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Birmingham City Boss Alex McLeish Wonders Whether Football Can Sustain Massive Transfer Fees

The Blues manager has revealed that his search for centre-halves was almost stalled by the astronomical prices clubs were demanding...

Jul 1, 2009 7:44:52 PM

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Alex McLeish - Birmingham City (PA)

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Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish, who has been very busy so far in this summer's transfer window, has speculated that football is going to find it difficult to sustain the inflated transfer fees being demanded for players, with his own quest to find defenders for the club almost being derailed by the excessive price tags attached to players.

With that in mind, McLeish dipped into the Championship for talent, signing Roger Johnson from Cardiff City and Scott Dann from Coventry City, and feels both men represent value for money.

"The money is incredible, some of the stories you hear about players going to the bigger clubs and the wages, the astronomical sums, you wonder if football can sustain it," the Scotsman told The Birmingham Mail.

"I suppose if the revenues keep coming in from satellite TV, it seems it can be sustained but you wonder where it is all going to end.

"With our centre-halves, we had the Roger Johnsons, the Scott Danns, there were other players on the list as well including in the Premier League.

"We needed to try to get players with English experience, who knew the English game, who knew that they had to compete in the air, who weren't afraid of playing direct in dangerous places. And they had to have the physical attributes to deal with the physical demands of English football.

"But I inquired about three, four, maybe five centre-backs in the Premier League but it turned to be absolutely out of the question that we could go for these players. They were beyond our reach [financially]."

As for two English centre-backs, McLeish was relishing the opportunity to work with players of such potential.

"We went for younger legs. It is a big challenge for these lads to go into the Premier League and show what they can do." he explained. "We have been looking at that particular type of characteristic for the last 18 months.

"The players who have been here have done a sterling job for us.Radhi Jaidi was magnificent in the closing weeks of the season, but we just felt that it was time to try and make some things happen.

"I am surprised with the amount of support I've had for the two English centre-halves. To pay the money that we've paid for these two lads, the board deserve credit for that."

Zack Wilson, Goal.com