World Cup Winner Lippi Snubs Birmingham's Advances

Birmingham's attempts to recruit a high-profile replacement for Steve Bruce met with further rejection today when the former Italy coach Marcello Lippi spurned the club's advances.

Lippi, who guided Italy to the World Cup last year, was approached by Blues co-owner David Sullivan, who has promised to look for a "top foreign" coach. But like Martin Jol yesterday, Lippi decided a move to Britain's second city wasn't for him.

"We made an approach and Lippi turned it down," O'Sullivan said. "This is not a stunt. It's genuine. He is available at the moment and we are looking at bringing in a manager of his stature and caliber, if at all possible. He was one of the first we went to but unfortunately nothing materialized.

"Of course, you get knock-backs. That's football. But if you do not try you will never know. It was the same with Martin Jol. It made sense for us to approach him."

Sullivan, who is determined to bring in a new manager within the next 10 days, says that Bruce's assistant Eric Black is still in the running to take over. "We are juggling other balls in the air at the moment and we will see which ones land," he said. "I want to stress to our supporters that we are working very, very hard to bring in the right man.

"We will resolve the issue of a new manager within 10 days. Eric Black has taken temporary charge and that might only be for one game. The agreement is that he will stay up to three weeks if necessary as we can't have the club ripped apart by Steve taking everyone with him.

"It is a very difficult situation for Eric. We understand he has a massive allegiance to Steve and we also respect that he is staying behind and will do a professional job for us. Has he got a chance of becoming manager? Yes, he has. We will just have to wait and see what develops."