Birmingham City owners break silence and tell talkSPORT the club is 'not for sale'

Blues fans have launched a campaign against the club's owners due to years of growing discontent with the team stuck in the lower echelons of the Championship.

The hashtag #BSHLOUT [Birmingham Sports Holdings Limited] has been spreading with results failing to improve, and fans have been left asking questions about the men in charge.

talkSPORT reporter and Blues fan, Ian Danter, has claimed that supporters feel 'disenfranchised' by the current ownership group, and don't even know who is really at the helm.

Outspoken pundit Simon Jordan also had his say, claiming both Lee Bowyer and Troy Deeney had 'been sold a pup' following their moves to St Andrew's in the summer.

In response to the growing discontent, club director Edward Zheng has told talkSPORT the club is not for sale, and has explained the lack of communication.

"This club is not for sale and we have no intention to sell this club," Zheng said.

"I think this is just because of the culture differences for Chinese, we are humble, quiet, and we just do our business. That's what we are, we don't like to show off everywhere."

Zheng also confirmed who is actually in control of Birmingham and, when asked about the names linked with a connection to the club, he added: "I don't know, for myself I have no idea who they are.

"The major shareholder is Paul Suen. I don't know why we have so many rumours surrounding everywhere."

Birmingham were relegated from the Premier League in 2011, the same season they beat Arsenal in the League Cup final.

The Blues missed out on an instant return to the top flight with a play-off semi-final loss against Blackpool the following season, but have since failed to come close, failing to finish higher than 10th over the past decade.

The club brought back former player Bowyer as manager in the summer to lead their charge up the table, as well as local lad Deeney, but it hasn't been enough for their ascent to begin.

Technical director and former Blue Craig Gardner also spoke to talkSPORT about the club's current position, and he insisted funds are available as they aim to push towards Premier League promotion.

"People know that we put two or three bids in for a certain individual two or three weeks ago and people can say 'yeah you put bids in' but these were three proper bids," Gardner explained.

"We weren't messing around, I'm not here to play a game, I'm here to try and make a difference, with the senior management team and the board we all want to pull together and bring the good times back to the club."

Gardner also fronted up for a lack of communication towards supporters, admitting it's something that needs to be improved.

"We've obviously realised that the communication levels from the club to the fans haven't been great," Gardner confessed.

"You'll ask Edward [Zheng] in a minute but he was the one that come out and said we're sorry, we have to put this right, and that was on behalf of the board, the senior management team at the club, so we want to invite everybody here so you get to see the truth, you get to hear the truth.

"If [reporters are] going to go out there and they're going to speak, which is absolutely fine by the way, but if they're going to talk about if there's any money to spend at the club, come and ask me, report the truth.

"Ian [Danter] is a great guy, but please next time come and speak to the club."

talkSPORT reporter and lifelong Birmingham supporter Danter previously revealed he had been blocked by Zheng earlier this month, but the situation has since been remedied.

Gardner made 124 appearances for Birmingham throughout his career, before retiring in 2020.

The former midfielder joined the club's coaching staff last year, before being appointed technical director in June.

In that role Gardner believes he can take the club back towards challenging for promotion, and has outlined how.

"In my head I've got a three-year plan," he said.

"At the minute the money side of the things are outweighing the on-field performance side, so we want to basically reverse that and start getting performances better, results better, whilst we're bringing the wage structure down to a decent budget.

"So we're working really hard on that to try and be creative, that's this year. Next year is about stability with this club, we have to grow and say, 'right we're here now, we're a stable club'.

"In year three we've got to compete because I don't want to be involved in a stable club for four, five, six years, so our recruitment is very important.

"You can probably see the players that were trying to recruit, we're trying to recruit pace, trickery, the kind of players that excite the fans because the fans need exciting."