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Barmy Owners
Football club owners seem to be a barmy lot. I don’t think it’s particularly insightful to discuss the mainly negative views held by Blues fans towards the club’s president, Carson Yeung but when I read people say “anything would be better than what we have now” I do wonder just how much people would be willing to take in replacement.
For example, Cardiff City have caused controversy by suspending Iain Moody, head of recruitment and right hand man of manager Malky Mackay and replacing him with unknown 23-year-old Kazakh Alisher Apsalyamov, who only a few months ago was engaged painting parts of the stadium. Apsalyamov, who is thought to be a friend of Tan’s son U-Juin has no experience in football yet has been handed one of the highest profile jobs within Cardiff City in a move which is certain to further strain relations between manager and owner.
This is the club that the owner famously changed the colour of the team’s shirts to a more auspicious red along with removing the bluebird from the club crest to replace it with a dragon after insinuating to fans that if they didn’t accept it he would remove his investment from the club.
It begs the question how much would fans be willing to accept in return for money pumped into the club and the potential for success that comes with that. Would you take 100s of millions of petrodollars pumped into Blues for us to play in red? Or what about *shudder* claret? What about if the owner wanted to change the name to something like “Birmingham Heathens” because “the name city is common” like how Hull City are changing to “Hull Tigers” under Assem Allam?
I will admit here and now that I’m from the school of football fans who worries just how much money is messing up the game. It seems to me that the whole sport is slowly being torn away from the people into a money-making machine that is set up purely for the viewing public around the world than the fans who buy the tickets and actually support their teams. I can understand that football clubs need to pay their way; that in capitalism it’s always going to be the coin that rules and thus clubs need more money to bring in the best players but it’s not the Corinthian spirit that I was brought up with.
Thus when people say “anything will be better than the situation we have now” I can’t agree. I remember fans saying that at the end of the previous incumbents rule – yet how many would have them back? I’ve seen people describe Carson Yeung’s reign as the worst thing to happen to the blues yet we won a trophy, played in Europe and finished higher in the top flight than we had done for fifty years previous. It’s just a case of Carson saw us have much higher highs and much lower lows than the previous couple of decades.
People have asked me my opinion on here about potential new owners and the truth is no matter who takes over, I’m not going to be swept away on a wave of optimism because the Carson reign is over. Although there is no money in the club it’s actually in a decent position; it’s run as a tight ship and I know that with money and the right investment, it could be brilliant at St Andrews again – but that will require new owners to not just put money in but to allow the carefully laid plans to come to fruition rather than feed their own egos with new ideas. The staff at the club know what they are doing and I’m more than sure that with the right ownership the club will quickly flourish and grow again; my one fear is that a new owner will come in, give a load of his mates jobs and all the potential will be wasted.
Tags: Ownership, The Takeover
71 Responses to “Barmy Owners”
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my one fear is that a new owner will come in, give a load of his mates jobs and all the potential will be wasted? what do you mean dan?
…or put their 16 year old son on the board ;)
Mate your blog entries get better and better — this one is absolutely spot on. (In other words, I completely agree with you.) On a related note, what I also find really worrying is the idea of small teams being turned into “feeder clubs” for larger outfits. That would basically be saying your team is never, ever going to hit the big time. Surely the prospect of rising to the top one day is what keeps many teams’ fans going in dark days. But a barmy owner might possibly agree to that sort of thing — perhaps not with Blues but certainly with the likes of, say, Walsall.
I recall the American baseball strike of approx 15 years ago. The players were striking due to a pay cap. When the players returned the local fans boycotted the games, but the TV revenues went skywards. A senior offical of the league commented that the game no longer relied on attendant fans as the lion’s share of the revenues came from TV rights. Maybe that is where we are going with football in the UK. Carsdon dont care about us, maybe no one does???
No seriously, anyone is better than Carson Yeung in his CURRENT predicament. If we stay with carson administration will be a lot more likely than new buyers coming into the club? I think that’s the main reason people say “anything will be better than the situation we have now”.
that is the automatic negativity than Dab is referring too..
I agree with this blog and have said for some time we have achieved more under Carson than any other owner
*that Dan
look at the state of the club!!!! of course we need new owners they cannot run a club! and beggars can’t be choosers so I’ll take anyone to get rid of carson.
