McLeish Takes Birmingham Job

Alex McLeish has been unveiled as the new manager of Birmingham, with the bad news for his previous employers, the Scottish FA, being that he has taken his two assistants with him to St Andrew's.

McLeish, 48, resigned as Scotland coach yesterday after narrowly missing out on leading the country to Euro 2008. He replaces Steve Bruce, who joined Wigan earlier this week, and has signed a 3½-year deal. Roy Aitken and Andy Watson, who worked with him during his spell in charge of the Scottish national team, will join his coaching staff.

"I really enjoyed my time in the Scotland job," admitted McLeish. "I thought long and hard about staying on but I had a desire to get back to day-to-day football. I've come to a club in great tradition in football with a fervent and fantastic fan base. I look forward to the challenge."

The Birmingham chairman, David Gold, warned that Carson Yeung's proposed takeover of the club is unlikely now to happen. "I started off believing the bid was 90% assured and a couple of weeks ago I reduced that to 75%. Now I believe it's only 50% but only time will tell. We are working on the basis the deal will not go ahead. If it does, that's another story."