Birmingham: McLeish in, no takeover?

Former Scotland and Rangers boss Alex McLeish said the chance to manage Birmingham City in the Premier League was too good to refuse.

McLeish resigned from his Scotland post yesterday and was officially unveiled as Steve Bruce’s successor at St Andrews today. The 48-year-old, who has won more trophies in Scottish football than Aston Villa’s Martin O’Neill, will be joined by Roy Aitken and Andy Watson.

McLeish said: “I absolutely loved my time as coach of the national team. But it rekindled my passion of being able to work with players every day. I have always harboured a desire to manage in the Premier League and I am really excited about the challenge.

“It is a manager’s job to get the best out of his squad and that is why I’m here. I’m sure we can do that and, we’ll also see if we can make some introductions in the January transfer window.”

The new Blues boss spent all but a handful of his playing career with Aberdeen before moving into management with Motherwell. He then moved on to Hibernian and Rangers before taking the Scotland job.

Meanwhile, chairman David Gold has suggested the Carson Yeung takeover now has less than a 50 per cent chance of going ahead – and he stressed the board will continue to act as though the takeover will not happen.

He said: “I started off believing it was a 90% possibility. Then, two weeks ago, I said it was 75% on and now I think it is below 50% – only time will tell. We, the board, must act as if the takeover will not happen and make decisions in the best interests of the club – which is what we have done in appointing Alex.”

The new boss faces a tough first match when Birmingham travel to Spurs on Sunday – though it’s will still be something of a comedown after leading his previous team out against world champions Italy in his previous match.