COLIN TATTUM

Staff writer

Alex McLeish has stressed that Quincy Owusu-Abeyie’s Blues exit was for the greater good.

The Blues manager opted against renewing the Ghana international winger’s loan until the season’s end.

His rationale was not just for football reasons, but down to cost. The money Blues have paid for Quincy in loan fees and wages has totted up to around £750,000.

The amount therefore saved on what Blues would have had to again pay out for Quincy can now be moved elsewhere for other transfer window targets.

“Quincy has made a contribution to the team this season,” said McLeish.

“However, after careful consideration, I believe it’s the right decision to end the loan.

“I think that with the money that will now become available, I can make the team stronger by bringing in a couple of players.

“The cost for Quincy has been quite high and I believe I can utilise what we would have committed to paying for him to improve us.”

“The scope’s there now to do a few things and the last couple of months we’ve obviously been considering where we need to get better and we’ve been doing plenty of homework on players,” added McLeish.

Blues, meanwhile, were almost left red-faced by the FA after they mistakenly informed them that Keith Fahey was banned for the rearranged FA Cup tie against Wolves.

Fahey, the £300,000 signing from St Patrick’s Athletic, had a one-match suspension hanging over him from his last days as a League of Ireland player.

He was due to serve it last Saturday, but the Blues versus Wolves game was postponed due to a frozen St Andrew’s pitch and rescheduled.

Blues were under the impression that Fahey’s suspension would kick-in on January 13, the new date of the third round match.

But the FA realised their error and contacted club secretary Julia Shelton yesterday. Instead, Fahey has to miss Saturday’s Championship fixture at Blackpool through suspension.

It has been a bizarre start to Fahey’s Blues career since the move across the Irish Sea.

The midfielder said he couldn’t wait to get going: “I’m really excited because it’s a great chance for me to push on in my career and play at a really high level which is what I’ve always wanted to do.

“You notice yourself improving each season and last season I did really well so I think with this challenge at Birmingham I’ll be able to step things up again. St Pat’s is a professional set-up and they do things right but this is a completely new level.

“The Championship is a big step up for me in terms of pace and how quickly things are done, but hopefully I can adapt sooner rather than later. You look at some of the players that have come over from the League of Ireland and are doing well over here, the likes of Kevin Doyle and Shane Long, and it does give you a bit of confidence that you can go on and improve.

“The manager has shown faith in me by bringing me here and it would be nice to repay him by working hard and doing as well as I can.”