No money for Blues boss

McLeish: Limited budget

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Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish has been told not to expect a pot of money to bring in new players if they get promoted back to the Premier League.

McLeish's Blues can bounce back into England's top tier with a home win against Preston on Saturday, but chairman David Gold says much of the money the club would receive has already been earmarked.

Clubs receive around £40million for gaining promotion to the Premier League, but Gold says almost half of that money will be used to pay off the debts the club has incurred in trying to escape from the Championship.

Overspend

Gold says clubs often overspend to try and lure top players to the club and he believes that even if they are successful, they are often left footing a huge bill.

Gold, a co-owner at the club, told The Sun: "You do tend to sell your future. That's why a lot of clubs who do get promoted then struggle because they don't have the funds even though they have received all this extra income.

"It's already been committed so it becomes extremely difficult to compete in that division.

"You are often quite generous when you are trying to pursue a player coming to your club rather than another club."

Gold added: "Everyone says getting promoted is a £40m match. But sometimes it is a £19m match because you owe £21m because of promotion."