Birmingham to keep boss McLeish

[BBC Sport]

Birmingham say that manager Alex McLeish's job is "safe" despite the club's relegation from the Premier League.

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[Evilpiper007]

A good decision. He is quite a good manager and I doubt Birmingham could do much better. He needs a bit of money to spend though.

 

[BeadSTARR]

Agreed. If he goes, there isn't much to choose from in terms of good managers. Houghton, Oneill perhaps. Hopefully he gets a bit of backing and then we can push on. Something needs to be done about the Out of Contract players and whatever, because were in for a LOOONG season.

 

[FrankieDolan]

glad to hear this, he really deserves to keep his job.
the injury of Scott Dann cost them alot of problems in defence and they do need a striker who can score a number of goals a season as they as they do seem to struggle with goals.

 

[Redrup]

Good to see not every owner has the Abramovich syndrome. Good decision to keep him on IMO, best way to get straight back into the Prem.

 

[sunilvk7]

Good decision imo.. Good to have owners who has patience.

 

[bcfc_andrew]

Glad to see him stay now lets get scotty danns back from injury so we can have the best center backs in the league playin together again

 

[TheBeardOfZeus]

Good news, but a shame that he will have the bare bones of a squad next season.

He needs to sign a goalscorer, and fill all the gaps left by players leaving/being sold.

 

[bcfc]

This bull about him needing backing is quite irritating. He spent last year more than we have ever spent to what accord? Relegation?

A finger has to be pointed towards some of his dealings.

Michel from Sporting Gijon for 3 mil, has played about 3 times and is now on loan in Greece.

Loans of Derbyshire and Bentley. Both complete turds that obviously want to be elsewhere. Hleb may be seen as a waste of money, but he's been desperately unlucky with injuries.

Beausejour for about 5 million (apparently), looks as if he is a class, hard working, left sided player. Yet, 'Eck insisted in playing Bowyer and Bentley out of position there. Where they either have a negative effect, or none at all.

Bar Ziggy and Martins (for obvious reasons), any kind of attacking signing 'Eck has made has been a failure.


None the less, CY made the right decision to back him. He brought us our first ever trophy and our highest ever league finish. *Bows to Sir Alex*

 

[BeadSTARR]

Rumour has it BCFC, that CY has fired Paul Montgomery for some of the dealings that have been made.
He was advised by Montgomery NOT to pay the extra £1million asked for by Spurs for Pav, told NOT to pay the extra £10,000 a week for N'Zogbia. Was advised not to sign Odemwingie, he also advised not to buy Babel or Pennant.
Montgomery also advised on the signings on Derbyshire, Hleb, Michel, Bentley and Valles.

Birmingham owner Carson Yeung is firing chief scout Paul Montgomery after blaming their relegation on costly dud signings. - News - MirrorFootball.co.uk

Hopefully, we keep the nucleus of our team, and bring through some of the youngsters we got, Mutch, Redmond, Asante and Kerr. Also, hopefully he brings in a few decent Championship players aswell. Mckail Smith, Bothroyd, Boyd.

Fingers crossed we bounce straight back.

 

[Aannddyy]

Birmingham will need to bulk up their squad, they haven't got any depth at all, past their first 11 (and that's being generous) there is very little talent. Will be interested to see if they keep their many flops that they've acquired this past season.

Anybody know what's going on with any potential transfers surrounding Foster, Larsson, Ridgewell etc. [?]

Also interesting to hear about the Chief Scout being fired, if what the report says is true then Birmingham have been really unlucky, seems top quality players have been turned down in favour of cheap "turds".

 

[Brian]

Jesus if that about Montgomery is true .
But If we can keep most of our players or at least make 10m+ like Pannu has said we should be able to get good replacements.
Also Foster says he wants to stay

 

[BeadSTARR]

Seb wants to leave, he has made that quite clear for the past 2 seasons, but to be fair to the lad, he carried on performing for us.
Foster has said he wants to stay, but admits its out of his hands. Rumour has it Ridgwell wants to leave, but I haven't seen anything that backs this up. Gardener will stay because hes Blues through and through, so I think he'll stay.
Johnson and Dann have obviously got some serious interest in them. Liverpool are keen on the both of them, although Johnson has topped Wolves wish list. There is about 6-7 players who are out of contract and obviously all the loans have been sent back.

I think we could get £10mill easy for Foster and id expect atleast £15mill for Dann or Johnson, especially if Lescott is worth £22mill. For the pair id expect atleast £25mill.

 

[Aannddyy]

Seb wants to leave, he has made that quite clear for the past 2 seasons, but to be fair to the lad, he carried on performing for us.
Foster has said he wants to stay, but admits its out of his hands. Rumour has it Ridgwell wants to leave, but I haven't seen anything that backs this up. Gardener will stay because hes Blues through and through, so I think he'll stay.
Johnson and Dann have obviously got some serious interest in them. Liverpool are keen on the both of them, although Johnson has topped Wolves wish list. There is about 6-7 players who are out of contract and obviously all the loans have been sent back.

I think we could get £10mill easy for Foster and id expect atleast £15mill for Dann or Johnson, especially if Lescott is worth £22mill. For the pair id expect atleast £25mill.

I think £25m for the two CB's is a little optimistic but who knows. Who do you think Birmingham will bring in as replacements for the outgoing players? Or is it to early to have a shortlist? Interested as to who they bring in to replace Foster, maybe Carson? Hodgson isn't keen on him and I can't see a PL club wanting him.

 

[BeadSTARR]

I think its abit optimistic, but with todays market of over inflamed prices, who knows and why not? Personally, id start looking now, but I dont know as to who he would be looking at. If Foster leaves, id be tempted at the Forest keeper, Lee Camp is it? He has always been highly rated, and with our top goalkeeping coach think he could become very good. Id have Butland as second keeper and bleed him in. (Not sure if you have heard of him, but Butland has been touted as a future England No. 1). Id also look at bringing in Clyne as back up to Carr, who I think has 1 season left in him. Keep Curtis Davies, as he looked very good against Spurs. Dann may go Liverpool. Johnson is a very proud man, so may want to regain his dignity and stay, (hopefully). Seb is going, Bowyer looks like hes on his way. Fahey to be sold. Id bring through Redmond as he looks very promising. Jerome will stay wether people like it or not. Phillips to go, Zigic may go to save wages.
Id look at the following personally.

Ins: Camp, Clyne, Bothroyd, Mckail Smith, Sinclair (If Swansea dont go up). DJ Campbell, Danny Graham, Kris Boyd. Not sure as to midfielders though.

 

[Donnelly1]

glad to hear he is staying, i believe he is a very good manager. I didn't expect birmingham to go down but fair play to N'Zogbia, i mean wigan