David Gold - Football
FourFourTwo Part Two
... of turning professional. "It was a very bad moment," he recalls. "He wasn't having it, believing it was a dodgy way to make a living. The Hammers really wanted me but there was no way.
"I'd appeared at Upton Park as a player about 20 times and scored the winner for London Youth against Glasgow Youth in a 2-1 victory back in 1953.I was a very nippy left-winger and would have done well in the game."
Much later, in partnership with David Sullivan, he failed to take a stake in West Ham but always believed he'd eventually become a club owner. In 1994 he bought the "khazi" that was St Andrews. Birmingham City was close to administration and co-owner David Sullivan wanted the Gold brothers, David and Ralph, to join him on the board. They made it in "half an hour flat". After taking over, David Gold pledged to send the club back into the big league within five years. It's taken eight and that annoys him. He admits he's always been a man in hurry, describing himself as a workaholic who "got lucky along the way".
Now he answers his mobile phone with the greeting: "Hi, Premiership chairman Gold here." The hobby has become the day job and he spends most of his time looking after Birmingham City with his chief executive Karren Brady. 
"I have quality people looking after all my business and Karren is absolutely brilliant. I can't speak highly enough of her. She's been head-hunted by other clubs on several occasions but this is where her heart is. She won't leave."
He is effusive, too, in his praise of partner Sullivan, a controversial character but whose passion for the Blues is unquestioned. "None of this would have happened without him. He was the first in and I'm grateful to have had the chance to join him. He understands the game and the personalities. We have a great mix of lively personalities."
NOW CHAIRMAN GOLD CANT WAIT FOR another big moment - the arrival of Manchester United at St Andrews. "It will be a truly great moment when they come here. To see David Beckham and all the others running out on our turf is a moment I am going to treasure. But if we manage to give them a good hiding that will be priceless. I just hope, if it happens, that Alex Ferguson will take it and give us our due. He really doesn't have a lot of grace, does he? He'll tell you all about why his team got beaten and find 16 reasons why it happened. You don't hear him say the other team might have played better. In defeat, he lacks grace. Sorry, but truth is truth."
Meanwhile, his ambition for next season is to achieve the traditional new boy 40-point safety target. After that, European qualification and an expanded stadium. "If we are to become the next Newcastle United that's what will be needed. We have to increase to 40,000 as that's the minimum UEFA requirement for European football. [Gold is actually wrong here, according to UEFA. There are in fact no minimum requirements for holding UEFA European club competition games. 
The confusion may be caused by the four and five star stadia categories which are used to determine the potential of stadia to host UEFA Club competition finals- four star being minimum 30,000 capacity and five star 50,000.]
The plans are in hand. The old stand will be demolished and a new stand constructed with provision for a second tier to be built on top. That side of the ground will house all the banqueting rooms and corporate facilities."
None of this would be under discussion, Gold believes, had he not experienced another of those defining moments in deciding that Trevor Francis and the club would have to part company midway through last season. Gold had been Francis's staunchest boardroom ally, often flying from Biggin
It took eight years, and a lot more heartache than Gold planned, but Birmingham City are back in the big league