Dan;, The whole of your article chimes with my long held thoughts, I totally agree with your entire thesis on the possible dangers in ” New Owners ” going gung-ho, !!.
I am one of the old-school, Who thought that Sulli/God and Brady, did a PROPER job with our club, and I still believe that we could have achieved [ perhaps ] as much with them if certain fans had NOT attacked them, !!.
Not to say that I thought the sun shone out of their respective backsides, but they ran the club top to bottom that laid the foundations of staff that we have now keeping us running, !!!!!.
Mate I’m old school & I carnt believe what you a saying that gold/suli & Brady did a PROPER job with our club ???
All they was were a group of porn peddlers who wanted to raise their media profiles & earn a few quid & they certainly done this didn’t they….PROPER job my 4rse!
When they first came no one new who they were ,they told the lefty brigade at bham council that they will put the 1st woman in football & In turn the council bent over backwards to help them, they were not even the highest bidders to buy our club so work that one out I believe there was upto 5 different people trying to buy us at that time. Do you remember when suli first made the headlines???
I’ll remind you..”blues bid a million pound for maradonna” every paper headlined that & that was the start of the “PROPER”running of our club….your words mate. Or what about. :
The stadium they only half built…..& took club photos of the 3 new stands @every opportunity !
Or every loan player or freebie or end of road player they season after season brought in (exception to duggarry)
Or did you forget about the cheapest P.A. System money could buy they put which often broke down
Or when they wanted to use there own security guards instead of the police at maches to save a few quid.
Or we was the only premiership club not to have a heated pitch …all those years with a frozen pitch
I remeber when they done a “PROPER ” job with hot air blowers & burnt the pitch it looked horrific …how embarrassing was that?
How long did it take us to get a big screen/monitor in the ground…I ask yah! “PROPER” job.
What about the lack of toilets in the Tilton stand, people had to pee up the wall next to the St. John’s ambulance every home game….everything on the cheap, the PROPER cheap.
What about Sullivan’s rants. “I don’t see why I should spend my children’s inheritance on players for this club”
Or “We will only sell to the right person who has proved he can take us forward ”
Just a few of points I can mention so don’t you come on here saying he done a proper job & people were wrong to your words attack him,in my opinion they was worse than who we got now @ least CY tried, he paid 80mil
Kro Are you sure your name isn’t old claret&bluenose????????
What an embarrassing waffling comment. The Golds and Sullivan ran the club like a business. We were never in fear of going under with them at the helm and their investment heralded our first foray in the Premiere League. It’s such a shame that some our fans have become so ungrateful and greedy. Poor show, mate.
Spot on Cleggy! Sitting in one of the new stands at St Andrews watching premiership football after years of crumbling terraces and dropping into the third tier I could never understand the antipathy towards the Golds and Sullivan and from where we are now it looks even dafter to me than it did back then.
Bigman Steve;, I first supported Blues back in 54, Never was a Claret and Blue Mate.
If you re-read my last paragraph, I did say that I never thought the sun shone out of their respective Arses, !!. A lot of your points were true, — No denying that, But the intial structure, [ Back-room staff ] etc, are what is helping keep us afloat today, !!.
I personally, never took to Sulli, but he was the main ” moneybags ” man so we had to accept that, — Like it or not. but as sure as hell, That screaming mob abusing him in front of his young [ and frightened lads ] was disgusting, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Spot on Old Blue. You sure you are a bigman Steve??? The Golds and Sullivan took us to a place where we could only of dreamed about, you say it was to enhance his Media when he owned his own Newspaper Group? Yes they made mistakes but tell me anyone that doesn’t? The club under Sullivan was in the black with no debt and look at it now? I have said all along careful for what you wish for. The blame for the running of this club at the moment is down to the Premier League and the fit and proper owner process….. What a joke they are
What a load of utter tosh. Complete rubbish and a stupid tirade. The Golds and Sullivan were most definitely the ONLY bids for Blues, no-one else would touch us we were literally one hour from going under. And why bring the Porn into
it, haven’t you ever had a sneaky look at a naughty magazine ?
What a load of drivel.
Totally agree with your comments Dan.
Football has lost its working class roots, the heart of communities, it is all about money, money, money.
