Birmingham City FC

• Founded:1875
• Manager:Alex McLeish

• Ground:St. Andrew's
• Capacity:30016

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McLeish delight at Foster coup

20 May 2010 - 11:23:49

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Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish believes he has pulled off a major transfer coup after landing goalkeeper Ben Foster.

McLeish paid £6million to land the 27-year-old Manchester United shot-stopper on Wednesday.

Foster had become frustrated by a lack of first-team action at Old Trafford and missed out on a place in England's World Cup squad as a result of his inactivity.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson believes that Foster is "the best English goalkeeper" and McLeish has endorsed the glowing assessment from his fellow countryman.

McLeish also expects Foster to comfortably fill the void created by Joe Hart following the end of the season-long loan spell from Manchester City.

"The goalkeeper is a massive position and we've now signed another young hungry goalkeeper who wants to prove himself and live up to his potential," he said.

"We believe he is of the same kind of standard as Joe Hart. Ben's situation is similar to Joe's in that he found himself twiddling his thumbs behind another top keeper in (Edwin) van der Sar.

"Ben is ambitious and wants to play regular football and naturally doesn't want to play second fiddle.

"We think he can make a name for himself and it's up to him to do what big Joe did."