Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish says his side will gain no advantage from the troubles that loom over Portsmouth, ahead of their Premier League fixture at St Andrew’s tonight (7.45 kick-off).
Having been forced to sell a raft of key players, with further suggestions that more squad members may be edged towards the Fratton Park exit, and continued uncertainty over Sulaiman Al Fahim’s protracted takeover, Portsmouth are very much a club in crisis.
A 1-0 defeat at home to Fulham on Saturday reinforced the belief that Pompey face a struggle this season and Birmingham will see the south coast club as a team to beat, if survival is to be achieved.
However, McLeish has warned that Paul Hart’s side won’t simply be there for the taking tonight and has highlighted the vast Premier League experience that they still have within their playing squad.
The Birmingham manager already knows from his own playing days that troubles off the field do not always permeate on to the pitch.
“I don’t know if players really get worried about that sort of stuff,” said McLeish, when asked whether this was a good time to play troubled Portsmouth.
“I know that when there was uncertainty during my Aberdeen days, with managers leaving or a new chairman coming in, we just got on with it.
“You’ve got to be professional and these guys are getting paid handsome amounts of money.
“Why should Niko Kranjcar suddenly turn into a bad player overnight? I would doubt that very much. They’ve got household names there, they’ve got more experience than us on paper. They are a Premier League side for the last seven years and we know we have to beat this Premier League side as a rookie coming up from the Championship.
“A few of our lads have got Premier League experience but probably not as much, maybe Lee Carsley and Kevin Phillips alone, as most of the Portsmouth players.”
McLeish has confirmed that he will call on the same 18 players who travelled to Old Trafford on Sunday, as Birmingham’s injury situation still hasn’t cleared, while Lee Bowyer will be forced to serve the final match of his suspension.
However, rather than the 4-5-1 formation that he operated against Manchester United, McLeish will send out a side with much more attacking intent tonight.
Birmingham are likely to field a 4-4-2 line-up with McLeish still to decide whether to hand striker Christian ‘Chucho’ Benitez his first start for the club.
Meanwhile, Birmingham appear to be closer to completing a deal for Sporting Gijon midfielder Michel for a fee of about €3 million, over spread payments.
But McLeish was yesterday playing down suggestions that the Spaniard’s transfer was imminent.
“It is premature to say we have done a deal for Michel,” he said.
“We have opened talks to see if we can do something. But the ‘i’s’ are not dotted and the ‘t’s’ are not crossed,” he said.
