David Gold - Football
Blues Magazine, November 2005, Part Two
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
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.
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.
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 2 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
