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Gabby Agbonlahor couldn't resist poking fun at Birmingham City by popping open a bottle of champagne after their relegation from the Championship.

The Blues will be playing League One football for the first time in 29 years after suffering the drop with Huddersfield and Rotherham.

Agbonlahor popped open a bottle of champagne in the talkSPORT offices
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Agbonlahor popped open a bottle of champagne in the talkSPORT officesCredit: X: @ga11agbon

Birmingham endured one heck of a collapse after sitting sixth when the club's hierarchy opted to replace John Eustace with Wayne Rooney as head coach.

Lasting just 15 games, Birmingham's season then went into free-fall with the club ultimately falling short in their hopes of preserving their second-tier status.

Birmingham's fierce rivals, Aston Villa, may be waiting a long time to face the Blues in the league given the gulf in class between the two sides, but that didn't stop Agbonlahor from taking aim.

The Villa legend and talkSPORT host was waiting at talkSPORT Towers to start his Gameday Phone-In show alongside Jamie O'Hara when he decided to post a video on social media.

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Sitting at a desk, Agbonlahor pulled out a bottle of champagne before popping the cork and having a celebratory sip.

Captioning the video, the ex-forward cheekily wrote: "Happy bank holiday everyone!"

He didn't pull any punches on air, either, as he goaded rival Blues supporters: “It’s a great day… Birmingham City relegated to the third tier - third tier sounds worse than League One!

“Could it be the biggest blunder by an owner ever sacking John Eustace? October 9 they sacked him, they were sixth in the league - sixth place! They sacked him, they got in Rooney, and they've been relegated - that backfired!

Agbonlahor then sipped on his glass in a dig at his former rivals
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Agbonlahor then sipped on his glass in a dig at his former rivalsCredit: X: @ga11agbon

“I think it was 1995 the last time they were in League One… but they doesn’t add much to the city anyway - most of Birmingham support the Villa!

“Rivalry and banter aside, though, and even though I dislike Birmingham City and they dislike me, you want Birmingham City to be in the Premier League. 

“It’s good for the city, it’s good to have local teams, I even want West Brom to be promoted out of the play-offs and for Wolves to stay in the Premier League season after season, it’s good for the area.

“But when you’re making silly decisions like they did with Eustace, who - funnily enough - kept Blackburn up today. He put out a team to beat Leicester 2-0 and he’s kept them up.

“I bet he’s laughing, ‘Look at those jokers who sacked me, look at them now’.”

Eustace did no such thing, though, with the Rovers boss issuing a classy response to his former club's relegation when asked by talkSPORT.

Meanwhile, Agbonlahor wasn't the only former Villan to celebrate Birmingham's plight.

Former Villa star Barry Bannan led his current club Sheffield Wednesday to survival in the Championship relegation battle and took aim at the Blues on social media.

Writing on X, Bannan wrote: "Anyone out in bham tonight?" with three laughing emojis.

Bannan helped Sheffield Wednesday beat the drop with a 2-0 win over Sunderland on the final day of the season
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Bannan helped Sheffield Wednesday beat the drop with a 2-0 win over Sunderland on the final day of the seasonCredit: Getty
Rowett did a good job with the little time afforded to him, but it was not enough to save Birmingham from the drop
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Rowett did a good job with the little time afforded to him, but it was not enough to save Birmingham from the dropCredit: Getty

The Blues did manage to beat Norwich 1-0 on the final day but it wasn't enough as Plymouth, Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn all won.

Speaking afterwards, interim boss Gary Rowett, who is deputising for Tony Mowbray during the permanent manager's medical leave, was defiant about the club's future.

He said: "There are some players that it would be great if they had the responsibility to say, 'I'm going to stay to get this club back into the Championship'.

"I think sometimes it's easy for people to look at the exit door and look for the easy way out.

"Maybe that's something players need to look at.

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"Hopefully Tony comes back to get the club back into the Championship.

"It's going to be a great opportunity if they make the right steps and do it the right way, I believe."

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