Gold Downplays Money Issues

David Gold has gone on record as saying that money is not the object of desire for the Blues’ board.

Fans and Steve Bruce have been dismayed by the board’s actions concerning Matt Upson, but Gold has continued to defend the directors’ stance on selling the centre half to West Ham.

People have also pointed to the fact that selling Upson could ruin our chances of promotion and a £30-40 million windfall, far in excess of Upson’s transfer fee, however Gold says it’s not as straight forward as that because whatever money is made, outgoings in fees and wages still rise.

‘Every football club, in the main, breaks even. Whether it’s in the Championship or the Premiership.

‘The players get rewarded, as we know. I don’t mind that, I am a believer in market forces.

‘If your income is £40million in the Premiership, then the wages rise equal to that. If you are relegated and your income is halved, you spend that kind of money on purchasing players. Getting promotion, the incentive isn’t about money for us.

‘This is about pride, making up for that hurt and disappointment of relegation, getting back to where we were. I wish people could really feel it.

‘Financially, the reality is that it doesn’t make one dot of difference to the club whether we are in the Premiership or Championship.

I suppose it makes a nice change that it’s not Sullivan putting his foot in his mouth for a change.

You wages only rise on promotion if you are stupid enough to agree to ridiculous demands or can’t negotiate clever enough to have success rewarded rather than paying a higher bottom line. Of course it’s about money, football is thesedays and with the prices the board insist fans pay has Gold forgotten about the Premiership years where the club made a profit instead of just ‘breaking even’.

Being in the Premiership, financially, makes all the difference and it’s naive to believe anything else.

Again if Blues hadn’t made profit during the Prem years maybe he would have a point but saying he wished people could feel the hurt and disappointment of relegation is just insane.

Fans live those feelings week in week out, and although I genuinely think Gold does feel the frustration like fans stupid interviews like this do nothing to enhance his position.

There is no win, or comeback from the board after saying all month Upson wouldn’t be sold and then deciding to sell him at the last minute, they would be far better off apologising and taking the flak instead of trying to defend an indefensible action.