No Gold rush for Seagulls (From The Argus)

No Gold rush for Seagulls

11:10pm Tuesday 18th December 2007 in Sport

The prospects of David Gold investing in Albion in the immediate future have receded after the Birmingham chairman declared a takeover bid for the Blues as "dead in the water".

The Argus revealed in September that the Birmingham chairman and co-owner wants to invest in Falmer-bound Albion once a takeover of the Premiership club has been completed.

Football League rules do not allow simultaneous involvement in more than one club and the apparent collapse of the potential Carson Yeung takeover bid means the multi-millionaire will be concentrating his efforts on helping new manager Alex McLeish and his staff to keep City in the Barclays Premier League for another season.

Gold, who has a home in Hurstpierpoint and has confirmed if he left Birmingham he would be interested in clubs in the "South", said: "We now need a period of stability.

"We will do nothing now. We can't stop people making inquiries.

"We will concentrate 100 per cent from now until the end of the season on Birmingham staying in the Premier League.

"We won't entertain anything until the summer. Our fans have been to hell and back and so have the staff.

"The board has also gone through a difficult time over this.

"Now is the time to focus on staying in the Premier League everyone worked so hard to get back into last season."