Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish has revealed that he has approached Sir Alex Ferguson about the prospect of signing Manchester United players on loan next season.
McLeish played under Ferguson whilst at Aberdeen and the United boss has been a managerial mentor to the Blues boss throughout his career. However, Ferguson has stated that a decision on the loanees must wait till next month as he still needs to settle on the make-up of his squad.
"We talk now and again and I spoke to him about the possibility of loan players, when the time comes. It was before the Champions League final when we had a chat. But it's going to take a while [for Ferguson] to assess his squad. All the clubs in The Premier League have to do that,” he told the Birmingham Mail.
“Again, it comes into that statement I made about July and August, that people will not make major decisions probably until those two months,” he added.
It has been reported that Jonny Evans, who made an impressive impact whilst on loan at Sunderland, may be one of the players McLeish is interested in bringing to St Andrews.
The manager has also contacted Arsenal about the possibility of loaning some of their fringe players, but McLeish knows to sit tight when it comes to the London club, as he noted they did in the 2006-2007 season.
“[Nicklas] Bendtner, [Sebastian] Larsson, [Fabrice] Muamba came in not too long before the start of the season I believe. That ties in with what I've said about the late decisions made by the top clubs. We all know what those three did for Birmingham that season and if there are players out there who can do similar for us, we won't hesitate to try and get them in," he continued.
McLeish acknowledges how invaluable the loan system is to teams, and uses the success Tony Pulis has had at Stoke as an example of this.
“If the [loan] system is there you've got to try and use it to the best of your ability. Tony Pulis was a master at it over the last couple of years and he has performed a fantastic feat in getting Stoke City promoted," he said. |
發表於 2008-6-6 10:23 PM
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