Birmingham terminate Yeung talks

Birmingham chairman David Gold has admitted that he and co-owner David Sullivan have been bracing themselves for "many weeks" …

Birmingham chairman David Gold has admitted that he and co-owner David Sullivan have been bracing themselves for "many weeks" for the collapse of the takeover bid by Carson Yeung.

Blues finally pulled the plug on the potential deal today after admitting in a statement to the Stock Exchange they were "no longer confident" that Yeung's investment company Grandtop International Holdings "will be able to make a general offer for the company".

Gold and Sullivan will now resume the full running of the midlands club which they rescued from financial oblivion when taking control nearly 15 years ago in harness with managing director Karren Brady.

Gold said: "We have been making contingency plans that the takeover would fail for several weeks and myself and David Sullivan have been running the club on that basis.

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"Of course, there was always the chance someone could walk into our offices on December 21st, the deadline we gave Mr Yeung to complete the deal, with the money to buy the club.

"But in reality we have been saying for some time that the deal was dead in the water to all intents and purposes.

"A few weeks ago I was saying I was 90 per cent certain it would go ahead but my confidence in the takeover going ahead gradually got less and less.

"The silence has been deafening from Hong Kong. Our dealings with Carson Yeung have been very brief. The takeover became an irritation we wanted cleared up.

"It has all caused so much uncertainty and, in part at least, cost us our manager in Steve Bruce although we are more than pleased with his replacement Alex McLeish."

Gold admits he was an unwilling seller and is keen to press on as Blues chairman. He has already hinted he may be willing to buy back the 29.9 per cent stake Yeung owns in the club.

He said: "I feel revitalised and rechallenged now. The future strikes me as exciting for Birmingham. There is a new manager in place, a new era and I want to be part of it."

Yeung bought his initial 29.9 per cent stake in the club in July for £15million with a view to completing a full buy-out by the end of the year.

But it caused uncertainty at the club and Yeung refused to sanction the new contract Bruce had agreed with Gold and Sullivan.

After he could get no assurances on the money available to spend in January, Bruce ended his six-year reign at St Andrews and moved to Wigan last month.

When Yeung failed to meet the deadline three weeks ago to prove he would have the funds in place to buy Blues by the December 21 deadline, the writing was on the wall.