Birmingham City: Big Eck talks to Colin Tattum - part two

Nov 27 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

Our exclusive interview with Alex McLeish to mark his second anniversary in charge concludes.

WHAT’S your relationship like with the new owners?

A The current board have been flexible from the point of view of allowing me to improve the infrastructure. I have brought in another couple of staff. We will be having a full-time doctor soon. We’ve just got Malcolm Thomson to do the reserves.

Terry Westley, our Academy head, was having to multi-task, as a lot of us have been used to doing. That wasn’t really fair on Terry because he’s the top man in the Academy and he has a huge job. Of course, they’ve pledged money and normally that makes a manager happy!

The two Davids and Karren Brady were totally honest and said that they didn’t have the resources to spend big money. And we didn’t spend anything in the Championship. It was 500 grand on Marcus Bent, plus some on Keith Fahey. Maybe there were loan fees for the likes of Quincy and Kemy Agustien. It was relatively low but the argument against it was that we spent on bigger wages for Premier League experienced players.

How is it shaping up with Sammy Yu, vice-chairman football, at Wast Hills?

It all settles down. Sammy came on the training ground at first and I could see he was itching to take the coaching. I think he realises that Andy Watson and Roy Atiken and myself have a wee idea about it... But he has been very supportive. And he has got a good knowledge, he has.

He knows everybody. The one thing is that if he is this director of football type and is recommending players – I get hundreds of players into me every day – I’d like Sammy to say to me ‘Alex, you have got to sign this guy’, not ‘have a look at him’ and then that is going to get me urgently looking at the player in question, if it is someone I don’t know.

And with Carson Yeung, the president, and Vico Hui, chairman?

I have not seen a lot of Carson. He came to the training ground the first week and I went to the boardroom to see him a couple of weeks ago, just to say ‘hello’. I don’t do that every week. Vico is the same. We went for a meal together with the players, it was a brilliant gesture.

Despite some rumours, it was a very controlled night. The players were extremely well behaved. These things get exaggerated. It was a pleasant atmosphere and there was some good connections with the board, which I think the players appreciated.

When you see Gerard Houllier and Laurent Blanc linked with your job, how do you feel?

Maybe the owners have got to say something and dispel these two bob bit stories. It must be masochists who are reading these papers.

I met Gerard in Dublin the other week and he told me somebody had asked him the question was he going to Birmingham because of reports in the British papers and he denied it and said it was a load of rubbish.

I had been phoning Gerard anyway on a couple of occasions before that and never quite got him – he said he did return my calls – but he insisted it was utter crap. But it doesn’t bother me. I’m sure if the owners wanted to change manager then they would be honest enough to tell me. The hardest part is going to be entice players to come.

What are your short to long-term aims here at Blues?

Short-term is obviously this season and finishing in the top 17. Longer-term is to do a Fulham or a Stoke. OK it’s only two years Stoke have been in the Premier League but they look as though they are heading for a third. Birmingham, yes, were looking like that. They had four consecutive years in the Premier League. But that just shows you can never take anything for granted.

Even if you’re in it for four years, you can still have that relegation the next year, as Birmingham had. That has got to be the aim: stability in the Premier League and progression. Can it be done? I believe so. We have to get the right players in. I have to get more like the character I have in the dressing room now. Foreign players, you can never be sure of that so therefore if I am bringing the real quality in, then the players will accept that and appreciate that.

Best signing or most effective, and one that didn’t come off?

The most significant one was Keith Fahey (£300,000 from St Patrick’s, December 2008). This season I have been delighted with the group of signings I have made.

Some of the younger ones have got the potential to be great players in Birmingham’s history.

But Keith was significant because he changed our form and our quality, he enhanced our quality. I don’t know if Andy Watson and Roy Aitken will agree with me, but he has been significant and I sincerely believe he can be part of the Ireland squad, if Giovanni Trapattoni goes into the new campaign.

And the one who wasn’t a success?

How could I mention anybody? You can’t do that.

Formations: 4-5-1, or 4-4-2; discuss?

It still depends on the personnel. I don’t think any Blues fan will have been walking out of the Aston Villa game saying that it was a **** performance, we should have played 4-4-2.

We were in good form, the players were comfortable with the formula and, in fact, we went to Hull the next week and won with the same formula.

But when you don’t win at home, and when you lose your next one, in that formation, I can understand the dissent. But I believe it depends on personnel. I don’t think we quite got out of Lee Bowyer, in the off the front role, what we thought he would have given. But I think that his strength is running from deep, and not in forward areas.

It took a wee bit away from us but we still didn’t really get it right in the wide areas and up front because the wide ones were thinking more of their defensive responsibilities. In fact, we had a long chat about with James McFadden. We wanted them to go forward more. In Holland, Steve McClaren is having a fantastic season playing the same system.

Do you think you are out of ‘Scolari territory’ now?

Listen, that was what Karren Brady wrote last season. (‘the team is much inferior to the sum of talent at our disposal’). I don’t think you can ever relax in the game because the minute you start thinking you are a good manager and you have a good team, you get bitten in the bum.

We have to now go to Wolves and prove that the players we have got are not thinking just because we’ve got a couple of results we can relax. We have got to push on.

It’s a tough game and if Wolves play at the same kind of level they did against Arsenal before Arsenal scored, we are in for a hell of a game.

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