McLeish gets Blues job

Alex McLeish has joined Birmingham as their new boss after leaving the Scotland post. McLeish had quit his job earlier in the week, and this paved the way for his move to the Blues. 'Big Eck' has signed a four year deal.

McLeish came close to becoming a national hero with Scotland, who fell agonisingly short of qualifying for the Euro 2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland, but the challenge presented by Blues was difficult for McLeish to resist.

He said: "It is with regret that I leave such a good job, such good people. We had a great rapport within the Scottish FA. But the lure of the day to day stuff and working in the Premier League was hard to turn down."

He added: "The end of the Euro campaign and realising it was nine months before Scotland played another competitive game played on my mind a little bit.

"Would I have stayed if Scotland had qualified? I couldn't answer that one. I never really mapped out my future and planned what I was going to do. It has all evolved like this rather than being totally planned."