A senior adviser to Carson Yeung, the Hong Kong businessman, has rejected claims from the Birmingham City owners that his takeover bid is on the brink of collapse after they said that there is only a 10 per cent chance of the deal being completed.

Yeung was set a deadline of December 21 by the club to acquire a controlling stake. David Gold, who co-owns the club with his brother, Ralph, and David Sullivan, said that he had “very brief” contact with Yeung on October 27, when he attended the home match against Wigan Athletic, but nothing since.

“We don’t know why they [the Golds and Sullivan] are being so negative,” Sammy Yu, the chief operating officer of Grandtop International Holdings Ltd, the company through which Yeung plans to buy the club, said. “This kind of news does not help the cause. We hope that all parties will stay cool and work together.

“We want to complete the takeover in a manner that will be best for everyone involved. After all, it is not like we are buying a television set. We have already taken a 29.9 per cent stake in the club with real cash; it was not for a joke.”

Uncertainty caused by Yeung’s prospective takeover provoked Steve Bruce into swapping the manager’s job for the same role at Wigan, but Yu denied that the bid had unsettled the club. “The stake we have already bought shows our intent,” he said. “It is not small money. The club should be more stable, not less.”

David Gold is not convinced. “There has been no information coming from their camp,” he said. “There has been no communication.”

While Sullivan is eager to sell, Gold would be happy to stay in charge. “Everyone is saying the deal is dead,” he said. “Only six weeks ago, I was saying it was a 90 per cent done deal. Now I’m saying it’s more 90 per cent about the deal not going ahead. With every passing hour, you’ve got to say those odds shorten. We have taken the view now that we must take back complete control of Birmingham City in the best interests of the club.”

Alex McLeish’s first match as manager of Birmingham was a stirring 3-2 victory over Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane on Sunday, in which Sebastian Larsson scored a last-minute winner. “I have been impressed with the new manager – I think everyone has,” Larsson said. “It is a new start for everyone and new ideas and tactics and a new way of playing football.

“It has been strange seeing Match of the Day and Steve Bruce is at Wigan, but that is football for you. Those things happen. He is the manager of a team we are fighting against and I want us to do well and not them.”

Robbie Keane scored twice in the match, but was contentiously sent off for a tackle on Fabrice Muamba. Tottenham’s appeal against the red card will be heard by the FA today. There were suggestions that Phil Dowd, the referee, took the decision on the advice of the fourth official after communicating via radio, but these were rejected yesterday by the Professional Game Match Officials Board, the referees’ body.

“After taking the decision to send Robbie Keane from the field of play, the referee, Phil Dowd, spoke to the fourth official, Uriah Rennie, to inform him of the action he was taking in order to aid the management of the technical areas,” a spokesman said. “The reason why referees, assistant referees and fourth officials are miked up is to improve the management of these types of situations.”