Move to Birmingham City just felt right, says Scott Dann

Nov 27 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

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SCOTT Dann faces Wolves at Molineux on Sunday as the one who got away.

And the centre-half said he had no regrets about choosing Blues over Wolves during a summer tug-of-war.

Coventry City agreed a fee worth an eventual £3.5 million with both clubs for Dann in June.

And Wolves at one stage looked to have gazumped Blues, who had been trailing the former Walsall captain for some time.

But Blues won out and Wolves ended up taking Ronald Zuber from Marseille and loaning Michael Mancienne from Chelsea instead.

Dann has made an impressive start to his Blues – and Premier League – career.

“I didn’t know where I was going until one or two days before I did sign for Birmingham,” Dann admitted, such was the way negotiations lurched between the three teams involved.

“In the end I had a decision to make. I wanted to play in the Premier League and I just got one of those feelings about Birmingham.

“Nothing against Wolves – they are a very good club too. But after speaking to the manager several times, I just thought ‘yes, I want to go there’.

‘‘He seemed very determined to get me and being wanted like that helps. It just felt right.”

There had been rumours that Dann actually had a medical at Wolves, forcing Blues’ hierarchy to jump and finalise terms with Coventry and the former England Under-21 player’s agent.

“I never went there for a medical,” said Dann.

“I spoke to Mick McCarthy as well as Alex McLeish, but it wasn’t me favouring one of them over the other. It was nothing to do with anything like that.

‘‘They’re both top managers. My instinct told me that Birmingham was the place to go and, of course, I’ve been very happy with that choice.”

Wolves also had a sniff around Cardiff City’s Roger Johnson, who ended up at St Andrew’s in a £5 million deal.

Dann and Johnson have formed a highly competent alliance at the heart of Blues’ defence.

And midfielder Barry Ferguson, a £1 million capture from Rangers, was also of interest to McCarthy.

Even though Wolves were promoted as Champions to Blues runners-up, it can be argued that McLeish has got the better of them in the market in these instances and in their starts to the season.

Wolves may be in the relegation zone, but Dann said that counted for nothing.

Nor did how the teams fared in the Championship.

“It’s going to be a very tough game, and it’s a derby as well,’’ he said.

‘‘They come at you flying and try to get that advantage early on. They don’t sit back and wait for the game to come to them.

‘‘They had that last year. They always play to win no matter what.

“We know all about them. What happened in the Championship, I don’t think you can really look at that though.

‘‘It’s a totally different league. The Championship was more about grinding results as you played so many games and we’ve both got a few different players since then.”