Birmingham owner in astonishing Kingson attack

Birmingham co-owner David Sullivan has launched an astonishing attack directed at his Ghanaian player Richard Kingson, describing the Black Stars goalkeeper as a 'complete waste of space.'

Sullivan made the brazen attack on the World Cup hero even though the goalkeeper played little part in the club's relegation to the English Championship.

He is desperate to sell his stake in Blues after claiming he and his fellow directors were subjected to "venomous" abuse from a section of the St Andrew's crowd during Sunday's game with Blackburn.

A 4-1 victory was not enough to save Alex McLeish's side from relegation and Sullivan blamed the "pile of rubbish" bought by former manager Steve Bruce last summer for their demise.

The multimillionaire businessman, who acquired the club along with David and Ralph Gold in 1993, singled out defender Frank Queudrue, who cost £2m from Fulham, and goalkeeper Richard Kingson as particular disappointments, branding the Ghanaian as a "complete waste of space".

"We bought a pile of rubbish," he said.

"Bottom line, we didn't improve the team last summer."

Birmingham's other close-season signings were Fabrice Muamba for £4m, Olivier Kapo for £3m, Garry O'Connor for £2.6m, Liam Ridgewell for £2m and free transfers Stuart Parnaby and Daniel De Ridder.

He made this accusation even though Kingson joined the club on a free transfer from Turkish side Ankararspor.

Kingson played little part in Birmigham's relegation as he featured in just three competitive matches this season.

Sullivan's description of the Ghanaian keeper contrasts sharply with the perforamnce of the player who was named the second best keeper at the recent African Cup of Nations and third best at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.