Zigic - I can be Premier hit

New Blues striker ready for English football

By Lizzie Rose   Last updated: 28th July 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Zigic - I can be Premier hit

Zigic: New challenge

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Birmingham City signing Nikola Zigic is certain he can meet the demands of playing in the Premier League after leaving La Liga.

The 6ft 8in striker, who signed from Valencia in May, has been acclimatising to life with the Blues during their pre-season tour of China.

And while the Serbia international admits there are significant differences between the two elite leagues, he insists he will not be out of his depth in the forthcoming season.

"La Liga is quite physical too. It may not be as fast as the Premier League but I will certainly do my best to adapt," he told the club's official website.

Adapt

"I'm pretty sure I will be able to do that. I do have to adapt a bit physically but I am working very, very hard on that in training to step up the pace.

"I have also noticed in training that Birmingham are a good passing team and that is a good style to have to adapt to."

Before making his £6million move to St Andrews in the summer, the 29-year-old had been linked with a move to City's local rivals Aston Villa.

But the striker insists there was no solid foundation for those rumours and admits his attention was on securing his four-year deal with Blues.

He said: "I am not sure about the Aston Villa interest. Maybe there could have been but I'm certainly not aware of it.

Extremely confident

"It may even have come after I had already decided to join Birmingham. Birmingham came in for me and it was something I wanted to do. I wanted to move on to the next level."

As well as enjoying City's style of football, the striker has been notably impressed by Birmingham boss Alex McLeish - a manager he believes he can work well with in the future.

He said: "It's obvious that Alex is a perfect gentleman. He has got an incredible amount of experience but is still prepared to learn and I am extremely confident in being able to play for him.

"It is always very difficult to predict what is going to happen but certainly personally I have always tried to better what has gone before. There is no point in turning up if you are not going to do that."