Birmingham boss McLeish on brink of signing Cardiff star Johnson in £5m deal

18 June 2009 09:26
Birmingham are set to take their summer spending to almost £20million by landing Cardiff star Roger Johnson. The Barclays Premier League new boys are on the brink of signing the centre-back in a £5m deal. Blues boss Alex McLeish has tracked Johnson, 26, for several weeks and saw an initial £3.5m bid snubbed. Birmingham will pay the cash up front after Cardiff rejected an instalment offer for a player they signed from Wycombe for just £275,000 in 2006. A Cardiff insider confirmed: 'We have sold Johnson. He was always going to leave after the club failed to get into the Premier League last season. The player is clearly good enough to step up in standard.' Johnson is expected to complete the move when he returns from a family holiday in Marbella next week. 'Nothing is sorted as yet,' he said. 'But it's common knowledge that my name has been linked with Birmingham, as well as other clubs.' Birmingham have already spent over £13m on Ecuador striker Christian Benitez and Coventry defender Scott Dann.

Source: Daily_Mail