Birmingham City: Alex McLeish contract down to the 'nitty gritty'

Jul 31 2010 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

“There’s a will from both parties to get his done before the season starts so we can all move forward,” added McLeish, who has a year left on his present deal, which kicks into a 12-month ‘rolling’ contract thereafter.

Also on the agenda is a new contract for McLeish’s long-term sidekick Andy Watson.

He has had talks on and off with Blues during the past few months and McLeish is keen that the joint first team coach be rewarded for his contribution to the Championship promotion and subsequent ninth place finish in the top flight.

Blues had also offered terms to Roy Aitken, but he opted to link up with David O’Leary at Al Ahli in Dubai knowing that compensation and his release would not be a problem.

Blues reserve coach Malky Thomson has followed Aitken’s lead and also left St Andrew’s for desert riches.

Thomson, an Aberdeen team mate of McLeish and Watson, was appointed in November last year.

McLeish said: “Unfortunately we couldn’t deny Malky such an opportunity. We’ve not quite yet seen the benefit of what he brought to us as he’d only been here six months, but we didn’t want to lose him.”

McLeish, who replaced joint first team coach Aitken with Peter Grant, said he would consider his options in relation to Thomson’s successor.

Meanwhile, McLeish will be taking full-strength squads to both weekend friendlies, at Derby County today (3pm) and Northampton Town tomorrow (2pm).

“I’ve told the guys that we’re treating our next four friendlies as first team games,” he said.

“There won’t be any weakened teams. There’s a need for many of them to get longer minutes in, to make sure we’re absolutely ready for the season.”