Birmingham call for big sum if Aston Villa nab Alex McLeish

Birmingham will demand more than £5million in compensation from Aston Villa if they try to appoint Alex McLeish as their next manager.

And Blues even plan to seek an injunction against their bitter rivals to prevent them from hiring the former Scotland boss.

Villa have approached their city rivals to discuss the legal situation regarding McLeish after the Scot quit his job as manager on Sunday. The contact from Villa was not an official approach, but it can be disclosed that an email was sent to Birmingham seeking clarification about McLeish's status.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Blues' acting chairman, Peter Pannu, spent yesterday talking to lawyers about their strategy and there has been a suggestion that they will try to place McLeish on gardening leave. He still had two and a half years left on his contract when he sent an email to Pannu on Sunday announcing his resignation.

Pannu said: "I got an email from Aston Villa, finally replying to all of our queries.

"As expected, their legal department said 'now Alex McLeish is a free agent having resigned, we're free to speak to him'. This confirms all suspicions."