McLeish: Big-name signings increase expectations

06 February 2010 13:39
Birmingham manager Alex McLeish believes the failure to land a marquee signing in the January transfer window has at least gone some way to cooling expectation levels surrounding the club. Having enjoyed a dream first half of the season some fans, although certainly not all, in the Second City have muttered talk of a possible European finish come May. And with Blues constantly linked to big-name forwards such as Roman Pavlyuchenko, Kenwyne Jones and Ryan Babel last month, some were left disappointed that the club`s goal-shy forward line was not bolstered. But McLeish, who pulled out all the stops in his attempts to sign a striker, said: "You know, let's not go quite so high so soon because if we brought in a big major signing then there would be an expectation that we would go into Europe. "And I don't think we're quite ready for that yet. If we get there we'll take it, but the expectation levels put more pressure on everybody with the bigger the signing you make." He added: "There were a number of names that we were linked with. We tried, we tried hard. In the end I felt I didn't have anybody who could really take us forward. There were complications in one or two other deals and it just didn't happen."

Source: PA