Midlands derby beckons for McLeish, McCarthy

Alex McLeish will re-double his efforts to sign Kris Boyd and Roman Pavlyuchenko when the summer transfer window opens in Augst, after drawing a blank last month in his efforts to spend a large slice of owner Carson Yeung’s 20 million pounds transfer pledge.

Birmingham had a 10 million pounds offer from Spurs rejected for the Russian international during the January window and were also re-buffed in their attempts to lure Scottish international Boyd away from Glasgow Rangers – despite the fact the 26-year-old is out of contract in June.

McLeish was hoping that he would have had one of his two chief targets available for debut in the Midlands derby against Wolves on Sunday, but now the Scot is preparing another concerted bid in the summer to head off competition from Russian club Spartak Moscow.

Peter Pannu, Blues’ acting chairman and vice-chairman executive and finance, accused Spurs of moving the goal posts by hoisting the price up to 15 million pounds after they had put in writing an offer they were originally told was fine.

“We went for Pavlyuchenko, as most people know, and his wages weren’t outrageous. He’s a top player and he would have enhanced the squad. He would have come in and really upped the ante in terms of the competition, but it was not to be. It is something that we will revisit in the summer,” said McLeish.

“I also asked the question of Rangers and Walter Smith said he was going to keep everyone until the end of the season. He said they were short of players anyway. If he lost any more, it would be difficult. That was a personal phonecall to Walter.”

Boyd is set to run his deal down and leave Ibrox on a free transfer in June and Birmingham have been among a clutch of clubs, including rivals Aston Villa, talking to his representatives about a pre-contract agreement.

Like their neighbours, Wolves also suffered transfer window frustration. Mick McCarthy made overtures to Robbie Keane to try to persuade his former Republic of Ireland striker to return to his former club, but Keane opted for a move to Celtic and Wolves also had a bid for Hull’s Stephen Hunt rejected by their Premier League relegation rivals.

McCarthy’s mood has not been helped by the shocking midweek FA Cup defeat by Crystal Palace and to ease the sense of disappointment, McCarthy wants three points against their close rivals to help his 51st birthday celebrations go with a bang, saying: “We are desperate for three points and, if we go to Birmingham and play as we did against Liverpool and Hull, we can win. At least not be beaten.”

McCarthy was born in the year Wolves last won the League Championship title and steered them to the Coca-Cola Championship in May, but he finds himself under pressure with his side hovering dangerously close to the relegation issue and fans unhappy at the lack of any experienced signings in the transfer window.

“We tried and tried and tried and were prepared to spend. There was firm interest in Robbie Keane but he wanted to go to Celtic, good luck to him. I think we showed a lot of ambition in the window and we just kept getting batted back,” said McCarthy.

“It will be the equivalent of winning the Championship if we stay up. The performance the other night at Palace was the worst I can remember us producing and I didn’t see it coming. Where it came from, heaven knows.

“But I’ve never had a problem getting a response from these players. We won three games out of four after losing to Birmingham earlier in the season and the criticism to the Palace tie should be the perfect motivation.”

Wolves will at least have Republic of Ireland striker Kevin Doyle available again after missing the 3-1 defeat at Selhurst Park because of injury, but Birmingham’s new arrivals Craig Gardner and Michel, from Sporting Gijon may have to wait for their full debuts in the league.