Autobiography

It made us realise that when people talk about
the owner of a football club they are actually
talking about a custodian, a holder of the keys
for a period of time. Yes they are the owners of
the real estate but the real owners of every
club in the country are the fans; not because
of any shares they might own but because of
their hearts and souls, the joy they feel and
the tears they, their families and ancestors
have shed, in many cases for a hundred years
or more.
When any board goes and the next arrives the
fans will still be there, and if not them, then
their sons and daughters, grandchildren, greatgrandchildren
and so on. It is their heritage.
Clubs will always belong to the likes of the
Joneses at 27 Linton Close rather than the
Golds living in Surrey.
But what was very evident to me when we
arrived at St Andrews was that the soul of the
football club had died. It had been ripped out,
destroyed by our predecessors and by years of
failure and neglect. We started to see the heart
of the football club begin to beat again, slowly
at first and then gathering momentum. I feel
proud that we all played a part in helping
Birmingham City’s fans to hold their heads high
once again, and Barry Fry was also a major
contributor in restoring that pride.
We appointed Barry as manager following the
resignation of Terry Cooper in December 1993.
Terry had been under a lot of pressure in
striving to keep Birmingham in the old First
Division and, having achieved this aim in such
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