These super rich owners and Sky TV have spoilt it for the average fan and for clubs who had youth or academy players coming through. Suddenly everyone wants instant success, and that includes sections of supporters, you can bet when new owners are named sections of blues supporters will be looking at Champions league football if we get promoted next May, most of the readers on here are level headed and realistic
I can see what LC is trying to do and it would be wrong and unfair to alter what he is doing, take away the constraints and give him the tools, give him to the end of the season, the team we have should be safe, then reassess.
KRO
Again Chris, you speak a lot of sense. For me, football sold it’s soul to the devil when the Premier League split away from the FA. They don’t care about ‘English’ football. They don’t care about the National Team. They don’t care about the foreign ownership of clubs, in fact I think I heard it reported recently that they don’t see it as an issue. I wonder what the Cardiff fans think to that today? And we all know what Blues fans’ think? All they are interested in is the Premier League brand, and how to make it more profitable. The rest of us don’t stand a chance unless we follow suit. Therefore, we are forced down the road of foreign ownership purely to get sufficient funds to get us to the promised land. Without that, all we will ever be able to look forward to is the odd cup run or a ‘Crystal Palace away’ type game. The divide is starting to happen in the Championship too in my view. Just look at the top of the table and see the teams who have the money? These are not just dark days for Blues. They are dark days for our game in general. And as I have said on here before, I am part of the problem because I buy into it with my Sky Subscriptions etc. Something will seriously have to give sooner or later. And before anyone says ‘don’t subscribe to Sky then’ I take your point. But I bet I’m not the only one out there who does exactly the same?
Actually Andy, I refused from the beginning to subscribe to Sky and never will – I will not finance the very thing that has / is destroying the game. I’m not saying I’m holier than though – but if you do feel that strongly, then you know what to do!
Soend the subscription on something for the missus (you may get payment in kind!)
Almajar I have took stick all week of people on here because I have been saying don’t sell to the likes of paladini & his pal newbon ( how effing dare he even come down & watch us) & the general consensus is that no one else wants us ,well I beg to differ I believe there is a group waiting in the shadows to strike @ the right time…people forget other people wanted to buy the blues when Sullivan & gold bought us…where might we be now??? Fighting relegation in the 2nd tier??? Maybe not…the last lot spent more on west ham players in the first 15 months than they did @blues…I’d rather get docked 10 points & start again
too right
do you not think there is a reason for that they have spent more money at Wet Spam? The PL money has increased even more this year and we spent the majority of the time in the 2nd tier of English football. You do need to look at the bigger picture. I do actually agree with you on paladini, if we aren’t a laughing stock of a club now we will be if he takes over.
The one common denominator with these problems is foreign ownership, Hull City Tigers, Cardiff playing in red not there traditional blue and dragons not bluebirds. Basically it shows that foreign owners have no respect for tradition and are only boosting their own egos. Please let this stop, although I know money talks. No I don’t want Yeung involved with the club, I certainly want to see the back of that money black hole Mr Pannu, but no I would never want Sully or Brady back at he club. All along Sully stated he didn’t take a penny from the club, he was right it was £250k per annum consultancy fee and as for M/s Brady, why do you destroy a perfectly good computer, unless there is something to hide.
Football has always had its characters – both of the parasitic and visionary varieties. I don’t think the problem is foreign owners per se but the sheer amount of money that they bring in to the club (or can bring in by going for Premier League/Europe or bust with the club) which means they can then hold the club to ransom over their wild ideas. Non-league clubs go bust all of the time (Hinckley United this week) because of incompetents who promise the Earth but get fed up of sticking the money in or run out if it when success isn’t instant and I doubt there are many foreign owners of part-time clubs. I’d say it’s the greed and egoism that’s the real common denominator.
Dan, I think you are absolutely right to question how we got where we are with club ownership. It struck me watching a BBC4 programme tonight about the beginnings of the legislation in the 19th century to protect ancient monuments from the actions of their “owners” that there was a parallel with today’s football world. The legislation was good and it is now accepted that owners are only custondians and must adhere to certain standards. So why can’t the same apply to our football clubs that mean so much in terms of history to those who follow them? And can we make that happen?
