Birmingham boss rubbishes talk of backroom blues

Birmingham boss Alex McLeish on Wednesday dismissed reports of dressing room blues at St Andrew’s as “absolute rubbish”.

Defender Liam Ridgewell had reportedly handed in a transfer request and midfielder Barry Ferguson was demanding a new deal.

The former Scotland manager admitted initial talks have been held with the likes of Ridgewell and wide player Sebastian Larsson regarding new deals, but insisted that talks have been amicable.

“Those kind of stories about disharmony are rubbish. There has been no handing in of transfer requests,” said McLeish.

“There has been no-one knocking on my door. The club are having amicable talks with one or two players.

“If we tie them up, we tie them up. If we don’t, then we have to look to do something else.

“But there is no dressing room disharmony. That is absolute nonsense, absolute rubbish.”

Blues have several players out of contract in the summer but McLeish insists no “hard and fast decisions” have been made regarding their futures.

And he is challenging them to maintain the form which has kept Birmingham in the top 10 of the Premier League since early December until the conclusion of the campaign.

McLeish said: “I want to keep everyone on their toes. Everyone has got to keep impressing the fans, myself and the coaches.

“They have got to keep playing to the standards they have achieved for the majority of the season right through to the end.

“We will get around to everyone at some stage but no hard and fast decisions have been made.”