Birmingham City Football Club

• Nickname:Blues
• Founded:1875
• Manager:Lee Clark

• Ground:St Andrew's
• Capacity:30016

McLeish coy on Traore talk

02 Aug 2009 - 14:04:11

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Arsenal left-back Armand Traore could be the latest player to join Birmingham City.

Blues boss Alex McLeish is keen to land the 19-year-old on loan as he looks to strengthen a squad that has struggled badly during pre-season.

"I don't want to upset Arsene Wenger by speaking (about Traore)," said former Rangers and Scotland manager McLeish.

"I also see he's got a couple of injuries himself, like Gael Clichy, so I hope that's not ominous.

"We've got other targets, but we want to bring in a bit of quality for the position. It's not a bottomless pit in terms of the money and we'd try to structure a deal on maybe a loan.

"I'm not talking necessarily about Traore, there's one or two options. It's better that I don't talk about other peoples' players at the moment.

"All that does is upset the Birmingham fans when we don't get them."

Traore, who was loaned out to Portsmouth last term, has featured in 19 first-team matches for the Gunners.