As Dan says, money is driving the game, and for all the good the Golds and Sullivan did for our club, when the time came the value in it simply moved to West Ham and their Olympic Stadium adventure. This might be what happens in the real competitive “business” world (I know it is, I work there) but football is not a business in the same sense. We fans are a captive (if diminishing in Blues case) audience. When the Golds and Sullivan first started calling themselves owners I was horrified – we own the club you cheeky b****rds – but they were right, legally, and they made their turn. It would have been good if there were some proper contraints on our “custodians” as they sold out.
So how do we stop this, or at least try to retrieve something for ourselves and the club we devote so much to (and you could add the game as a whole)? It seems an impossible task given how entrenched the money ethic is in the game, and we can’t affect the takeover (or not) situation directly. But that’s no reason not to try to do something in the longer term.
Any way we can chip away at the “absolute control” that club owners currently have gets my vote. The Blues Trust ACV initiative is an excellent move (and the Council need to pull their fingers out). Why don’t more Blues fans support the Trust? I would agree that they need to sell themselves better, but it still seems such an obvious way to unite a disparate bunch, and is a properly constituted organisation (with voting rights etc.) that can give us all a voice. If you don’t like what they’re doing, join and change it! I think the Trust, working with Supporters Direct could in the longer term put political pressure on govenment to put in place safeguards for clubs and constraints on their owners. My ideal would be the 51/49 supporter control arrangements that apply in Germany, but if that ain’t going to happen can we have something about proper finances and not violating the club history?
unfortunately while football clubs are run by business men – they have one goal – PROFIT !! I am bored of saying swansea is the blueprint on how to run a football club – ie a mixture of business acumen and supporter trust input – yet blues fans continue to slate our trust instead of backing it. Be careful what you wish for fellow blues fans
A very interesting subject and I just wonder why there appears to be no interest from local rich business people or celebrity fans.
We must have a few millionaires kicking around Brum who if run properly would see the club as a profitable long term investment.
Art – just because there is nothing public doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t interest. Some people have a bit of class about them unlike Paladini
Thats Right almajir as we all know you carnt by class
Almajir,
I hope I’m reading between the lines correctly as I really would like to see some genuine local owners who have a traditional passion for the club.
We may get some much needed stability then -clubs with stability usually do well.
I think I could be in for a long wait though!
If Paladini turns out to be another Cardiff City Tan those wishing to be rid of CY and PP at all costs will regretting their words
Totally right. It must be better for our club to go into administration, not pay any of its debts to small businesses in the area, make all the staff redundant and get kicked out the league. But at least we would still have our pride……. It’s easy to be an idealist when your sitting at a computer screen. The truth is, even if someone comes in and changes the stadium name to villa park, if it stops our club disappearing then that’s got to be the best. Or we could just start Small Heath Alliance in the 9th tier of English football and watch them. Then we can all take the moral high ground and bitch about whoever is in charge at St Andrews… Or whatever you lot expect it will be called by the new owners.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire comes to mind. But if CY is cleared of any wrong doing and he reinvests in the club after getting his relisting up and running, how many fans will drop the hate CY and PP banner and start hailing the second coming of CY.
I think the bottom line is as long as we are doing well then who cares who is at the top of the food chain.
Sky TV changed everything & turned footbal in England on its head.
Last season Man Utd received 61m in TV money, the Villa earned 45m
Those figures are going to rise significantly with BT sports intervention.
Perspective is everything…the value of Birmingham City as a going concern 15-20m ?
Today a report states English footballers account for less than a third of minutes played in the Premier League .
The Championship play off game is billed as the most lucrative football match in the world.
Foreign players, managers, & owners have been drawn to this money pit like moths to the brighest light.
Like our very own Mr Zigic , you cant blame them…
I agree 100% with the sentiments being expressed here.
I was working in London when Abramovich first arrived at Chelsea and started spending massive amounts on players. Most of the Chelsea fans at the office were appalled by what was going on, and some even said they hoped Chelsea would win nothing – buying success makes a mockery of all the honest endeavour that comes before.
Just one word of defence for Carson. His only real mistake (apart from overpaying for the club) was appointing Alex McLeish. The team that was relegated was easily capable of surviving in the Prem and, if it had done, would have continued to be profitable to this day.
Sullivan and Gold appointed Mcleish mate.
Maybe if we didn’t have Alex McLeish we may not have had that fantastic day in Wembley, the mistake Yeung made was allowing everyone to jump ship when we were relegated, I believe if we had kept those players we would have gone straight back up.
