McLeish can forget about Aiden McGeady 'swoop'

After months of publically attempting to 'tap' Aiden McGeady Alex McLeish can forget about any summer move for the Celtic midfielder- not that it was ever likely in the first place.

Selling McGeady may well be an option for the next Celtic manager to generate funds to reinvest in the team but McGeady won't be joining McLeish and Barry Ferguson for next season's relegation battle.

When Carsen Yeung finally took over at Birmingham in October there was talk of £20-£40m player budgets to help Birmigham reach 'the next level' after season's of bouncing between the top two divisions.

McLeish talked up the Premiership, the challenge that McGeady may require, and was about as subtle as a Doug Rougvie 50-50 in his attempts to entice the midfielder whilst undermining Celtic.

Only last month the Birmingham boss said: "He has got great potential, Aiden McGeady, to play in this league."

After all the talk of big money deals and a new era at St Andrews the reality is that McLeish will be given a summer budget that wouldn't buy him a better than average Premiership striker.

He admitted: "Will there be more than £10million to spend this summer? It won't be much more than that.

"We've got to be as prudent as ever and try and enhance the quality of the squad. We will try to get players (without spending too much) but you can't keep pulling rabbits out of the hat."

As ever with former Rangers managers the conversation quickly returned to matters at Ibrox.

McLeish added: "I heard Walter Smith talking about having a fantastic season at Rangers and then, because he's done well on a limited budget, they think they can take a bit more away and he can do it again.

"I worked like that at Rangers as well and you can't keep doing that. You can't keep pulling rabbits out of the hat. There has to be investment and I am sure the board will back me."

The truth about Birmingham's transfer budget has been followed up by the resignation of Chief Executive Michael Dunford.

The revelations about Portsmouth's financial problems has probably sent a shiver through the middle of the road Premiership clubs who think that spending on the never-never can short cut them to success.

Sky Sports £30m plus payments go straight through the clubs and into the bank accounts of players and agents as clubs try frantically to make ends meet and satisfy the demands of increasingly expectant supporters.

Clubs like Birmingham, Portsmouth, Bolton, Fulham, Blackburn and Wolves will never be in a position to go spending their way into the elite group of clubs challenging for a Champions League place.

Wishful stories about spending sprees buying up players like McGeady are never going to become reality at a club that averages 25,000 or less at the gate.

With cash tight again McLeish is likely to turn to Ibrox in the summer and add Kris Boyd, Nacho Novo and maybe Kirk Broadfoot to his old boys network of Barry Ferguson and Gregory Vignal.