Birmingham yearn for McLeish, Scotland don’t want to let him go

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Birmingham will settle for no less than an internationally renowned manager like Marcelo Lippi or Martin Jol, we’ve already established that. But time marcheth and they still haven’t dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s on Giovanni Trappatoni’s contract at St Andrews and with Bill Shankley and Brian Clough otherwise engaged they are going to have to go for plan b: Scotland manager Alex McLeish. Are the SFA happy about that? Let Gordon Smith, their chief exec, explain his thoughts on the matter:

“We don’t want to discuss it all, so the club involved has been advised they cannot have permission to speak to Alex at the moment.

“We must make it clear we want to retain Alex as manager of Scotland.”

Alright, calm down mate, we get the message. But does Alex? He doesn’t seem so sure.

“You can never tell in football.

“It’s something that is always out of your control. I am Scotland manager until something else happens.”

That doesn’t sound like someone who will be boarding the plane to South Africa, you might get your man Birmingham.