Another Club Who Won’t Learn
Notts County, 5th in League 2, have sacked manager Ian McParland after two years in charge. Apparently, Sven isn’t being lined up to take over the club, but he is in charge of finding a successor to McParland. Apparently, the club still have a five-year project to deliver “sustainable success to the club” with their focus being reaching “the Championship and beyond”. Apparently, they think that sacking a manager who has done nothing wrong, is a way of delivering sustainable success. Go figure.

The Son of God?
Diego Maradona. The luckiest man in Argentina. A man who has made preposterous team selections, baffling a nation and beyond, has somehow come devilishly close to securing qualification for the World Cup. Martin Palermo saved the day, at a time when anything seemed possible with Maradona. He has selected complete nobodies for the national side, while ignoring Riquelme, the best Argentinian midfielder available. He played Insua as a left back, and even more surprisingly, Guitierrez, a left winger, at right back. After all that, Carlos Tevez didn’t even get a look in!
Is there a luckier man than Diego? Sliding around in the rain on a miserable Saturday evening, I would say no. He survived…again…just.

Out With the Old, In With the Yeung
So, the deal is done. Carson Yeung is finally the proud owner of Birmingham City Football Club. The invasion of the Chinese started with the arrival of Sammy Yu and Peter Pannu – sounds like something out of a film for children but oh well. Vico Hui was also in tow, with Michael Dunford; spot the odd one out?

It appears that Dunford is the man with the previous footballing experience required to take over as CEO of the new regime, as Yeung sets out to bring fans back to St Andrews. The first impromptu interview given by Pannu and Yu came on Sky Sports News, where they excitedly joked around, suggesting that there was considerable funds available for McLeish, but choosing to leave it to Yeung himself on Thursday to reveal all.

Are exciting times ahead? Personally, I was extremely worried in 2007, and obviously this time, I was angry that Yeung would even try to buy Blues again, after what he put us through first time. Questions, such as whether the money is there, remain, but there appears to be many more answers this time. If Yeung didn’t have money, why would he spend £80 odd million pounds buying the club?

Yu appeared on BRMB, answering questions put forward by the fans of Birmingham City Football Club, before doing an official press interview. (See Kev’s article). We have also been told that both men were present in amongst the fans at St Andrews during the recent Bolton game (poor them), and they took the opportunity to talk to faithful fans in the stands, asking what they thought about everything at the club from the team to the toilets. It really does seem like these men want to improve ‘the matchday experience’, as it was labelled by Messers Gold and Sullivan.

Yeung’s press conference on Thursday will be interesting, to say the very least. He has taken us over without any real talk of his plans for the future, and this is his chance to pass on his real message. We all remember the last interview he gave to Sky Sports in 2007, when he said that he would make Blues “the best team in the world”. Personally, that was one of the most cringe-worthy moments of my life as a football fan, purely because if anyone was going to make a complete mess of the situation, it would have been Blues. However, this time, Yeung and his associates seem more determined, more focused, and wiser about the task ahead of them. They have realised the importance of the fans and they are ready to embrace our views and opinions.

This is the start of a new era at Blues. This is our chance, as supporters, to be a part of the Chinese revolution engulfing St Andrews. But, fans must remember one thing. Gold and Sullivan made mistakes on the road to where we are today, but they progressed the club to levels that were not even fathomable when they took over. Yeung and his associates have taken over at a potentially critical time in our club’s history. We need stability. We need teamwork. We need money.

Keep the faith Bluenoses, good times may be just around the corner.
By akvbcfc

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