As reported yesterday, Carson Yeung’s proposed takeover of Birmingham City has fallen through, leaving the way free for chairman David Sullivan to acrue more shares in the club. Of slightly more interest are his comments regarding former Blues boss Steve Bruce, which feature in The Guardian today.
“We got what we think is a far better manager who has managed at a high, international level,” said Sullivan.
“You’ve got to remember, when Steve left we’d lost seven of the last eight games. We managed to get rid of the manager and get £3m, which was incredibly good business for the club. Two more games and the fans would have been screaming for his blood – ‘sack the manager, sack the manager’.”
Both Bruce and new Birmingham boss Alex McLeish have had reasonable starts as manager of their new clubs. The former saw his Wigan team beat Blackburn 5-3 last Saturday and they have the potential to climb out of the bottom three at manager-less Fulham this weekend. It’s also been four points from three games for ‘Big Eck’, whose team also have a relegation six-pointer against Bolton at the Reebok Stadium this weekend.