Blues extend Quashie loan

Birmingham extend Hammers midfielder's loan by another month

By Richard Bailey   Last updated: 23rd December 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Blues extend Quashie loan

Quashie: Extended loan stay

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Birmingham City have announced that on-loan West Ham midfielder Nigel Quashie has extended his loan at the club.

The midfielder has played ten times for Alex McLeish's men this campaign after missing the majority of last season with an ankle injury.

The Scotland international will now stay at St Andrew's until 17th January and McLeish believes that he has earned the extra month.

The former Rangers boss also insists that the 30-year-old can improve and get even fitter during his extra time at the Championship club.

"We've extended the loan for another month," McLeish told the club's official website.

"We've got Nigel to a level of fitness where we've worked hard with him and he has steadily improved, so I think he's worth another month.

Improvement

"But I think he can bring more and we've got four of five games left where he can perform for us before his time is up and then we can look at things depending on how the form has gone.

"We have to keep the incentive there for Nigel and keep pushing him to get to an even better level than he's at, because he's done well for us in recent weeks.

"There's a little bit of pressure on him but for me that's what good players thrive on and if he responds to that and gives us a good return and the team get winning again then I think there's scope for something else to be done."

Meanwhile 19-year-old goalkeeper Artur Krysiak has returned to St Andrew's after a brief spell on loan at fellow Championship side Swansea.

The teenager made just two starts for Roberto Martinez's side, both against the Blues' promotion rivals and league leaders Wolves in October.