CEO goes

It seems rather odd to walk so soon into a job, at a good club doing well in the Premier League, with potentially an exciting future ahead. Plus the fact that he was out of work when he was appointed in October.

I suspect it could well have been a clash of cultures at play, with the Chinese feeling things should be done one way, Dunford in another, more traditional manner.

Recent contract negotiations appear to have been a possible area of disagreement, according to sources. The Seymour Pierce saga was not Dunford's domain, and pre-dated his arrival.

For a CEO, he didn't really have the power Karren Brady possessed in the previous regime. He could have felt somewhat emasculated in the chain of command.

It wasn't what he was used to at previous clubs Derby, Everton and Plymouth Argyle.

Peter Pannu, without doubt, is the big chief for Carson Yeung at St Andrew's. And he's not afraid to be forthright, or outspoken.

Pannu's title - vice chairman executive and finance - tells you that he has the final say.

Apart from Michael Wiseman, who was held over from the previous set-up, Dunford was the only Hong Kong 'outsider' appointed to the Yeung Blues empire.

And it was a sensible move as Yeung and co. were, and still are, naive in the workings of football in this country.

In 1993, David Sullivan, Brady and the Golds didn't have much of a clue at first, they learned and matured as they went along.

That's the kind of process Yeung, Pannu and Vico Hui are going through presently, although they have more of a handle on things than their predecessors did back then, pre the Premier League boom. Brady was only 23 as well.

Brady, incidentally, had a deputy managing director, Peter Day, from Spurs. He didn't last long.

Yeung can be ruthless. Witness his former CEO in Hong Kong, William Chan, who was a key aide during the initial takeover bid. He's nowhere to be seen now.

Sammy Yu seemed to have been shunted sideways from vice chairman football to football consultant too for unspecified reasons.

Dunford's exit points to a marriage that wasn't working and for Blues not only is the timing bad but it is a potentially worrying development.

They need an experienced hand in the ways of the football world here, and with the contacts, administrative and diplomatic skills. They need that kind of help, someone to listen to and take advice from.

It may be that they think they can go their own way now with Pannu as the undisputed fulcrum, as previously it was a more streamlined Sullivan-Brady as the old one-two dynamic that got things done.

Unfortunately the Dunford development has only exacerbated that feeling of negativity towards the Yeung regime from some.

That could just be the natural sceptic in the weary 'seen it all before' Blues fan and, because the Chinese tend to be more secretive and harder to fathom, we could all be doing them a disservice and reading too much into what is an executive personnel change; these things do happen.

Ultimately time will tell, once we are through the summer and into August, that is the time to judge how everything has gone and is going at St Andrew's.

Footnote: Reports that Alex McLeish only has £10m to spend this summer are incorrect. It came from a question about him having only spent about £10m in last summer's transfer window and a misinterpretation arose, during his pre-Villa press conference.