David Gold has a dream. He wants to fly around the world. Not pampered in first class, as befits a multimillionaire, but by light aircraft. Maybe in a Cessna or its like; perhaps even in the helicopter that he pilots and is parked, gleaming in the sun, on the front lawn of his expansive and meticulously manicured estate in Surrey.
The dream was put on hold several years ago. His potential companion for the epic voyage passed away. “Sadly my pal died,” Gold said, “and the plan I had, too. We’d always talked about it. There are things I want to do, places to go. I really don’t want to be where I’m not wanted.”
On May 11, Gold, the Birmingham City chairman, felt far from wanted. His club had been relegated from the Barclays Premier League, despite a 4-1 win over Blackburn Rovers at St Andrews on the final day of the season, and some home supporters turned on him and David Sullivan, the club’s co-owner. Bile spewed from their raucous throats.
Birmingham chairman has rekindled his enthusiasm as the Championship awaits.
“Yes, I was close to resigning”, Gold recalled. “At that moment in time, you’re thinking that the hatred is from everyone, that you’ve failed. For the first time in 15 years at the club, you question the theory that we’re all in this together. Suddenly, people are jumping ship. More importantly, they want you to jump ship.
“There was one particular person. I could see the hatred in his eyes. But there was a number of other people also. They spend the whole 90 minutes looking at the pitch, then there’s this sudden turnaround. You can’t get angry at a green field, and the rest are angry so there’s no point getting angry at the angry. So they turn on you.”
The next evening, Gold attended the club’s end-of-season dinner, an event that he had dreaded, especially in the absence of Sullivan and Ralph Gold, his brother and the other co-owner. “There were 1,000 people there and someone had to go along.” Gold Said. “So I did, I still felt terrible, I still felt like resigning.
“But when I gave my speech, I got a standing ovation. I said “Thanks, guys, I really needed that.” And I did. One bloke came up to me and apologised. He was one of them (at St Andrew’s) and said, “I was so disappointed, so upset, I just lost it.’ I was still considering my options then but I know now. I’ll be back, I’ll be there. Unquestionably.”
Gold will be back – wiser, lessons learnt. The aborted takeover by Carson Yeung, the Hong Kong businessman, will not be allowed to happen again; the acrimonious departure of Steve Bruce, the manager, who left for Wigan Athletic in mid-season as Yeung dithered, will not be repeated with Alex McLeish, Bruce’s successor. Gold feels chastened, almost violated by the experiences, but holds his hands up.
“The takeover business was appalling,” he said. “I blame myself, the board, all of us. None of us stood up and said ‘Look, this could be really damaging.’ We should never have given Yeung so much time to complete the deal; we should have realised something was up. But, believe me, we won’t make the same mistake again.
“With Steve, I lost a friend. We’d worked very closely for years and I don’t think we’d had a cross work. How it ended I found very distressing, very sad. It was not personal, it was business. I hope that, one day, we’ll bump into each other, shake hands and put it all behind us.”
When the Coca-Cola Championship gets under way on August 9, the rancorous images of three months ago will have faded. “You have to see what we love about this great game.” He said. “The excitement, the chase, the new signings, winning a match you don’t expect to, the wonderful goals.”
It would seem that the long-held dream, the round-the-world odyssey featuring David Gold and friends, will have to wait a bit longer.