McLeish fires Blues warning

Blues boss expects tough ride if they gain promotion

By Elliot Ball   Last updated: 20th March 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

McLeish fires Blues warning

McLeish: Promotion warning

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Alex McLeish claims Birmingham City will have to punch above their weight if they go up.

The Blues are currently trying to bounce back into the Premier League at the first time of asking.

City occupy second spot in the Championship and remain on course to gain automatic promotion, but McLeish has warned fans that they will face an uphill task to stay in the top flight if they go up.

"I think they're starting to get on the march again," the Scot told The Independent, about his players. "But if we do go up we'll have to try and punch above our weight.

"The directors keep a pretty tight ship here. Deep down they're conscious of situations like Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds United, Premier League clubs that have slowly gone backwards.

"Saying that, we can't go up with the belief that we'll be straight back down. We're active every week scouting for players who fit the bill character-wise and according to our budget.

"And our Academy boys have just qualified for the semi-final of the FA Youth Cup, which is a feat in itself, because the Academy's been in the doldrums in recent years."

No regrets

When McLeish took over as Birmingham boss in November 2007 after quitting as Scotland manager, the former Rangers tactician was hoping he would not be managing in England's second tier.

The 50-year-old revealed he snubbed several top-flight clubs before joining Birmingham but insists he has no regrets about joining the Midlands club.

"Coming here, I had to accept that we could go down, although if the points ratio after I joined had been the same before, we would have stayed up," McLeish added.

"But that's no criticism of [predecessor] Steve Bruce and [his assistant] Eric Black, who are great friends of mine.

"A change of management can give impetus to a club, which is what Steve did at Wigan.

"I had a chance to go to a couple of other Premier League clubs before I took the Birmingham job, but I knew I wouldn't regret coming here, whatever happened."