This midfielder has been given permission to leave White Hart Lane as he is surplus to requirements under the Ramos revolution! Birmingham City have been given permission take Tottenham midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng on loan with a view to making the move permanent. But manager Alex McLeish wants to find out . Click to continue reading...

George Burley will get another chance tonight to record his first victory since taking over from Alex McLeish as Scotland manager and, more importantly, his first victory in the World Cup qualifying campaign when his Scotland side take on Iceland in Reykjavik. Normally we'd have inserted the word 'minnows'  in front of 'Iceland', but, despite Scotland's [. Click to continue reading...

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Championship Nominations for Manager of the Month: Wolves' Mick McCarthy; Preston's Alan Irvine; Birmingham's Alex McCleish; Bristol City's Gary Johnson.


Football League - MANAGER OF THE MONTH NOMINATIONS

The nominations are in for the season's first Manager of the Month awards, which are due to be announced at 1. Click to continue reading...

It's taken a little while, but Alex McLeish has strengthened the Birmingham squad even more ahead of the new season by taking a gamble on a Spartak Moscow player who will be a familiar name to many Arsenal supporters. The Birmingham Mail reports that Quincy Owuse-Abeyie has arrived at St Andrews on a season-long loan deal, [. Click to continue reading...

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Football League - Championship Preview

CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW
Matt Smith takes a closer look at this years runners and riders in the Coca-Cola Championship.

THE MAIN CONTENDERSStood on a golf course, in the middle of the short summer break we all get from football these days, a fan of a Championship club asked me whether I thought it would be a total lottery again this season. Click to continue reading...

Kevin Phillips' future looks sorted with the 34-year-old reportedly telling Alex McLeish that he's coming to play for Birmingham City. Phillips played a role in helping the Baggies gain promotion but couldn't get the two-year-deal he wanted to stay at... Click to continue reading...

After Germany sent the Portuguese packing in the first quarterfinal, there are seven sides left in contention for the Euro 2008 title, and for the other nine, summer has begun. Of course, in football circles, summer means more than just sunshine and margaritas by the pool. Summer is transfer season, and for some of the recent dropouts from Euro 2008, the end of their tournament means they can concentrate on getting just slightly more ridiculously wealthy.

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Maik Taylor has revealed why he knocked back the advances of Liverpool in order to stay in the Championship with newly-relegated Birmingham City.

Liverpool's shock swoop for Maik Taylor has been rebuffed by the player, with the veteran re-signing with relegated Birmingham till 2010.

Rafa Benitez wanted the 36-year-old Northern Ireland international as cover for Pepe Reina and hoped experienced Taylor would move back to the Premiership in a Bosman deal. Click to continue reading...

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Ben Kosky/Kilburn Times
"...QPR have announced a pre-season trip to Scotland at the end of July after their planned friendlies against Fiorentina and Bologna fell through...." Kilburn Times

(Most of the rest of Ben Kosky's Kilburn Times article is about Rowan Vine's recovery and looking forward to Birmingham Rowan Vine: ". Click to continue reading...

Perhaps a little unwisely, Alex McLeish claims that the broken leg suffered by Eduardo in February had a negative effect on Birmingham City, and was part of the reason why they were relegated from the Premier League - as well as not being very good. The Express and Star report that Big Eck acknowledges that the [. Click to continue reading...

"Judge him over five seasons." So says David Gold, co-owner of Birmingham City and paymaster of Alex McLeish. In a strong message of his support for his manager Gold paid tribute to the man who he thinks will get City back to the top flight. That said, Gold thought he would keep them in the top flight so he might not be a great judge. Click to continue reading...

In different ways a strange week for two Scottish coaches. Alex Miller sets off from Rafa's shoulder to Japan where he is charged with taking JEF United Chiba (no me either) off the foot of the J-League. Miller managed Morton, St Mirren, Hibs and Aberdeen in Scotland before winding up in the Anfield boot room in 1999. Click to continue reading...

They have just two matches to save their Premier League bacon, and if Birmingham fail to get anything from Saturday's match at Fulham, it's possible that relegation will be out of their hands. Alex McLeish saw his Blues team storm into a two-goal lead against Liverpool on Saturday, before being pegged back to a 2-2 [. Click to continue reading...

Reverse psychology or is Gary Megson just stating how he sees it? Bolton managed to clamber above Birmingham in the Premier League last weekend, yet the Wanderers gaffer is making the Blues favourites to stay up at the expense of his team or Reading. According to ITV, Megson thinks that City having two home matches left [. Click to continue reading...

Mauro Zarate is starting to come good at exactly the right time for Birmingham, although the Daily Telegraph report that there's an element of controversy over the striker's splendidly-executed free kick at St Andrews on Saturday. It appears that the striker's team-mate Radhi Jaidi turned his back on play and instead focused on distracting Tim [. Click to continue reading...

Birmingham City thought they had the transfer in the bag. Gary Cahill appeared to be on the verge of making the short journey from Villa Park to St Andrews during the January transfer window, thereby bolstering the Blues defensive line-up for the relegation scrap. However, the centre half instead plumped for Bolton (maybe it was [. Click to continue reading...

A month ago, Arsenal's season took a turn for the worse at St Andrews. Not only did they draw the match 2-2 after leading until the final minute of the game, it also marked the end of Eduardo's season after an ugly challenge from Martin Taylor broke the Croatian's leg. While the striker continues to [. Click to continue reading...

