Milan Baros not a target for Birmingham City

Dec 13 2007 By Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

BIRMINGHAM City are not on the trail of former Aston Villa striker Milan Baros.

Various reports, which began in the Czech Republic, claimed that Blues were interested in the Baros, who is unsettled at Lyon.

Aside from a big price tag that would likely be out of range anyway, new manager Alex McLeish is not in the hunt for Baros.

He has been linked with two of his former Scotland national team stars Kris Boyd (Rangers) and James McFadden (Everton).

One report claimed that a £3 million bid would be faxed to Goodison Park for McFadden.

But there are budget issues to be addressed and McLeish has to move other players out of St Andrew's to help boost his transfer pot.

Before relationships soured and he left to boss Wigan Athletic, Steve Bruce let it be known that between £3 million - £4 million had been made available to him by the board.

The co-owners were working on the premise that Carson Yeung's takeover was doomed.

McLeish probably has to wheel and deal with the same base figure, but a cash boost has also come from the £3 million Wigan paid for Bruce.

Once a compensation deal has been thrashed out with the SFA as McLeish resigned, the 'profit' from changing managers could still be around £2 million - £2.5 million.