Birmingham City: Alex McLeish sets out for several new signings

Jul 31 2010 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

ALEX McLeish has spoken passionately about Blues’ need for enhancement, not replacement.

The manager said a concerted effort was needed to sign several more players to improve his squad.

So far Ben Foster, Nikola Zigic and Enric Valles have been added to the ranks.

But McLeish pointed out that the two main additions – Foster and Zigic – were effectively replacements for those who left St Andrew’s at the end of last season.

“We are still working on one or two things, there are some options out there we are looking at but, at the moment, there’s been no breakthroughs,” McLeish told the Birmingham Mail. “With the season looming, we’ve really got to push on and add more quality. If you analyse what’s happened, then all we’ve done is replace two positions that were vacated at the end of the season.

“As Joe Hart was going back to Manchester City, a goalkeeper was an absolute necessity. It’s such an important position, we needed to do that one and we’re delighted that we got someone of the calibre of Ben Foster.

“We brought in Nikola Zigic and, again, effectively we spent money there that we would have spent on Christian Benitez, had we decided to take up the loan option.

“So we haven’t really enhanced the squad yet, we’ve replaced players who have left.

“I know Carson Yeung and Peter Pannu have been working hard on trying to secure players we have targeted and, in the current climate, that isn’t easy.

“But we all know that we remain short of bodies and need to bring in quality players to help improve this group.

“A couple of forwards and a defender, at least, especially when you look around at this Premier League.