I believe that it is the players who get a team relegated 99% of the time, there should be clauses written in that players of relegated clubs can only move to clubs in that division or lower, but not to clubs in the division from which they are relegated. I also reckon that wage reductions should be written into contracts should the team be relegated and these are enforced for the first season of relegation, or effective until the first transfer window.
It would ensure players play to win, my opinion is, once Blues won the cup several players believed they had done enough and underperformed.
KRO
Another interesting piece Dan. I’ve long since thought that the biggest irony in all this ownership/BIHL farce is that the club itself has never been better run – just check out the corporate hospitality awards, interaction with supporters via social media, Diadora kit deal, academy/training ground development (e.g. the new 3G pitch) to name but a few examples. I wonder how much of this would have happened under Sullivan and Gold (who thought even a decent scoreboard was not worth investing in). We must also bear in mind that whoever takes the club on, they will not be able to throw money at buying players in the way clubs have done in the past because of the Football League Fair Play rules. We simply need sensible owners, with sound long-term plans who will build on the good work already done and hopefully further invest in the infrastucture of the club (particularly the academy and replacing the main stand) rather than pay the likes of Craig Bellamy £50k a week in a vain attempt to reach the ‘promised land’.
Had Carson Yeung not been indicted on money laundering charges in June 2011. If his assets were not frozen by the court. We wouldn’t have had to sell our best players and would have been odds-on to return to the Premier League in 2012.
Unfortunately CY WAS indicted and is likely to be found GUILTY this month, so in that case ALMOST anybody would be better than him.
This month?
Nope. Lucky if we get a verdict this year mate.
Having supported Blues for 50 years I feel that Gold & Sullivan have been the best of a pretty poor bunch. The club had the potential to become a regular top 8 side in the 60’s and 70’s with the support we had at the time but the Coombes family although Blues fans would spend hardly a bean when were averaging over £35,000 and sold Latchford in his prime. The Kumar and Wheldon era was a disaster. The Gold & Sullivans were a very stable influence for a long time, but, I will never know why they didn’t invest a bit more in the 90’s to ensure we got into the premiership earlier. CY invested a lot money however his dodgy background was his undoing and since the asset freeze the club is on a downward spiral. As Blues fans we can’t be too fussy because we somehow need somebody to get us out of this spiral before its too late and we end up in an even worse mess.
This is one of the most sensible summings up of our History that I have read , and puts the blame where it truly belongs.
Alex McLeish gave us our only trophy in most of our lifetimes, he was tactically as good a manager as there will be and am sure that will go over most of our fans heads.
Yep, he was wrong to cross the ‘divide’ to the Vile but he did plenty for our club.
As for ‘this lot’, well they have been on a ‘recovery mission’ to claw back the ridiculous sum they were extorted by Sullivan and Gold from day one.
Yes ANYONE would be better.
Am sure like a few chairman though, you will reserve the ‘right’ to expunge these comments.
It is your website as you say frequently !
I certainly do Frankie – post stuff that is across the line and I will delete it. I got tired of giving out warnings, people should know the score by now. You don’t like it, that’s not my problem :)
And yeah, I think you’re way off re “recovery mission” – if you don’t believe money has gone anywhere else than player’s pockets you’re very naive dude.
‘tactically as good a manager as there will be and am sure that will go over most of our fans heads’
Yup that is why he is unemployed Frankie. The problem with Mcleish is that he only had one tactic and that was derisory for us as fans to watch. I gave him the benefit of the doubt/ignored it for a long time because he did bring us some success.
But a big part in the early downward spiral of our club, was simply that watching football under Mcleish was, well, shit and fans started to drift away because of it.
Mcleish’s time at the Blues has been dirtied by the fact he left us for the villa… weeks after our relegation! Not a clever decision.
BUT I rated him as a manager. He got some great results and his tenureship will always be regarded as a success by me. I saw more quality football under him than any other manager – largely thanks to Barry Ferguson demanding the ball from the back. Remember punting the ball up to Heskey under Bruce?! Nafti, Muamba, Johnson weren’t in the same class. YES we were defensive, but Mcleish was playing to the squads strengths. We could have played attacking football and seen Jerome fluff a dozen chances a match! With that group of players, keeping it tight and nicking a Bowyer winner was the intelligent thing to do. Even if it’s not like watching Brazil.
