No superstar culture at Birmingham City - Alex McLeish

Sep 12 2010 by Colin Tattum, Sunday Mercury

ALEX McLeish has denied that the capture of Aleksandr Hleb heralds the start of a ‘superstar’ era at Blues.

The last manager who tried to move Blues up a notch with big-name signings was Steve Bruce, after the club’s 10th place finish in 2003-04.

But despite recruiting the likes of Emile Heskey, David Dunn, Muzzy Izzet, Jesper Gronkjaer and Mario Melchiot – and having the ‘best squad in 25 years’, according to David Gold – Blues were eventually relegated and are still in the process of recovery.

Hleb, who hopes to be passed fit to make his debut against Liverpool at St Andrew’s today (4pm), is arguably Blues biggest signing since Christophe Dugarry.

But Eck insisted that he would not move away from his core values by populating his side with high maintenance stars who didn’t fit in or weren’t prepared to work for the team.

“I’ve not brought in that many superstars – I’ve only brought one,” said McLeish.

“Zigic, you wouldn’t say he’s a world class superstar. I don’t think there’s that type of player.By and large, we’ll keep the nucleus of the team from last season.”

The Dugarry comparison resonated with McLeish: “I’d like to believe Alex could have that impact, he’s definitely in that category.

“Dugarry has a different style but brought fantastic panache, and Alex can do something similar.

“He’s one of these will o’ the Wisp characters. He seems to float over tackles, he reminds me a bit of when I was managing in Scotland and Rangers signed Brian Laudrup.

“He skipped over tackles, a real crowd pleaser, but Rangers also got goals and assists and he bought into the team work ethos and that’s what Alex reminds me of.

“On paper, I’d rate him up there with the best I’ve signed. Like every top player, he has to then come and prove he is world class and take the pressure that goes with it.