Alex McLeish says he will need to undertake a major spending spree
this summer if Birmingham are to consolidate their place in the top
flight.
McLeish insists he has been given no indication by owner
Carson Yeung that the money available for new players will be
affected by the £20.5million loss suffered during the final
year of the David Sullivan-David Gold reign.
Yeung announced his capture of Blues earlier this season by
pledging £20-40 million for new signings in January plus more
funds ahead of the 2010-11 campaign.
McLeish spent only a fraction of that amount during the last
transfer window and has performed a major feat in steering City
into a top 10 position in the table with 11 games remaining.
But the former Scotland boss is aware he will have to bring
in new blood - particularly up front - for Birmingham to maintain
their current momentum.
McLeish said: "Nobody has said last season's losses would
affect things. We were talking about spending £20million in
January and I only spent £6million of that.
"I would imagine that remaining £14million - plus
whatever there is available to be spent this summer - means we
should be reasonably healthy.
"But, if we want to remain a Premier League team and
certainly get to where we are now, season after season, then you
have got to keep up with the Joneses.
"Do I have to spend quite a bit to keep up with them? Yes, we
need to improve again and enhance the squad."
McLeish added: "In forward areas we need to add to the
quality - and these areas are not cheap. You don't get cheap
players coming in there.
"We have spent, I think overall, during the season, about
£15million or £16million. But that was for about six or
seven players.
"To get six or seven players for £16million this summer,
I think will be well-nigh impossible, unless we can get four or
five Bosmans."
McLeish believes Birmingham's decision to operate with one of
the biggest wage bills in the Championship last season was
justified by gaining promotion and he also offset that by reducing
considerably the size of his squad.
He said: "We had a big wage bill in the Championship last
year but I hardly spent any transfer money, I think just
£500,000 on Marcus Bent.
"We also took £8million in for selling Fabrice Muamba
and Olivier Kapo and 10 players left. We got guys off the wage
bill.
"Although we had a bigger wage bill than all the other
Championship teams, we achieved our objective of promotion and now,
this season, it's a kind of a flip of the coin with a smaller type
budget."
