Birmingham manager Alex McLeish promises to spend wisely
Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish promises to exercise "prudence" during summer transfer window
Thursday, 18, Mar 2010 02:21
By Matthew Champion.
Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish has insisted he will not fall victim to wasteful spending this summer despite a sizeable transfer budget from owner Carson Yeung.
The Hong Kong businessman took over at St Andrews last autumn and promised McLeigh money to spend in the January transfer window.
Sporting Gijon and Aston Villa midfielders Michel and Craig Gardner were the only new arrivals, however, as McLeish kept faith with his existing squad, who rewarded him for his faith by going on to establish themselves in the Premier League top ten.
"We need to improve again and enhance the squad and there will be money to spend but there has got to be prudence," former Rangers and Scotland manager McLeish said.
"I said during the January transfer window that I felt I had an obligation, a duty, to make sure that Birmingham go forward with a little bit of stability.
"There was an opportunity to purchase £10 million players and pay them £100,000 a week but I had sleepless nights with that one.
"The owners agreed that wasn't the way to go."
The Scot also revealed that talks over an extension to his current contract with Yeung and club chief executive Peter Pannu had begun.
"We have started negotiations regarding a new contract. I have met Carson and Peter Pannu," he said.
"They gave me some initial figures. I'll get my advisors now to meet with them and will let them thrash it out."
McLeish, 51, replaced Steve Bruce as Birmingham manager in 2007, and although he was unable to save them from relegation he got them promoted from the Championship at the first time of asking.
Despite being widely tipped for a relegation battle the Blues have made surviving in the Premier League a breeze, with the team currently lying in eighth place.