New Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung has pledged to provide manager Alex McCleish with up to £40million to invest on new players in the January transfer window.
The Hong Kong businessman spoke to the press for the first time on Thursday following his takeover at St Andrews.
Yeung’s investment company Grandtop International Holdings completed the formalities of a £81.5million deal just over a week ago.
Aware that significant investment is needed to establish Birmingham as a top flight outfit, Yeung promised a substantial investment in January.
He said: “I will talk to Alex about his needs first. My first plan is to support the club with £20-40million.”
Yeung bought a 29.9% stake in Birmingham two years ago, but it has taken him until now to take complete charge after the end of the David Sullivan and David Gold era.
Yeung said: “I’m happy to be here. It has taken a long time to buy the club – but finally I have got it.
“There were problems with each other regarding communication. When I took out the original 29.9% stake, I did not say I would then buy the club 100%.
“It just depended on the right time – and now I am so happy it has all gone through.”
“I will be supporting the manager. We have an excellent management team.
“Our aim is to work hard to secure our position in the Premier League, not only for this year but for many years to come.
“Birmingham can become as big as possible. We are competitors for Aston Villa.
“In the short term I just care about January. But in the future there will be more money, and longer term we believe there is a major opportunity to build Birmingham’s fan base in China and to generate new sources of revenue for the club.
“But for this to happen, our first priority must be to establish Birmingham as a Premier League club.”
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