Birmingham City Football Club News

• Nickname:Blues
• Founded:1875
• Manager:Chris Hughton

• Ground:St Andrew's
• Capacity:30,016

Blues pull plug on Samaras

22 Jan 2008 - 15:30:03

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Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish has admitted he has ended his interest in Manchester City striker Georgios Samaras.

McLeish was keen to bring the unsettled Greek striker to St Andrew's with a fee in the region of £2.5million reportedly agreed between the two clubs.

But having already signed James McFadden and Mauro Zarate during the transfer window, the Blues will not be following up their interest in the out-of-favour forward.

"I cannot do that deal just now," McLeish told the Birmingham Mail.

"We have a lot of strikers at the club and I have to concentrate on another couple of positions. Time has just run out with the Samaras one.

"I had identified the big guy as a target five or six weeks ago and if I could have done it then, it would have been different.

"But things have dragged on and other people became available. McFadden became available, Zarate was an unexpected opportunity, therefore it created a problem with Samaras, so it's unlikely."