More value for money hope for Birmingham City's David Sullivan
May 13 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail
DAVID Sullivan said he hoped for ‘better value’ for Blues’ money when Alex McLeish starts to bring in new players for the Premier League.
One of the principal club backers, Sullivan confirmed that the board would dig up extra money if the manager identified a so-called ‘special case’. Otherwise finances would be tight this summer.
And Sullivan has slightly revised his initial prediction of how many signings he believes Blues require, bringing it more in line with McLeish’s estimate of eight to 10.
Colin Tattum will be live online at www.birminghammail.net/live on Friday at 12pm for a live chat with the fans....
Two years ago after Blues last promotion from the Championship, Steve Bruce spent around £10million on five players: Fabrice Muamba, Garry O’Connor, Olivier Kapo, Franck Queudrue and Liam Ridgewell.
Stuart Parnaby, Daniel de Ridder and Richard Kingson were added on frees while Johan Djourou, Wilson Palacios, Rafael Schmitz and Borja Oubina joined on loan.
After Blues’ relegation Sullivan criticised Bruce’s summer dealings, claiming he left a ‘pile of rubbish’, which not only had the former boss but the players in question fuming, particular Queudrue and Kingson, who were singled out.
“That’s the danger really, how much do you really know about players when you are bringing them in for the Premier League, the ones who haven’t played there before,” said an unabashed Sullivan.
“I would like players like the Lee Carsleys, who have done it in the Premier League. You know what to expect off them.
“I’m not saying they should all be old, you don’t want a completely old team.
“You play less games in the Premier League, there is more time to recover than in the Championship, so it’s not that big a factor.
“But you can’t keep paying out a lot of money for old players for a short period of time. We would like some younger quality signings you can commit to on longer contracts, yet the problem there is the cost, it’s not easy to get them because what clubs ask for.
