Carsley targets promotion

Carsley: Promotion aim

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• Birmingham City

Players

• Lee Carsley

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Lee Carsley has set his sights on an immediate return to the Premier League with Birmingham.

Alex McLeish's side were relegated on the final day of last season when a 4-1 victory over Blackburn was not enough to save them from the drop.

Combative midfielder Carsley elected to make the step down from the top-flight when he joined Blues on a free transfer from Everton.

After joining up with his new team-mates for pre-season training, Carsley is confident they can push for promotion.

Goal

He told Sky Sports News: "I've seen in training that there's a lot of good players and hopefully we're only going to be here for one season.

"We've all got the same goal and we're going to push for the Premier League at the first attempt."

Defender Franck Queudrue and midfielder Olivier Kapo were back in training after missing the first day due to confusion over when they were expected to return.

Carsley can see several similarities between his former boss David Moyes and Blues manager McLeish.

The midfielder added: "He (Moyes) turned around Everton completely, taking them from a club near the bottom of the league to the Champions League. The job he's done there is fantastic.

"Alex McLeish is very single-minded and enthusiastic about what he wants to do."