of the season will be back in that part of the world next summer.

The players arrived back at Heathrow at 1am on Wednesday morning, while us media types and members of backroom staff touched down around six hours later.

The final day in Guangzhou passed without any real incident - apart from a good ol' sing-sing between McLeish's squad.

In true pre-season fashion of old, the players spent the final night at their hotel testing out their vocal chords in front of their team-mates.

Each one was asked to step forward and belt out a song of their choice. There were some interesting choices (and sounds) too.

Michel opted for a patriotic, chest-thumping Spanish number, Ben Foster plucked for Beyonce's 'Halo' while young Scot Fraser Kerr kept it closer to home with The Proclaimers classic 'I'm Gonna Be ('500 miles)'.

If you want to hear which players made an impact on the pitch, rather than on their team-mates' ear drums, then watch the final episode of Blues View in China below, in which I chat to Colin Tattum about the trip as a whole.

On a separate note, this is my final blog posting for sundaymercury.net as I prepare to head on to pastures new having accepted a role with Birmingham City's media team.

Thanks for staying tuned to this blog along the way, the pleasure was all mine!

Over and out.....