McLeish set for Blues post
27 Nov 2007 - 15:23:54
Alex McLeish is set to be appointed as the new manager of Birmingham City on Wednesday after resigning from his role as Scotland head coach.
The 48-year-old former Rangers boss led Scotland to the brink of qualification for Euro 2008 earlier this month, but has now decided to walk away from international management to take over at St Andrew's.
The Scottish Football Association initially rejected an approach from the managerless Premier League club to speak to their manager.
However, SFA chief executive Gordon Smith confirmed that McLeish submitted a written resignation on Tuesday afternoon.
"We are very disappointed to lose Alex as our manager," he said.
The former Scotland international started his managerial career at Motherwell before moving on to Hibernian and then Rangers in December 2001.
McLeish won the Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup in his first season at Ibrox.
During the 2002-03 season he went one better by winning the domestic treble and then the league title again two years later in a golden period for the Glasgow club.
However, he left Ibrox in February 2006 and was out of management for 12 months before replacing Walter Smith as Scotland boss earlier this year.
Birmingham have been on the lookout for a new manager following Steve Bruce's decision to rejoin Wigan Athletic last week.
