David Gold, the Birmingham City chairman, believes the prospective takeover of the club by the Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung is close to collapsing.

Yeung has until Friday to convince the Birmingham board that he can come up with the £35 million needed by the December 20 deadline set by co-owner David Sullivan.

But Sullivan now believes the bid is "dead in the water" while Gold regards it as an "irritation".

The duo today apointed Alex McLeish, the former Scotland boss, as their new manager and are pressing ahead on the basis that they expect to still be at the helm for the foreseeable future.

They will be also be responsible for the funds McLeish has available to spend during January.

Gold said: "My judgement is no different to a lot of people on the takeover. The silence is deafening from Hong Kong. It has been the most extraordinary two or three weeks in the history of the club and my involvement with the club.

"We last spoke to Carson Yeung three weeks ago after the Wigan game and it was very brief.

"If the takeover fails, do we have contingency plans? I think we've already shown that. We are showing you that we are making a contingency on the basis that the takeover isn't going to happen.

"I'm now thinking this isn't going to happen. The takeover bid is almost an irritation that we would like cleared up. In the meantime we have got to get on with the job of running Birmingham City Football Club.

"We are thinking along the lines that we will be making the decisions regarding cash available to Alex during the January transfer window."

Yeung holds 29.9 per cent of the shares with Sullivan and Gold currently each having a 23.22 per cent stake in City. But Gold will consider buying back Yeung's shares if the prospective takeover collapses in the next 48 hours.

"Whilst David Sullivan remains part of this club, I would always work in tandem with him," Gold said. "It's my way. We've had a business relationship based on that for 30 years.

"Would I buy back some of the shares? Yes, but I would work in tandem with David. If he said to me or I said to him 'let's go into the market place and boost our share-holding'.

"We would then have the right to go up to 29.9 per cent of the shares each, giving us 59.8 per cent between us. Yes, I would want to go and do that and I would put that to him.

"What we wouldn't want to do is for David to buy some and myself none and vice versa because we've been equal partners all the way through and you wouldn't want to disturb what has worked for 30 years.

"Would that include buying back Yeung's shares? Yes, if they were available."