McLeish quits as Scotland boss to take charge at Birmingham

The former Rangers boss will take up the opportunity to succeed Steve Bruce after deciding that the chance to ply his trade in the Premier League was not to be missed.

His conscience has been eased somewhat by the doubling of his £400,000 Scottish Football Association salary and he has been released from his obligations after resigning from his post yesterday.

The SFA are to hold a board meeting this morning to discuss a successor, with Billy Davies and Gary McAllister among the early frontrunners for the position.

It is believed that Birmingham have agreed to pay about £1million in compensation after McLeish, 48, broke his contract.

He informed his employers of his decision yesterday and will meet his new Birmingham players for the first time this afternoon.

The St Andrew's board have moved quickly to secure a replacement for Bruce, who left the club in controversial circumstances last week.

Even though David Sullivan and the Gold brothers have been running the club for the past 14 years, McLeish becomes only the fourth manager they have appointed, following the reigns of Barry Fry, Trevor Francis and Bruce.

However, more interestingly, it seems that the proposed £50m takeover by Carson Yeung is now unlikely to go ahead.

It is stood that one of the stumbling blocks to installing McLeish has been the reluctance of the former Aberdeen defender to commit himself when so much uncertainty surrounds the club.

Even though Birmingham's board of directors have given Yeung a deadline of December 21 to complete the deal, there have been growing concerns that the Hong Kong businessman either does not have liquid funds or is unprepared to use them to finance the buy-out.

With McLeish having given his assent, it is the clearest sign yet that Sullivan and the Gold brothers are to remain in charge. Bruce feared the sack if Yeung took over.

McLeish, undoubtedly, was not Birmingham's first choice. But then it was difficult to see who was after a recruitment drive that included just about every significant name in world and domestic football management.

Marcello Lippi, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Martin Jol, Mark Hughes and Harry Redknapp were all either pursued or talked about by the Birmingham board, although the actual probability of some of them walking through the doors of the club in Small Heath were distinctly remote, irrespective of the £1.5ma- year salary on offer.

McLeish, nicknamed 'Big 'Eck', is known to have some powerful allies in the game — not least Sir Alex Ferguson — although whether the Manchester United boss had a hand in landing the job for his fellow Scot is unclear.

One man who believes the appointment to be the correct one is Martin O'Neill and the Ulsterman is looking forward to renewing his Old Firm rivalry with McLeish in Birmingham.

The former Celtic boss said: "They are getting a very good manager, a very good manager indeed. He is a really fine manager. No question about that.

"Socially, I don't know him at all. He won games early on for Rangers against Celtic — and then we had a decent run. But he is very good indeed. Alex will be very good for Birmingham City.

"I know the Scottish players have been very pleased with him and the SFA will be disappointed to lose him.

"That's two really good managers they've had in recent times in Walter Smith and Alex."

Bruce had assembled a group of willing, hungry young players at St Andrew's. They were undoubtedly affected by the turbulence of the past few weeks during Saturday's soulless 2-0 home defeat to Portsmouth.

It was the manner of the defeat that persuaded the St Andrew's board to ditch any plans to offer Eric Black, Bruce's long-serving assistant, the job and a brief discussion in the boardroom after the final whistle sealed the deal as far as McLeish was concerned.

Birmingham captain Liam Ridgewell, who played under O'Neill at Villla, greeted the news warmly and said: "We were sorry to see Steve leave the club. He had signed most of the lads. He had a strong personality and we will miss him.

"But the new gaffer has got a great pedigree. He's managed one of the biggest clubs in the world (Rangers) and done really well with Scotland.

"Hopefully, this is a new era for us. I think it was important that the club sorted it out quickly because December is a really busy month for football in general and we have got some important games coming up.

"Having said that, every game in the Premier League is really important for us and we need to pick up every point we can. I think we needed that stability and, to be honest, it's just great that the whole issue has been sorted out quickly."