Andy Munro comments on Blues’ ownership wrangles.
It seems like Birmingham’s Chinatown is extending out into Small Heath and Aston and the Birmingham Mail sports pages are full of optimism but is it justified? Where and how did these guys get their money? Personally, I would feel far more confident if Blues were being bought by an Arab Sheikh with a vast collection of oil wells.
Apart from anything else, the sheer naivity of the new/prospective owners astounds me. I was always brought up with the stereotype that the Chinese were an inscrutable race who never gave away their emotions. Trillion Dollar Trophies, in announcing the availability of £10 million have immediately doubled the price of any player Gary Rowett wants to sign. This, of course, is compounded more in the case of our ‘considerably richer than yow’ neighbours. Suffice to say, that somebody ‘in the know’ , admittedly a Bluenose, has suggested that Villa’s new owner isn’t a million miles away from being in the Carsson Yeung (Chinese Walter Mitty) category. However, libel laws dictate no further comment!
Back to the Blues scenario and it is obvious that TTA are gambling on getting Blues into the Premier League by adding this further £10 million to the £10 million already loaned. Naive…because that sor tof money doesn’t buy much in an inflating transfer market. They’ve given a two year timescale to secure the pot of Premier gold but if we stay where we are, at the end of that timescale, they’ll want their money back and more.
Meanwhile, we have further ‘exciting’ news that Blues are negotiating on Ryan Shotton. After a shaky start, the lad did okay but, at best, he’s a top half Championship player and not the grade of player we need if we are to seriously challenge for promotion. Let’s hope that there are more innovative signings in the offing but it’s not going to be easy now TTA have bragged about the money available. To put this into context, here are some inflated valuations for Blues players (with real market value in brackets) if they were to be approached by a moneybags club…
Tomasz Kuszczak(pedigree Polish international) £3 million (£250,000)
Paul Caddis (Scottish international) £3 million (£500,000)
Jonathan Grounds (versatile and proven Championship fullback) £2 million (£150,000)
Jonathan Spector(experienced and versatile USA international £1 million (free)
Michael Morrison( experienced and proven captain material) £5 million (£2.5 million)
Stephen Gleeson (Eire prospect and midfield playmaker £3 million (£750,000)
Diego Fabrini (mercurial midfield schemer) £4 million (£1.5 million)
Mikel Kleftenbeld (Dutch midfielder with impressive trophy winning pedigree) £4 million (£1 million)
David Cotterill (skilful Welsh international) £5 million (£1.5 million)
Jaques Maghoma (powerful Congo international wide player) £2 million (£250,000)
Clayton Donaldson; (goal scoring international centre forward) £ 5million (£2 million)
Inflation on a Grecian scale!