Why McLeish joining Villa is great news for BOTH Birmingham clubs

By James Nursey

Published 23:25 15/06/11

• 

Alex McLeish is in the unenviable position of getting serious grief from both Birmingham and Aston Villa fans are the moment.

As a Second City resident, I am fully aware of the deep tensions his imminent move to Villa has created and am not about to pity McLeish.

But if Brum get £5million for his services, giving owner Carson Yeung the chance to finally bring in his own man to revive the club following relegation, then surely that is no bad thing for Bluenoses.

And if Villa get a decent manager with experience in Europe and at international level who - unlike many other candidates, such as Roberto Martinez - really wants the job and is fired up, then surely their supporters should get behind McLeish, despite his Birmingham background.

A move for McLeish is now so far progressed that his appointment is inevitable, irrespective of the anger of fans.

It would set a worrying precedent for Villa owner Randy Lerner if he backs down and allows supporters to effectively dictate the running of the club.

I am not daft and can fully appreciate why both sets of supporters are up in arms about the football story of the summer and I know how important supporters are to a club.

It is precisely because it is such a big talking point among fans that the McLeish story has got the column inches it has.

But I feel both McLeish and Birmingham will benefit from parting in what had become a loveless, awkward marriage bound together because of the prohibitive cost of divorce.

I must admit it is impossible to defend McLeish's decision to resign by email after over three years at the club, but that says a lot about problems behind the scenes at Birmingham.

These issues prompted me to run an exclusive last month predicting a parting was always on the cards this summer despite the Scot getting the club's public backing after relegation.

Yeung will now relish appointing his own manager after inheriting McLeish following his takeover.

And I think McLeish will be relieved to be out of St Andrew's after complaining to pals he was undermined by the club's hierarchy, who he felt meddled too much in transfers.

The £6million purchase of Nikola Zigic last summer on £50,000-a-week remains a bone of contention and McLeish was furious when his chief scout and pal Paul Montgomery was sacked to carry the can for relegation as I also exclusively revealed.

Many Brum fans are now spitefully saying they are pleased to see the back of McLeish -which they certainly didn't mention when their promoted side came ninth last season and then impressively won the Carling Cup this season amid joyous scenes.

Yes, Blues ended up being relegated but I felt over the course of a season, and including their Cup feats, they were certainly not in my opinion among the three worst teams in the Premier League.

They more than held their own, for example, in two draws against Villa's more expensively-assembled side in the top-flight last term before knocking their rivals out of the League Cup to advertise McLeish's capabilities to Lerner.

But sadly, winning the Carling Cup and getting to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a small squad took its toll. Many of the team then struggled with injuries after playing through the pain at Wembley to heroically beat Arsenal.

Any reporter fortunate enough to be involved with covering the build-up, 90 minutes and aftermath of that epic win against a far superior opponent will tell you McLeish's behaviour, tactics and methods were absolutely first class.

The irony now though is that McLeish's League Cup triumph - Birmingham's first silverware since 1963 - helped make him a target for Lerner, who has still not won anything since buying the club in 2006 and pumping in millions.

Yet McLeish has built a side at St Andrew's using some fine bargain signings such as Scott Dann (£3m from Coventry), Roger Johnson (£5m from Cardiff), Ben Foster (£6m from Manchester United), Barry Ferguson (£1m from Rangers) and Craig Gardner (£3m from Villa).

That appeals to Lerner, who has long since wanted better value-for-money in the transfer market after Martin O'Neill spanked millions on players.

Once former Aberdeen stopper McLeish takes charge of Villa, fans can expect him to shore up their leaky defence - which cost them this season - because resolute defending was City's trademark.

And I would expect at least a couple of Birmingham first team stars, such as Foster, to follow McLeish across the city as Blues seek to balance their books following relegation.

With better players, such as Stewart Downing, Marc Albrighton and Darren Bent at his disposal at Villa Park, McLeish will then be able to lose his tag of playing negative football.

Granted, Birmingham have consistently failed to score many goals since McLeish arrived at the club in November 2007.

But I saw them play some decent stuff last season and they have just been missing an accomplished striker to hold the ball up and score.

McLeish identified solutions in Roman Pavlyuchenko and Bobby Zamora - as I exclusive revealed at the time.

But neither striker was signed despite weeks of groundwork, adding to McLeish's frustrations at St Andrew's.

He has been widely criticised for his negative brand of football but this is because he hasn't had a huge budget at Blues to blow on top players.

McLeish has had money, but in the words of one of his close pals, you cannot make a great omelette if you don't have the best eggs.

He apparently felt the prospect of leading Birmingham in Europe this season and being ordered to guarantee promotion against the backdrop of key player sales was Mission Impossible.

Or as his pal amusingly told me: "Like taking on tanks armed with just a machete!"

I really think that, with better resources, McLeish will do a decent, conscientious job for Villa - if the club's supporters give him a chance; which they sensibly must, however angry they may feel.

Hopefully both Blues and Villa will have decent campaigns next season.

McLeish hasn't been alone in getting plenty of abuse as even Lerner and Villa's chief executive Paul Faulkner have come in for sustained stick for the first time.

I am sure they will admit they could have handled their managerial search better after missing out on Wigan boss Martinez.

But, as relative newcomers to football, they are learning on the job - whether fans like it or not - and we all make mistakes occasionally.

They could hardly go around lining up a new boss when Gerard Houllier was still in hospital - they would have been slammed for that too!

Sometimes in the fickle world of football, you are damned either way.

McLeish probably was just that at St Andrew's whether he stayed or went.

But he has had the balls to make a big decision and back himself, and I admire him for that.

It shows how ambitious he really is.

Perhaps at Villa - with their bigger stadium, training ground, supporter base, history and cheque-book - he will get a chance to fulfil them.

Fancy winning £3,000 for FREE this month? Play Mirror Football Streak for your chance to win cash prizes! Start predicting now!