Three in the Red: Bolton, Fulham, Derby Derby County It's clear. We don't need to discuss Derby, but it's safe to say Paul Jewell's January acquisitions have done little to help the prospects of a club that should have paid more attention to trying to get the most of Robert Earnshaw - who has all but vanished - and [. Click to continue reading...

Birmingham City could only draw 1-1 with fellow relegation battlers Newcastle United at St. Andrew's in the Premiership on Monday night and remain in 16th, just 2 points ahead of 18th place Bolton Wanderers. But Blues manager Alex McLeish is defiant that Birmingham will survive in the top flight this season and refuses to press the [. Click to continue reading...

Just one point currently seperates Birmingham City from the relegation zone, although their manager Alex McLeish doesn't appear too nervous going into Monday night's match with Newcastle United. Indeed, he has every reason to be confident after a number of recent bright performances from his team, including a resounding 4-1 win over Tottenham a fortnight [. Click to continue reading...

Birmingham City have undergone a sort of revival since the start of this year and City manager Alex McLeish has no hesitation to single out James McFadden as the reason for the transformation. The player was signed in January from Everton for £5 million and has already established himself in the Birmingham starting line-up. Click to continue reading...

Poor old Birmingham City. The Midlands club are mired in relegation worries and need all their players to be fit to battle out for survival as the month of May storms closer and closer. But now they have been dealt with a vital injury. Olivier Kapo has been sidelined with a hamstring injury for a month. Click to continue reading...

The Mirror reports that Birmingham City's Martin Taylor has received death threats from Croatian fans over the Eduardo incident. Taylor's truly horrible challenge on Eduardo da Silva during Birmingham's Premiership fixture against Arsenal on Saturday broke the Brazilian born Croatian international striker's legs. Click to continue reading...

The 20-year-old Argentinian Mauro Zarate was signed by Premiership relegation candidates Birmingham City in January from Qatar-based Al Sadd but so far the youngster has made just two appearance for the Midlands Blues. But Birmingham manager Alex McLeish says that Zarate will make an impact in the Premiership in the coming months. Click to continue reading...

Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish says the arrival of new chief scout Paul Montgomery will improve their chances of recruiting top players.Montgomery originally spotted Didier Drogba and Florent Malouda when he was with West Ham.

HA! How well did that work out for West Ham? At best you can argue that Drogba's arrival led to Carlton Cole being expendable and therefore available to West Ham. Click to continue reading...

Birmingham City have once again been hit by the injury blues. Goal.com reports that the relegation threatened club is set to miss their influential full back Frank Queudrue for two weeks after it as revealed that the player has a hamstring strain. Birmingham are among the bottom three for the first time this season and the [. Click to continue reading...

Goal.com reports that Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish has denied any contact with Schalke 04 over the German club's winger Peter Løvenkrands. The former Rangers boss said: Peter Løvenkrands? That is pie in the sky. McLeish and Løvenkrands had earlier worked with each other at Ibrox and the Danish player is highly rated by McLeish. Click to continue reading...

Birmingham City are struggling for survival in the Premier League and manager Alex McLeish is looking for additions to his squad. Yet, as FanFC reports, he is not rushing to sign Michael Cani from French Ligue 1 club Lorient. The Blues boss says: "We have looked at him and we would take another look. Click to continue reading...

Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish is making every move he can to sustain the Blues in the English Premier League next season. And one such move is to sign defenders to stop the rot at the back. Sky Sports reports that Birmingham have signed defender David Murphy from Hibernian for £1.5 million on a three-and-a-half year [. Click to continue reading...

Birmingham City are hovering perilously near the relegation zone and are separated from the drop zone by only goal difference. No wonder manager Alex McLeish is looking for reinforcement this month. And he has got the man he has been chasing for long. Sky Sports reports that Birmingham have signed striker James McFadden from fellow Premiership [. Click to continue reading...

James McFadden has been reduced to a few cameo performances for Everton this season, although the Scottish international has an old friend requiring his services. Step forward Alex McLeish, formerly manager of his native Scotland and now in charge of Birmingham City. According to Sky Sports, the Blues have already had a £2. Click to continue reading...

Newcastle followed up their creditable performance against Arsenal with a heartening 2-1 against Birmingham City to ease their Premier League woes, and give manager Sam Allardyce some much needed breathing space.

They made it hard for themselves with a gift opener to Cameraon Jerome after only nine minutes. Click to continue reading...

Alex McLeish and Dick Advocaat go back a bit. As the latter moved upstairs from the manager's chair to the general manager's office at Ibrox in 2001, he recommended to Rangers Chairman David Murray that he should pluck Alex McLeish from Hibernian to take up his old job. The two have been friends ever since, [. Click to continue reading...

It doesn't get any better for Scottish football fans. As if failing to qualify for Euro 2008 at the latest possible moment wasn't bad enough, now they find that their inspirational leader Alex McLeish has resigned and won't be there to begin the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign.

It's a shame as the Scottish FA must have considered itself lucky to have appointed McLeish the last time they were in this situation on January 10th of this year when Walter Smith resigned. Click to continue reading...

Well, this news would matter more to me if these teams were any good.

Derby will be going down regardless; they are simply the worst Premiership team I've seen in years and Paul Jewell won't be able to save them this season.

I picked Birmingham to join Derby in the Championship next year as well, and that was with Steve Bruce at the helm, who I believe is a good manager and possibly could've kept the team up. Click to continue reading...