Birmingham City boss has his eye on Giles Barnes
Dec 19 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail
ALEX McLeish has predicted that Blues would get first crack at signing Giles Barnes if he shapes up at Wast Hills.
Barnes, who was released by Derby County after a nightmare spell struggling with injuries, has been training with the club.
“He’s a fair bit short on fitness,” said McLeish.
“We know his family. He’s got a younger brother at the Academy and we were happy to provide facilities for Giles to get himself fit and then we will see what happens when we come to some sort of point whereby we would have to assess what we thought.
“I’m sure the fact that Giles is in here, if there was a future for him in the game then Birmingham would get first pop at that.
“There’s not a timescale on it. But we will look at certain aspects of fitness and doing some testing over the course of the next two or three weeks.”
McLeish, meanwhile, admitted that Blues were getting closer to making headway in the quest to add new players in January.
As usual, he wouldn’t address specific targets.
“January, it’s a key for me, to bring in two or three players who can help us enhance the quality of the squad, you know, for a rainy day if somebody is suspended or injured, that we definitely have the cover there to put them in.
“We will continue to be prudent I think in the choice of players and the spending. I look forward to the second part of the season and the January window sometimes can be a burden, but I felt that last time, two years ago, we never added to the squad and that cost us.”
He continued: “I’m not going to name any players publicly.
“We have a number on lists and under scrutiny.
“We will continue to do that diligence.
“We are not down the road yet where we have enough knowledge about transfer fees or wages or that kind of thing, but we are sowing some seeds.”
