Gold: Bruce's job safe

Steve Bruce has received another vote of confidence despite Birmingham’s precarious Barclays Premiership position with chairman David Gold insisting: “His job is not in jeopardy.”

Bruce slammed City’s performance as they crashed 4-1 at Manchester City on Saturday evening as “pathetic” and “inept” as they slipped to 19th in the table.

But once again Gold has leapt to the defence of the Blues manager ahead of a daunting festive programme which sees league fixtures with Tottenham, Manchester United and Chelsea.

Gold told PA Sport: “We are in a critical situation with our league position and we’ve got some difficult games coming up.

“There are other teams in the battle with us and it will be a question of whether we are good enough to get ahead of three of them by the end of the season.

“It is simple as that. It is not brain surgery. We are in the most difficult situation we’ve been in since I’ve been at the club.

“But Steve’s job isn’t in jeopardy. He has got to get on with things and resolve it for us. That’s what he does for a living and we expect him to give it his very best and get us out of this mess.”

City’s co-owner David Sullivan has already gone on record to state that Bruce will not be sacked even if Birmingham are relegated.

Meanwhile, Gold and the board of directors will sit down with Bruce at some juncture to decide on what policy to adopt in the January transfer window.

Bruce claimed after Saturday’s mauling that “emergency surgery” was needed to revive his squad akin to three years ago when he brought in Christophe Dugarry, Matthew Upson, Stephen Clemence and Jamie Clapham.

In an ideal world Bruce would like to sign a proven goalscorer with Mikael Forssell and Walter Pandiani having managed one league goal between them this season.

Gold said: “It is too early to discuss what will happen in January because it all depends who comes back from injury. It is also a case of course we need a centre-forward to score 10 goals but where do you go?

“You don’t go into a supermarket and say ‘excuse me, can I have a centre-forward that scores 10 goals’.

“It is a difficult situation but we will be listening to Steve’s opinions and his requirements and sitting down and discussing things.”