Thu Mar 19, 2015 7:37 pm
Thursday 19th March 2015
Darren Purse: Birmingham City and Cardiff are very similar clubs
Former Birmingham City defender Purse also played for the Bluebirds and outlines similarities between the clubs' owners
As a man who carries the Cities of Birmingham and Cardiff close to his heart Darren Purse is all too aware of the perils of foreign ownership.
Blues, for whom Purse played for eight years, meet the Bluebirds, where he spent another four, at the Cardiff City Stadium tomorrow for a match that is little more than a dead rubber.
However, that is not to say it is a game without significance as both have experienced a Grand Old Duke of York existence since their respective owners took charge.
Since Carson Yeung rode into St Andrew’s Blues have been relegated, promoted, won the League Cup and been relegated again. Boardroom battles continue to undermine the parent company.
Under Vincent Tan Cardiff have been promoted, within a penalty shoot-out of winning the Capital One Cup, relegated and now mired back in the Championship. In some ways they are still paying the price for their temerity.
When both clubs have been up, they’ve been up and when they’ve been down, they’ve been down – but nowadays both clubs are about halfway up, settled in mid-table of the second tier, albeit after a typically undulating campaign.
And mid-season managerial changes have been largely positive experiences for both with Gary Rowett and Russell Slade bringing much-needed stability.
“There are so many similarities between the clubs,” Purse notes. “They are both big cities, with passionate supporters who let you know if you don’t produce but they will give you their all if they see you working hard.
“They are also similar off the field in that chairmen have come in from abroad not really understanding the traditions of being an owner of an English football club. But at the same time without those foreign owners neither club might have hit the same heights.
“There are undoubtedly positives and negatives. There are some foreign owners who have come in and been good for their clubs, you look at the people behind Arsenal.
“But you look at what’s been going on at Watford for the last couple of years and it’s strange.
“But with all the money at the top end of the game now people around the world can see the prize and want to go for it.
“What you can’t do, though, is run a football club as a business: if you want to be successful in terms of winning trophies you have to accept it’s going to cost money and that you’ll need an owner with deep pockets, someone like Abramovich at Chelsea.
“If you don’t want to go down that route you have to look at clubs like Burnley and Southampton, they are basically doing things the right way and operating within their means and are the clubs you want to emulate.”
Both are in the Premier League, for now at least in Burnley’s case, and Purse would like to see Birmingham and Cardiff back there too.
He is positive Rowett, his old Blues room-mate, is the right man for that job and says he never had any doubts his old mate would turn things round.
“I always knew it would work with Gary because he’s got the club at his heart. If you’ve got Birmingham City in your blood the fans will always buy into what you’re doing.
“He’s achieved that, he’s turned it around and is very much the thinking man’s football manager.”