David Sullivan claims credit for West Ham's 2-0 win over Birmingham

David Sullivan has claimed that his outspoken criticism of the West Ham manager, Gianfranco Zola, and the club's players was a deliberate motivational ploy which proved an immediate success, provoking a 2-0 home win over Birmingham. Sullivan, who with his business partner David Gold took over at Upton Park last month, had suggested that Zola is "too nice" to succeed in management, said that relegation would lead to "armageddon" at the club and said that every member of staff – including the players – would be asked to take a pay cut in the summer. The interview angered Zola, who insisted that "the article should have been done at another time, not just before a match". "It would have been better to talk to us before talking to a newspaper," he said. "When an article like that comes before a big match, I'm not happy about that because I don't think it is any good for the whole team." But now Sullivan says he made the comments precisely because they would be good for the team. "We've been involved in football for 17 years," he said. "During that time as a last resort we've used the tactic of criticising the team in some form, which rallies them to the manager. We've used this tactic three or four times before and it's always worked. You can only use it every few years but it's always worked. "I've only ever done it a few times and the managers hate it. Alex [McLeish] hated it and Steve Bruce hated it, but it actually produces a result. It gels the manager and the team closer together. There is method in my madness and hopefully it will now kick-start our season. "Having seen the performance at Burnley [where they lost 2-1 in their previous game] and the fact we had only won four games in 24, unfortunately I had to resort to it. I did say to people before the Birmingham match: 'If we win tonight, great, but if we don't I've cocked up.' But I can't use the same trick for three or four years now."