From fired to hired

KARREN BRADY is a woman of her word. The managing director of Birmingham City Football Club and former Businesswoman of the Year told Sir Alan Sugar that if he didn't hire Claire Young, she would. He didn't, so she did. Deal done.

Former senior retail buyer Young, 29, who described herself as a "rottweiler" (let's not mention the vitriolic descriptions offered by others), got on Sir Alan's nerves with her constant answering back and take-no-prisoners attitude. She made more trips to the boardroom than any other trainee Apprentice – at one point she said she felt like she had a "season ticket", so many times had she been in there – but Brady liked her. One man's gobby irritation is another woman's go-getting protegee, it seems.

Invited to interview Young and the other finalists by Sugar himself, Brady, known as the First Lady of Football, liked Young's "confidence" enough to offer her a sales role and a salary that is, according to reports, higher than series winner Lee McQueen's £100,000 prize. So what can Young hope to learn while working for Brady?

The first thing may well be further confirmation that a thick skin is as necessary for women in business as novelty cufflinks and a BlackBerry are for their male colleagues.

Young's already come through hearing Sir Alan's say that it was her personality rather than her performance that cost her the job, so she's not exactly unused to the rough and tumble of the boardroom, although one does wonder how Sir Alan manages to maintain his position at the top of the table when he plainly knows so little about anti-discrimination legislation.

But for Brady it's water off a duck's back. When she took over at Birmingham City in March 1993, at the tender age of 23, she was the first woman to run a large professional football club. She faced widespread derision, including being asked her "vital statistics" – the ones in inches rather than pounds – at her first press conference.

The second lesson may well be tenacity. When Brady persuaded her boss, David Sullivan (owner of the Sport newspapers), to buy the languishing football club for £700,000, she showed that she had an eye for a deal as well as ambition. The club was in receivership and languishing in the second division. Three years after Brady arrived, it posted its first profit and in 1997 was floated on the Stock Exchange for £25 million.

Times have been tough recently, with the club relegated again and Brady and Sullivan questioned as part of a long-running investigation into corruption in football, but Brady has shown that she's a survivor.

She's not bad at multi-tasking, either. As well as being MD at Birmingham City, she sits on the boards of Mothercare, Sport England, Kerrang! Radio and Channel 4. And before accusations of being a business automaton are bandied about, Brady has also raised a family and survived brain cancer. She's not yet 40.

So, did Brady spot something in Young that Sir Alan missed? "She is certainly is a go-getter," says Michelle Mone, founder and co-owner of MJM International and a guest on this year's series of The Apprentice. "At the start, Claire was a bit of a snake in the grass and I thought she was too mouthy," she says, "but she did take Sir Alan's comments on board. She changed and improved. Towards the end she was much stronger."

Much has been made of Young's journey. Criticised for being too aggressive – no mean feat in a series full of vicious backstabbing and bullying – Young never lost any of the fire in her belly, but learned to bite her tongue and wait for the opportunity to put her case. Good for her.

But she still went the way of the Sugar-versus-bolshie-woman pattern, established over all four series. The finalist who has looked the strongest – ambitious, focused and, oh yes, female – has lost out every time. Saira Khan, Ruth Badger, Katie Hopkins, Kristina Grimes: all of these seemed worthy winners but were pipped at the post.

Mone's not buying it, though. "I don't think gender matters at all," she says. "What it comes down to in the end is whether that person is good for the job and whether they're going to make a difference to the company."

Ruth Badger, too, has said that anyone suggesting Sir Alan is sexist is "talking out of their backside". A former Apprentice also-ran who now runs two companies of her own, Badger counts Brady as an "inspirational businesswoman" and reckons it was "ambition" that she saw in Young.

For Badger, the winner Lee McQueen – to whom she's spoken a number of times since his win, is a "decent bloke" and the worthy winner – but Young has done the right thing in taking a job with Brady.

"I'm an Apprentice snob," Badger says, "because when it comes down to it it's a business show. I hate it when I open the papers and see an Apprentice selling their story 'I slept with…' It's vile. I'm pleased for Claire if she's got a good job."

And how does she think Brady will handle Young's mouthy ways? "People were asking if she was a 'mini-Badger' and I never commented at the time, but no, she's not, because the good thing about me is that I know when to stop."

Badger remains far from convinced that Young has really changed her ways, though. "It's very hard to change in that period of time. Karren's a strong businesswoman and I'm sure she'll have pleasure dealing with Claire."

Badger, the woman who says she can "sniff money" wherever she goes, senses that Young's media profile may also have worked in her favour. "It's not a bad thing to hire a high-profile apprentice. Do you know what I mean?"

I do, and for now, with neither Karren Brady nor Claire Young offering to comment, we must accept that there's something in it for both of them.

As Michelle Mone says: "I wish both Claire and Karren all the very best. Good luck to them."