Blues’ Chairman, David Gold, talks to BLUES Magazine editor, Ian Drew, about putting more money into the club, the England manager and message boards!
Drew: Our recent defeat to Aston Villa was obviously a major disappointment, are you worried?
Gold: We were all disappointed to lose against The Villa, particularly as we dropped into the relegation zone but we have the manager and the squad to lift us out of this doom and gloom and climb the table.
I believed in Steve Bruce when he joined us as manager and I still have exactly the same belief now. It’s not as if we are getting trounced in every game. We played very well against Liverpool and Arsenal and with a bit of luck would have had four points from those two games instead of one. A number of players are now returning from injury and suspension and I believe these players are good enough to get us through this bad spell. When we win one game, the clouds will be lifted and we can push on.
I said at the start of this season that this is the best squad of players we have had for 25 years and nothing has changed my belief in that. We all have to stick together. It isn’t very pleasurable being in the bottom three, but I remain positive.
Since the first day we took over at the club, there was one single focus and that was to get into the Premiership.
At the start of the season, there was talk of Europe and, as you’ve said, of our best squad in 25 years. Were we as fans all getting a bit carried away? Yes, but we should be getting carried away. We deserve it. We’ve been in the doldrums for 25 years; 25 years through ‘thin and thin’. We should get carried away and enjoy the possibility of achieving something special.
Since the first day we took over at the club, there was one single focus and that was to get into the Premiership.
League. Now we are there we want more and that’s how it should be; we all want more and yes, our fans are getting carried away and so am I.
Leeds thought their chairman was ambitious but he was gambling with the club’s future and we will not do that. We have taken risks, we have been brave at times, we have used our own money at times. When the club couldn’t afford Dugarry we used our own money.
Where do you see the club in five years’ time?
I’d like to think that we would be in a brand new stadium. I’d like to have a trophy on the cabinet. I’d like to have visited one of the great cities, flying off in a European tournament. All that is now within our grasp. All of those things are not fruitless dreams, they are possibilities. They’ve moved from being dreams into now being a potential reality, which was not the case five years ago. It is the case today that in the next five years we could be in a brand new stadium with a trophy on the table and playing in Europe.
Don’t you get a bit frustrated though with the amount of criticism sometimes, not just at you, but at the manager and the players?
It’s all opinion and that’s what makes it interesting. Should we have played 4-4-2? Should we have played five in the middle? Should we have played wing backs? Should we have played more strikers? Should we have brought so and so on at half time? A guy on the message board has his opinion and now he has an opportunity to actually put it somewhere, whereas before all he could do was tell his wife, his mum, his girlfriend or his mates down the pub. Now he can put it on a message board as well.
I think the most important thing that a fan wants to know is, is everybody doing their best? Are the board ambitious? Is the chairman ambitious? Is the manager ambitious? That’s the most important message to get across because you don’t always get it right but as long as you are giving 100%, that’s what counts. Personally I support Steve Bruce 100%. But did he get it wrong against Middlesbrough? Some people think he did. Steve Bruce says that the buck stops with him, you can’t ask for more than that. You can’t judge him after a few games.
How many West Brom fans were singing ‘There’s only one Gary Megson’ and wanted Bryan Robson out when Blues were thrashing them 4-0 last season? Where are they now? They’re not writing to the newspapers, ringing the phone-ins and writing on the message boards saying, ‘Sorry Bryan, we got it wrong.’ Bryan Robson pulled off the managerial performance since the beginning of the Premiership but most West Brom fans wanted him out. Sometimes you have to be patient.
I only want to go forward, I am a person that thrives on winning, I thrive on success, it drives me, it is what my life is all about.
Do you read message boards?
No, I would love to, I really would. But there’s only so much time in the day. I get hundreds of emails and that’s enough to cope with!
How do you respond, though, to fans on message boards, on radio phone-ins and in letters to the newspapers saying ‘Gold out’ or sack Steve Bruce or criticising the team when we go through a rough patch?
I don’t have a problem with that at all. I think it is their right to criticise if they wish. We all have the right – it’s this passion that makes this an exciting business to be in. Are they right? Sometimes they are. Are they wrong? Sometimes they are. Are they premature in their judgement? Yes, quite often, but they are entitled, it’s their right. The only thing that I disagree with is when they say ‘sack the chairman’!
What do you say to fans who think you should put more money into the club?
I’d probably be saying the same thing if I was a fan. But the fans also have to remember that the Golds and David Sullivan have put millions into this football club. We always said we would run the football club sensibly; we never said that we would come in and put millions in, but we did.
I think fans have a right to say, “We see the club has made 10 million pounds from sales and you’ve only
bought one player for 3 million; there’s a 7 million pound shortfall, why aren’t you spending that money?”
But that is not the case with Birmingham City Football Club. We do spend all of our revenue on strengthening the squad. Birmingham spend less on their board in wages and expenses than any other Premiership club. We have put in millions over the years and I don’t believe anybody has the right to tell anybody how to spend their own money. I don’t tell anybody how to spend their own money and its improper for anybody to tell me how to spend mine
There have been stories in the paper about David Sullivan going to another club and that he doesn’t like all the travelinvolved. Are you looking to leave?
Well I have a different situation to David Sullivan. First of all, I don’t find the travelling too irksome as I’ve got my helicopter. What takes him two and a half hours in a car on a good day, takes me 45 minutes so I don’t find that so difficult. Secondly, I don’t have young children. David Sullivan has two young children and this is hugely demanding. He’s also a dynamic
So do you still see yourself at Blues in five years’ time?
