Birmingham City bring in left-back as more signings lined up
Alex McLeish will step up his search for new players after today’s friendly against Sporting Gijon at St Andrew’s.
The Blues boss has a left-back and centre-half on his hit list as ‘absolute necessities’, and a midfielder remains another priority.
After Arsenal said Armand Traore would not be loaned out just yet, if at all, McLeish has had to revert to alternatives.
Gregory Vignal, the former Liverpool and Portsmouth left-back, has joined on trial and will play today.
A free agent after leaving RC Lens, Vignal is seeking a move back to England. He was loaned to Southampton in 2007-08 and played for McLeish at Rangers.
He recently was on trial at QPR and Blues will make a decision on him after friendly.
Lee Naylor, Celtic’s former Wolves left-back, could also consideration after their signing of Danny Fox from Coventry City.
As for centre-halves, Bolton Wanderers’ Danny Shittu is up for grabs while Sol Campbell is a free agent after his Portsmouth contract expired.
Bobo Balde, who has long been a McLeish fancy, failed to get fixed up at Wolves after a trial.
Michel, the Gijon schemer, will be closely scrutinised today naturally.
Injuries to the backline have caused this state of affairs, and McLeish said the board were well aware of seriousness of the situation.
As it stands, McLeish only has right-back Stuart Parnaby as an experienced performer for left-back for the Manchester United game on August 16.
And Roger Johnson is the only centre-half ready for Old Trafford.
“It’s been well known the problems at left-back, and we have been unfortunate with the centre-halves. Four of them are out at the moment.
“The fans will be looking and thinking ‘what’s going on down there?’. It’s not anyone’s fault, it’s extreme bad luck.
“I’m sure Man United, if they had four centre-halves out just now, would be saying the same thing. They would be in a crisis situation with their centre-halves because it’s impossible to have six or seven in the squad.
