Alex McLeish enjoys fruitful talks with the Birmingham City board

Mar 19 2010 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

“Peter made it clear that we’ve got to become an entity to bring the money in before we can spend it, it won’t just be golden handouts. We spoke about figures, yes. I am not going to say what they are publicly, but there will be investment.

“And they said that if push came to shove maybe there would be a wee bit more if we went to them and were asking for a player of certain quality.”

It has been accepted all-round that Yeung’s initial soundbite of £20-£40 million to splash out on fees and wages in January and the summer was a case of getting carried away.

McLeish said: “When they came in you heard the big figures which I think Carson admitted was a mistake to reveal.

‘‘But there was no way I was going to spend £40 million. In the end I spent £6 million in January.

“I think they saw that what I was saying in January weren’t hollow words. It was about being the custodian of the club and Peter as well, from a financial point of view, is not going to do anything stupid.

‘‘We don’t want to be paying huge, huge wages that upset the dressing room and I get everyone knocking on my door.

“At some stage we are going to have to put a hike on the wages if we are going to bring in more quality to the club and try and improve our standing as it is at the moment.

“Carson has big plans for the club in the future and there could be exciting times ahead in terms of the overall picture.

‘‘But, in the meantime, the short term is that we get a team that’s going to keep us in the Premier League next year.”