Manchester United loanee Hannibal Mejbri claims to be studying BBC television drama Peaky Blinders to get used to the accent in the Midlands.
The Tunisia international is currently on loan at Birmingham City and to help him keep in line with all the accents he hears at training, it is understood that he is watching lots of Peaky Blinders.
“I’ve been watching Peaky Blinders, the accent was very strong, I’m not going to lie,” Mejbri told BBC Sport.
“When I came to the city, I visited a little bit, I went to a restaurant – it was a good city, good people. I enjoy being in this city.
“The accent is still very hard [to understand] but not harder than Scottish people.”
It’s quite funny because you can only imagine someone trying to familarise themselves with the Manchester accent in the late 90s by watching Shameless.
Not that Manchester wasn’t everywhere already – with Manchester United dominating the football and the Madchester music scene alive and well.
Anyhow, Mejbri has been embraced by Birmingham fans and has since made 9 appearances for the club, including Wednesday’s draw with Burnley.
The midfielder recognises the affection from the fans, adding: “They love me, it’s a good thing. I think they love all the team because we show passion. We can tell they are behind us.”
Birmingham City are currently 14th in the table after 15 games, and have held three of the top five teams in the division to draws so far. Next up is second-placed Blackburn Rovers.
