Birmingham City end of an era: Beginning of the end...
David Sullivan and Carson Yeung
This time frustrations boiled over as some fans invaded the pitch and snapped the goalposts at the final game, protesting against Sullivan, the Golds and Brady for the first time in such forthright manner. Gold was mortified and offered to resign as chairman.
Sullivan blasted Bruce for wasting money on ‘a pile of rubbish’ and named Franck Queudrue when asked for examples; the outburst came on the eve of the player-of-the-season award dinner and added to an atmosphere that was heavy with discontent.
In the Championship again, the Blues chiefs and McLeish knuckled down and a best start ever to a league campaign was posted.
The board launched the ‘ten point pledge’, designed to win back missing fans and address issues that had been allowed to fester – big screen, undersoil heating, season ticket pricing – and spoke about being re-enthused and reinvigorated.
Yeung seemed totally off the scene and was kept out of any decision-making process, although the lines of communication had been non-existent for several months.
The pressure, however, built on Blues and McLeish, whose side were not ripping through all comers as most fans wanted or expected. There was scope for stories of a rift when, in her newspaper column, Brady made a few digs at McLeish ‘entering Scolari territory – our team is much inferior to the sum of talent at our disposal’. Yet in the end, on the last weekend of the season, Blues returned to the Premier League by defeating Reading 2-1 away and it wasn’t so much celebration that marked the elevation this time, but relief from all concerned.
Christian Benitez was trumpeted as a £9 million record buy (he ended up on loan after failing a medical) and initial enthusiasm about Blues summer work gave way to pessimism and a collective ‘seen it, heard it all before’ shrug from the fans by the time the transfer window was shut.
The wrangling over Michel’s fee added a depressing postscript. But in the background something had been stirring in the Far East.
Yeung had struck a deal to pay the directors £40 million for their 50 per cent shareholding and this time there was no turning back. An era ended, a new one began.
