Bruce departed Blues earlier in the season in somewhat acrimonious circumstances before joining Wigan, who he has steered to Premier League safety to much acclaim.

Having left St Andrews, Bruce was left fuming after Birmingham insisted he pay them £300,000 in image rights; a situation he has not been shy to comment on.

When quizzed recently about his former employers and their current predicament at the foot of the table, Bruce said: "I will be sorry for the players, staff and fans if they go down. Anyone else at the club? No, that's it."

Bruce's retort has not sat well with Gold and he is eager for the Wigan chief to be a little more specific in his criticism.

"Steve has consistently made attacks on the board. Does he hold all seven of us responsible including Jack Wiseman, who is 90, or just some of us?

"At the moment an old man thinks he is responsible along with the rest of us and he's not.

"So come on Steve, show some courage. Name names. Anything else is cowardly.

"It's time he told everybody what it is we've done wrong.

"The truth is we have done nothing to be ashamed of. We treated him generously and acted more than properly.

"He should sit down with people other than 'yes men' and take proper counsel and he will then learn that we have acted more than fairly.

"We reduced substantially what we were owed on his image rights and told him to pay £300,000 over three years because we have shareholders to think about.

"There's about £30,000 left to pay which shouldn't make too much of a dent in the huge bonus he'll get for keeping Wigan up."