Birmingham's Franck Queudrue jumped to his own defence on Monday night after he was branded "rubbish" by club co-owner David Sullivan.

On a day when recriminations into Blues' relegation from the Barclays Premier League began in earnest, Sullivan laid into former manager Steve Bruce and his acquisitions last summer.

Asked for the reasons behind Birmingham's immediate return to the Coca-Cola Championship following last summer's promotion, Sullivan said: "We bought a pile of rubbish."

He named Queudrue - a £2million signing from Middlesbrough - and Ghanaian goalkeeper Richard Kingson - a free transfer from Ankaraspor - as two of the worst buys.

He added: "Bottom line, we didn't improve the team last summer."

Birmingham's other close-season signings were Fabrice Muamba for £4million, Olivier Kapo for £3million, Garry O'Connor for £2.6million, Liam Ridgewell for £2million and free transfers Stuart Parnaby and Daniel De Ridder.

French defender Queudrue wasted little time in responding to Sullivan and insisted he was not selected frequently enough by Bruce's replacement Alex McLeish for a fair assessment to be made.

"It's horrendous. Obviously I cannot stay in a club where the chairman makes comments like that about the players," Queudrue, who made just 14 league starts this term, told talkSPORT.

"He (Sullivan) should have pointed the finger at the players who have played most of the season. I don't like to say that because I'm a team player. I won't say anything bad about a player through the radio."

He added: "I didn't get enough games. He says he can name a list (of rubbish players). So I want to see the list and who's on there. I didn't play so I don't know how to take that."