When showboating goes wrong…

It was a lame transfer window for most clubs, but for Birmingham City in particular it was a colossal let down. When Carson Yeung took over the club last year, he signalled his intent by happily telling the media that there would be £40 million to spend on players in the January window.

The fans must have been ecstatic, and it must have seemed like a good idea at the time, but in retrospect Yeung must know that he should probably have played his cards a little closer to his chest. Instead, he learnt the hard way just how cruel and greedy the Premier League can be. Every club Birmingham went to in the window immediately added a few million onto the asking price of their players, meaning big moves for Kenwyne Jones, Ryan Babel, and Roman Pavlyuchenko all fell through. Talking to The Guardian, Peter Pannu, Birmingham City's vice-chairman, admitted that Yeung’s showing off had back fired a bit.

“It was not particularly helpful that our president indicated a desire to buy players in January and spend some money”.

At least though, it seems they’ve learnt their lesson:

“Let's move on to the summer and on this occasion we're not going to say anything”.