As for new owners… we’ve just got to keep our fingers crossed. It will surely be sold to the highest bidder, their background and vision for the club will probably count for very little (nothing!) in CY’s eyes.
We were defensive yes, but not because of the players he had- because of the players he brought in. He was not all bad and believe it or not I had no problem with him going to Villa, my problem was the way he went about it and trying to resign and con the club with lies. Also, why do people not think the first relegation was anything to do with him? He took over in October outside the bottom 3 and then took us to the bottom 3 after over 6 months in charge of them….
In my book honesty counts for a lot.
Al,any new news on our barmy owners sodding off.
Sullivan and gold did a better job at the blues but brady just lived to screw the fans out of every penny she could get.The current owner has made to many false promises and pannu doesn’t help his cause by showing contempt for everyone that doesn’t agree with him.As for football being money driven,,,didn’t that happen when the champions league and premier leagues were formed both solely to make money.
Didn’t Karren Brady change the commercial arm of the club from a loss making concern to a £1 million profit making contributer in her first couple of seasons?
Remember the 2 goals scored in a win at Goodison Park.
Sheer quality !
No point in trying to explain that to some though.
Am sure they are still hating Damien Johnson, Cameron Jerome et al …
You say we won stuff under Carsen but to me it wasnt really him that made that, it was from the previous reign that all came about.
……………paladini has again come in to buy blues…the fans players and managers and a few members of the board have shown great compassion in putting up their monies to fend off the slow demise of our club…but the time has come to part company with carson yeung and peter pannu ….the time together has not been a failure we beat arsenal to win the cup and were robbed or unlucky not to get into the Europa league finals ,..but that success must not be tarnished by what surely must follow …..we have all took a hit in this …now it is time to part …this sale of the club must now be completed ,.,….paladinis consortium may not be everybodies choice but as long as it gets us away from admin it is a plus……lee clark for me deserves a chance with money ..but his choice mus be agreeable …….we have the grit ,…we have the drive ,new owners make us great…..K.R.O.
Be careful what you wish for.Just see whats happening in F1 now.Teams will just disappear.Are there really ANY owners that actually care about their clubs…count them on 1 hand in top 2 divs its all out of our hands.Lets just hope. KRO
Dan, this is one of your very best. Well done Kiddo..
The only way forward is to be positive. The past is over. Be grateful or sad and move on. The potential for the Blues is and always has been huge. We are the Second City not Manchester or Liverpool, so believe. Just hope for owners and a manager who want to play attacking football and entertain. It will make us very happy and successful. It’s that simple as a supporter isn’t it?
Sullivan and Gold have spent more on players in 2 seasons at West Ham than they did in their whole reign at St Andrews. That says everything about their concerns for the Blues. We were told that if we paid top dollar for season tickets we would have top players, still waiting. They would build the Old Trafford of the Midlands. Still waiting. The fact is that they ran a tight ship in order to make as much as possible for themselves, not for the club’s sake. If they had managed to con the council into building a ground for us and sold Stans taking all the sale money, as was obviously their master plan, we could be in the same mess as Coventry. I was deliriously happy when they went, all their “It’s my club and I’ll do what I like” summed it up perfectly. Yes Yeung’s time has been a disaster BUT only because of his trial. Prior to that he was giving us more success than the Gold Sullivan regime had in 20 years. We have just had bad luck, I can’t remember any moans about Yeung when we won our only serious trophy. Let’s just hope that any new owner (please god not Palladini) has more luck than Carson and more love for Blues than S & G.
I do feel that Palladini is been used as back up, i think PP and CY want to sell to the other group where they buy a stake, only going on PP statement that investment is on its way.
PP talks to Palladini and CY to the other group, and take the best one for them, not us.
The Golds and Sullivan era was pretty good. They could have quickened their investment up and got us into the Premiership earlier. They were a cautious lot but good businessmen. They took slow steps and got us there eventually. Their hearts were with West Ham though and they always wanted to go there. Fair enough if that was the team they supported as youngsters. I met The gold brothers and found them to be very committed to The Blues. If West Ham had not been offered I think they would have still been with us if it was not for the ugly mob berating them at St Andrews. These so called fans with loud mouths have no idea about running anything.
