Blues and Baggies chasing Dembele

06 August 2010 09:39
irmingham are facing competition from West Brom for AZ Alkmaar's Belgium international striker Moussa Dembele.[LNB] The Baggies are understood to have joined Blues in holding talks with the 23-year-old, who is rated in the £5million bracket.[LNB]City boss Alex McLeish is convinced Dembele will provide the kind of extra quality he is looking to add to his team.[LNB]He said: "Dembele is top quality but I'm advertising him to everyone else by speaking about him.[LNB]"It's difficult when someone has got options and he is a top player. The player maybe knows as well.[LNB]"Some perhaps have a little self doubt but the very top players don't have that.[LNB]"To bring in those kind of guys, to attract those kind of players to Birmingham, obviously there's a lot of money involved and, at times, big wage demands.[LNB]"But that's the ambitions I have and I would like to try and attract quality to this football team, enhance the quality factor in the team we already have."[LNB]Dembele claimed on Thursday that Birmingham had provided him with his most "concrete" offer to date.[LNB]Albion are also interested in signing Aston Villa full-back Nicky Shorey, who is one of half a dozen players made available for transfer.[LNB]Shorey joined Villa from Reading two years ago but has struggled to command a regular spot and last season had a spell on loan at Nottingham Forest.

Source: Team_Talk