Birmingham City FC

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• Manager:Alex McLeish

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McLeish confirms Blues talks

18 Mar 2010 - 10:44:00

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Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish has confirmed that talks have begun over a new contract with the Premier League club.

McLeish took charge at St Andrew's in November 2007 and led City to promotion back to the Premier League in his first full season in charge, having been unable to mastermind survival the previous term.

This season the Blues have confounded the critics by rising to eighth place on the table and ensuring top-flight survival in some style.

McLeish commented: "We have started negotiations regarding a new contract. I have met (owner) Carson Yeung and (vice-chairman) Peter Pannu.

"They gave me some initial figures. I'll get my advisors now to meet with them and will let them thrash it out."

Meanwhile, McLeish is already planning moves into the summer transfer market to bolster his squad further, although he is wary of splashing too much cash.

He added: "We need to improve again and enhance the squad and there will be money to spend, but there has got to be prudence.

"I said during the January transfer window that I felt I had an obligation, a duty, to make sure that Birmingham go forward with a little bit of stability.

"There was an opportunity to purchase £10million players and pay them £100,000 a week, but I had sleepless nights with that one. The owners agreed that wasn't the way to go."