Young on the other hand paid far too much for the club and so his money for players was limited. His advisers were useless and should have told him that club was worth no more than £30-£40 million. That extra money would have been a huge boost for us, instead of in others pockets. Now With West Ham the owners are now throwing plenty of money at the club. Although it does not seem to be working as to their position in the league.
Myself I would not worry about who owned the club as long as they were multi-millionairs and spent it on The Blues. The chap who said surely there are millionaire Birmingham people who would buy the club. Being a millionaire these days is nothing. We would need a hundred of them to put money in.
Palladini with his mates did get QPR going again. If he came in and got us to the Premiership I would be very happy.A lot of fans do not like the guy; I don’t know him from Adam but he looks like our only choice at the moment. If we got to the Premiership he can always sell up. A team in the Premiership is worth a vastly greater amount than a team in the Championship.
So gold and sully were so bad? Personally I would have taken three more years of those three rather than were we are now.
Perhaps I am being stupid here but I would have thought the authorities that run the game would have some sort duty of care to preserve the integrity of the game and the clubs involved. I do get it that a new owner would want to put his/her own mark on their club but dissolving 100 hundred years plus of history and tradition just for the sake of marketing and re-branding should be done delicately or not at all. I also understand with new financial rules coming into force that owners will use any method to generate cash into the club.
I would argue that under Sullivan and Gold we were a well run stable business but their vision did wane as the years went by. CY and his group came along making outlandish promises and we did enjoy some success from that but they seemed happy to sacrifice stability and long term planning for short term success and profit. Now we need short term stability with long term planning, not easy when owners now feel the need to feed their own ego’s and turn themselves into media superstars. The solution is not going to be simple.
Gold and Sullivan came to the club they helped to develop the ground and got us back into the top flight , which I am very grateful for. However for the last few seasons they tried in vain to re-house us . if this had happened we would now be renting a very large empty stadium. And I believe we would be in he same situation as Coventry down the road . They got their money back by selling the club for an over inflated price to a guy who couldn’t raise the Money to buy the club for a year and a half . God help west ham as I’m sure when Sullivan etc sell the upton park to developers they won’t reinvest in he club.
Tony, could you repeat that. It must be lste
I think every fan would not be happy to change the name of the club or the colour of the shirts. But at the end of the day if some one stepped in with a bottomless pit of cash to invest in the club, but insisted we played in sky blue pink as long as the club stayed solvent & successful we would always be Birmingham City . What every fan wants is a secure future + investment to make us a competative force.
Not me, mate. To me, Birmingham City is about tradition, ‘Blues’, our instantly recognisable logo, our proud tradition of battling against the odds. Heard Brummy voices all around me, not some metrosexual, prawn-sandwich munching drivel from someone who merely chases ‘success’.
Earlier this year I was passing through Charing Cross station in London, on one corner of which is a tourist shop selling the usual ‘British’ (and International) flags, pictures and memorabilia. They had three – only three – football flags on display, two red (Liverpool and Man U) and a blue one, that was in pride of place at the door. The blue one was Birmingham City.
I asked the owner, of Malaysian origin I think, why he had the Blues flag there.
” Very traditional, ” he said, “very British… it brings people into the shop…”
I’m not going down ‘Pinks’. Or chasing a dragon. We nail our colours to the mast, for good or bad.
Well said mate ……..
We paid stupid money on the likes of zigic and Hleb . We over extended ourselves. McCleish did this and the Chinese backed him.
A club like birmingham needs to be run like a club like the Baggies. But then again any Midlands team won anything recently?
We paid the price. Only good thing is we have restructured out of this mess.
Problem also is Sullivan and Gold sold us down the river. 80m price tag?
Everyone says that Gold and Sullivan sold us down the river, they put the club up for sale with an asking price of X, the amount they wanted, you sell a house at the top price then are prepared to reduce depending on the offers, you always accept the highest fee.
CY paid X, no one forced him to pay that price, Sullivan and Gold were businessmen, of course they made a profit, that is how businesses survive and thrive.
KRO
Talking of barmy owners…what’s going on at Cardiff:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24454963
Didn’t I directly reference that in the article?
Er, yeah. There were so many comments I forgot where we’d started off.
I’ll get me coat.