I would hope so, but you never know. I’m really happy here and I’ve got no plans to leave but I suppose it will depend on the message boards and the support of the fans. Once you start hearing the crowd singing ‘chairman out, chairman out’ or the message boards and letters to local papers demanding your resignation, then you obviously look at things differently. I have to say in my eight years or so as chairman, the fans have been extremely supportive. It’s not often but when I’m a bit down and I’m thinking, ‘Do I really need this?’ it’s the fans that always rally me.
Nothing’s forever, the greatest manager in the Premier League, Sir Alex Ferguson, will one day retire, so nothing goes on forever, and I only want to be where I am wanted, but I hope to be here for a few years yet. I have to say I have enormous enthusiasm and energy. I’m driven by the challenge. Driven whether it be in my businesses, or the football club, I’m driven by the will to win. I want my businesses to be successful. I want Birmingham City Football Club to be successful. I want them to win trophies. I want them to achieve, I want them to climb the league and I’m driven by all that.
I would also urge any chairman that feels he is under pressure – as I urged my friend David Sullivan when he was receiving bad press – to remember that quite often it’s only a small minority of fans. If you stand outside the gates of St. Andrew’s with a clipboard, within half an hour you would have a better idea of what fans think and it would be a true representation, as opposed to the views of a vociferous minority.
I believe that there are managers and chairmen over the years who have quit when in actual fact the majority have wanted them to stay. But they have been so worn down by the ferocity of the minority.
There was talk about bringing Michael Owen in on loan earlier this year. How serious was that?
It was a genuine inquiry. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. We thought there was an opportunity of pulling off a surprise and we might just have done it. Were the odds any better than 20 to 1? I doubt it. But 20 to 1 horses do come in.
Are you concerned that Newcastle might come back in for Steve Bruce if Newcastle continue to struggle?
I’m always concerned that a football club – or England – might come after Steve Bruce. Not only has he done a fantastic job for us on the pitch, but there are also a number of other important things which you need, particularly for the England job: how articulate you are, how fan friendly, your passion, is he comfortable with the media? For a manager to carry the fans, particularly England fans, they want to see passion, a will to win. He’s got to be comfortable with the media, the media have got to be comfortable with him.
I believe very strongly that the next England manager should be English
He has to have a relationship with the fans and the ability to work with and have the respect of the players and Steve has all these attributes. You want to take the nation with you, they want to see you will die for the cause, they want to see you on the back pages of the newspapers, not on the front.
And I believe very strongly that the next England manager should be English. I felt it was important three years ago when I got lambasted on Radio Five for saying that the then FA Chief Executive, Adam Crozier, was wrong to employ a foreign manager. Personally I want to see an Englishman as the manager of the national team.
Even if that meant us losing Steve Bruce?
Yes, because we will only lose Steve Bruce if he is hugely successful. I would take two years of huge success that brings about Steve becoming the England manager. One, I’d be thrilled for him because I believe he is a natural born winner, and two, I think he would make a fantastic England
Even if that meant us losing Steve Bruce?
Yes, because we will only lose Steve Bruce if he is hugely successful. I would take two years of huge success that brings about Steve becoming the England manager. One, I’d be thrilled for him because I believe he is a natural born winner, and two, I think he would make a fantastic England manager. Of course I don’t want to lose him, but I can’t have my cake and eat it.
Would I exchange winning the FA Cup now and finishing in Europe in the next two seasons and then seeing Steve Bruce become the England manager? Yes, I would take it. I would take that because my friend would become the England manager and I would be thrilled for him and it would also mean that Birmingham City would have achieved success.
Would I want to get all of that success and keep Steve?
Yes, of course I would. But if you give me the either or scenario, then yes I would take the success and losing Steve.
Are you frustrated that you don’t see more of Sven at St. Andrew’s?
No, I see him from time to time. He’s charming and good company.
Do you see any of the Birmingham players making it in the England squad for the World Cup?
Well, I would be hugely disappointed if Emile doesn’t go because I think he will give England extra options up front. If you look at England, the England forwards, they are all very similar. If you take off Owen and bring on Defoe… they are all the same type of player, one might be better than the other on his day but they are the same type. Sometimes you need a different option and Emile certainly gives you that. Like the Portugal game in the European Championships, we spent all day launching long balls to Owen. If you are going to play that game, get Heskey on. Portugal just said thank you very much.
Who is going to win in the air? A guy at 5’8 or the defender who is 6’4?
I think it is a bit early for Jermaine, particularly with our love affair with Beckham, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he isn’t in the next World Cup finals in 2010.1 certainly see him as one for the future. And it would be great to see David Dunn back in contention. When he comes back, hopefully he will be the David Dunn that excited the fans and terrorised defenders.
Matty Upson? I would love to think he could go. I think that at the moment England is blessed with an abundance of outstanding centre backs, it’s probably our strongest area, and I’m sorry for Matthew; if he was a right back, he’d go straight in the England team. And, of course, there’s Nicky Butt. Maybe England could do with a bit of steel in the middle of the park.
One day we will have an England international playing for Birmingham City
With several players in contention, does this show how far the club has come over the last 12 or so years?
I can remember when Aliou Cisse joined the club and I thought, ‘Wow, we’ve got the Senegal captain coming to play for Birmingham City Football Club’ and I really was excited about that. Of course, we did have internationals like Kenny Cunningham and Damien Johnson playing for us and I remember saying, ‘One day we will have an England international playing for Birmingham City’ and now we have an England international in Emile Heskey. Will he play for England again? Yes, I think he will. We’ve got Matthew Upson as an England international. Will he play for England again? Yes, I think he will. We’ve got Nicky Butt and David Dunn, they could both play for England and Julian Gray and Jermaine Pennant are great prospects. So when you ask me is this a barometer of how far we’ve come, absolutely.