Sullivan blames Bruce's 'rubbish'

Published on Monday 12 May 2008 23:07

WANTAWAY Birmingham co-owner David Sullivan yesterday launched an astonishing attack on the club's disgruntled fans and the summer signings made by former manager Steve Bruce.

Sullivan is desperate to sell his stake in Blues after claiming he and his fellow directors were subjected to "venomous" abuse from a section of the St Andrews crowd during Sunday's Barclays Premier League match with Blackburn.

A 4-1 win was not enough to save Alex McLeish's side from relegation and Sullivan blamed the "pile of rubbish" bought by Bruce last summer for their demise. The multi-millionaire businessman singled out defender Frank Queudrue and goalkeeper Richard Kingson as particular disappointments, branding the latter a "complete waste of space".

Sullivan claimed his children were brought to tears by some of the chanting during yesterday's final game of the season. He said: "I've got my young kids with me, my kids are in tears. I can't repeat what was chanted. It's all f's and c's and w's, and things like that, which I don't need in my life. It isn't part of the game, as far as I'm concerned. It isn't acceptable."

He added: "It's the venom. It wasn't just half a dozen people. At the end, you've probably got 1,000 people, 1,500 people on the pitch that ripped down goalposts. Those people ruined it for everybody."

Asked for the reasons behind Birmingham's immediate return to the Coca-Cola Championship following last summer's promotion, Sullivan was unequivocal. "We bought a pile of rubbish," he said.

He named Queudrue – a 2million signing from Middlesbrough – and Kingson – a free transfer from Ankaraspor – as two of the worst buys. He added: "Bottom line, we didn't improve the team last summer."

Birmingham's other close-season signings were Fabrice Muamba for 4million, Olivier Kapo for 3million, Garry O'Connor for 2.6million, Liam Ridgewell for 2million and free transfers Stuart Parnaby and Daniel De Ridder.

Sullivan also rejected suggestions that Birmingham would still be in the Premier League had Bruce remained in charge.

"What people forget is that prior to the arrival of Alex, we'd lost seven of the last eight games," he said. "Things didn't go wrong when Alex arrived.

"I think we would have gone down with or without Steve with the team we had."

Meanwhile, defender David Murphy has joined James McFadden in pledging his future to Birmingham despite relegation.

Murphy, who joined Blues from Hibernian for 1.5million in January,

said: "I've been part of the team that got us into this mess and I want to stay and play a part in getting us out of it.

"I've no regrets about leaving Hibernian to come to Birmingham and always wanted to show that I could play in the Premier League.

"I think I've done that. Now we have to aim to get back up as quickly as possible."