BLUES chairman David Gold is already braced for a battle against relegation from the Premiership next season despite the financial jackpot available from the improved television deal.

Blues regained their top-flight status at the first attempt after finishing runners-up to Sunderland in the Coca-Cola Championship.

City manager Steve Bruce will have funds to strengthen a squad short of Premiership experience. But Gold is anticipating a battle to survive.

He said: "We will be one of six to eight clubs who will be fighting against relegation and that will happen whether there is £6million or £60million coming in.

"I don't feel any different this time to when we were promoted five years ago when less money was available. The challenges are the same. It's the manager's job and the board's job to ensure we buy the very best players at the best value."


Gold and co-owner David Sullivan have been at the helm at St Andrews for 14 years and their commitment remains strong.
But Gold would not be shocked if City became a target for foreign investors.

He said: "It wouldn't surprise me if the club was at some stage approached by foreign investors. Many of the super clubs have already been taken over. Birmingham could be one of the next to attract interest because it bears the name of one of the greatest cities in Europe."



I like David Gold alot but should we really be prepared for relegation? shouldn't we be preparing for top six? aim high and all that.....we all know how negative bruce is and this kind of talk from the "board" makes the job alot easier for him...which isn't a bad thing but if we finish 16th-15th then bruce is hailed as a hero and it's not right...

well george graham used to say aim for the roof and might reach the cieling.

is there something we dont know ? he keeps saying we could be bought out.

i wonder if somthings going on.

If there is I believe as as PLC they must make an announcement to the stock exchange first ..?
K.R.O.

i dont think they do if someone has just asked if there willing to sell.

i think they only do if someone is truly interested like putting a bid in.

"Gold prepares for relegation!" and there are people on here who think our board is not forward looking! Obviously they are not going to make the same mistakes as last time- they're going make different mistakes.

Our share price has gone up 11p in 3 days in fact it's the highest i have ever known it to be...37.5p

David Gold's attitude really concerns me, as it seems that we have learnt nothing from our previous four years in the Prem. During that spell, each year we set our sights very low - get to 17th place so that we avoid the drop. But we failed to progress and made no inroads into the group of clubs perennially placed below the title challengers. In our first season (2002/03) despite falsehoods spread about for whatever reason, we never got involved in a relegation battle. In our second season, we finished each month (Aug 2003 to May 2004) in the top half of the Premiership. In our third season, we always managed to steer clear of the relegation fight. So, from promotion through to September 2005 for 32 successive months we found ourselves no lower in the table than 16th (averaging 12th).

The problem that I see is that in October 2005 we dropped to 19th place and once we did slip into a relegation fight, we failed to respond. The players failed to find their perilous position as sufficient incentive to buck their ideas up, and the manager clearly was unable to get enough out of them to climb out of the bottom three in the way that Harry Redknapp managed it for Portsmouth. So, to put the record straight, when we first went up last time, we were not involved in a relegation battle. It took us three years before we were faced with that, and once we did find ourselves facing relegation, we didn't show any signs of being able to fight our way out of it.

So now David Gold is forecasting a relegation fight. How negative is that? Of course those outside the club (bookies, pundits) are going to include us in their possible/probable relegation candidates. I don't blame them for that. Each season the prime candidates are the 3 promoted teams plus the 3 or 4 who finish just above the drop zone in the last campaign. And that is usually where the relegated teams come from. But it doesn't mean that our own Chairman has to accpet that as our rightful status.

I would like to see the squad strengthened to the point where everyone at the club is confident enough to aim for - and achieve - mid table security as a minimum for this season, with a 3 year plan to target European football and a seven year plan to see us join the title challengers.

"Aspirations are dreams with a roadmap. Follow the route and you will achieve what you set out to achieve." - Bill Gates.

it's true that we avoided relegation comfortably for three seasons but at no time did we look secure- there were often times when we looked like a bunch of amateurs yet we still managed ot cobble enough points together to survive. In other words we were a little bit lucky and then the luck ran out (and some!)

