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Queudrue showdown with Sullivan as the air turns blue at Birmingham
Last updated at 09:26am on 13.05.08Birmingham City co-owner David Sullivan traded insults over the airwaves on Monday with defender Franck Queudrue in an astonishing public row.
Sullivan offered a blunt assessment of the Frenchman in a TV interview, blaming relegation on the summer signings of former manager Steve Bruce, now in charge at Wigan.
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Hard to take: Sullivan watches Birmingham go down
"We bought a pile of rubbish last season and Franck Queudrue has disappointed me the most," Sullivan told Sky Sports News. "We also brought in a third-choice keeper, Richard Kingson. He was a waste of space, too. I could go right down the list. Nobody has really shone out.
"But we spent £2.25million on Queudrue and he's been a major disappointment to the club. The bottom line is that we didn't improve the team last summer and that's where it all started."
Queudrue wasted no time hitting back, telephoning talksport to defend himself and launch a counter-attack on Sullivan, who bore the brunt of fans' anger as the club were relegated despite Sunday's 4-1 win at home to Blackburn.
"It's horrendous. I cannot accept criticism from someone I haven't seen all year," he said. "I can't stay at the club whose chairman (co-owner) makes comments like that about the players. Tell me face to face. I'm old enough to take it on the chin.
"It's not right. I will have to talk with my manager and see how it goes. He needs to concentrate on buying players, not judging football. The fact is I didn't get enough games. He said: “What a pile of rubbish”. Well, I want to see the list I'm supposed to be on.
"I didn't play. I was fit. It's manager Alex McLeish's choice. I love the club. I love the area but it's the manager's choice. I train but I've never seen Sullivan on the training ground. How can he judge me?"
Furious response: Queudrue called talkSPORT to respond to Sullivan's criticism
Both men were due to attend the club's end-of-season awards dinner on Monday night and Queudrue added: "He's at the dinner, I believe. I will see him there."
It was another day in the soap opera that passes for life at St Andrew's as Sullivan outlined why, with nobody interested in buying the club, he intended to stay in charge. Twenty-four hours earlier, he had issued a plea for any investor to buy his shareholding, including co-owners David and Ralph Gold.
Sullivan said: "If my two boys had said to me, “Dad, we don't want to go to Birmingham City any more” then that would be it for me, I'd walk. They haven't said that to me yet and I hope they don't. They still enjoy it, despite what happened against Blackburn on Sunday. Kids are resilient like that.
"Deep down, I love the club. When you've been here for 16 seasons and only ever missed one home game and about 20 away, then you obviously feel a lot for the club.
"But I can't take what was said to me with such venom on Sunday. I can't repeat it, you couldn't print it, but it's not what I accept as part of life in football, not part of life at all. People simply don't know the amount of work I put into Birmingham City.
"I will continue to work for the club, I won't let it down, but if there was someone out there with the money to buy me out, I'd do it. But there isn't.
"The Chinese people would do it, but the supporters wouldn't want them either. They think the Sultan of Brunei or the King of Saudi Arabia is out there wanting to buy Birmingham. They aren't. People aren't queuing up.
"These scenes that happened aren't going to help anyone. Players won't want to come here after seeing that. They want a club where the fans are supportive.
"I'm not sure that finishing ninth and being £50m in debt like Manchester City is a good thing, or getting to the FA Cup Final and losing £24m like Portsmouth is a good thing.
"We've got to find someone who is willing and able to take over the club and run it better than we can, or at least as good as we can, so we don't want someone who will strip it naked because we have spent 16 years building it up.
"If you take West Brom, they lost two of their first three games this season, well that would be unbearable if we did that. We've never had this before.
"We have given our all for the club. Birmingham City was bankrupt when we got there, we've built three-quarters of the ground, we're trying to build a new stadium, which we are a long way down the line with.
"I think it's a bit like the Labour Government. After 15 years people want a change.They think there is someone better round the corner. Whether there is, time will tell."