As for finishing seventeenth in the forthcoming season, well, I'd take it. But thereafter football fans being what they are some progress would be expected. Personally I find annual relegation battles wearisome and sometimes relegation can be a blessing in disguise allowing radical restructuring- I certainly wasn't opposed to Blues policy last season- only to the negative garbage that was served up game after game. And the fact that we lost twelve games in what was a very poor Championship hardly lifts the spirits- fans like Proccy who bang on about the solidity of the defence etc. are missing the point- as drnick points out we often let off the hook by rank bad finishing and a few slices of luck. We won't get away with it in the Premiership, believe me.

So I'm bracing myself for another long hard season (what another!) All I'd like to see are genuinely visible signs of steady progress- but will I?

from the tenor of your posts, i doubt you have any other philosophy to call upon

there's a massive difference between positive thinking and wishful thinking, mate. We'll see whether your blind, slavering optimism or my reasoned pessimism carries the day. I'll accept your apologies at the end of the season. Meanwhile try to keep your replies a little less stilted.

1/ true, which side of the fence do you sit?

2/ i'm neither blind nor slavering, and pessimism is rarely reasoned

3/ i dont think so

4/ i wont be taking orders from the likes of you

i think that any team that comes up will struggle in it's first season but as you say bob there must be some sort of progress.

being a grity determined team wont get you anywhere, we need to change from this defend the point mentality and move more towards a footballing side instead of a dig in and role your sleeves up side.

this all depends on what the board want.

do they want to progress or are they happy to be a struggling prem side and just happy to be in the prem?

i know things like this dont happen over night but in a few years just say 5 forinstance then i would be exspecting at least a top end of the division finnesh each season.

i agree, and none of us (except bobtheslob) wants us to struggle. the reality is, the gap gets bigger each year you're away and so catching up is hard. if we stay up next season i don't believe the board will make the same mistakes re spending, nor will sb make the same mistakes signing players who see us as a final pay cheque....i hope!!

but you can't run before you can walk, and the only way to sustain progress is to build firm foundations and have a little bit of a gamble without risking the future welfare of the club...

I can just about take your woeful innane one liners, Proccy but there's no need to get pretentious on us. Isn't it time YOU supplied a thread outlining in some detail your reasons to be cheerful- or are you just content with your rather parasitic role as would be funnyman? Believe me, it ain't working.

and i care about your views because..........?

i would'nt disagree with that mate,

problem i see is our style of footy hampers certain players ability now that cant be good if you want to progress into a good footballing side.

can SB do that?

from what i have seen since he has been at the club i would say no.

if he learns from his mistakes and then he could keep us up season after season but is that enough.

for me just hanging around the bottom of the prem is not what i want personaly and the days when teams like wimboldon won the FA cup are long gone.

I think we all know its going to be hard going back up, so i think its right that the club and the players are under no illusion that we will fly up the table. We should be prepared for a battle, but at the same time i hope the players have a balanced attitude so its not all doom and gloom and are just prepared for a tough season...but also know that with hard work we can avoid the relegation battle...too much talk of relegation and maybe the players will just expect it and maybe settle for it?

i shall pray for you in your lonely isolation- there can rarely be a creature more deserving of our profound sympathy than a failed comedian.

dont pray for me, i'm not religious (unless blues counts?)

let's make a pact: I won't reply to you and you don't reply to me; otherwise we get caught up in a futile cycle of nan nee nah. Agreed?

but Proccy will have to reply to agree.

Agreed?

so agreeing to this i'm replying.....

.

blimey you've put som weight on mate.

and some hair....

you bought that rug then wiggy.

yeah, but as it's your cast off it's too big....

thats becasue it's the one i used for my ball bag , peanut.

nice editing peewee and does that emotican meen you'd like to nibble my gonads.