Birmingham tell Villa: It's £5m to buy Eck

Birmingham have told Aston Villa to cough up £5million for manager Alex McLeish – or they will stick him on gardening leave.

City reacted furiously after Big Eck quit on Sunday in an email to St Andrew's chief Peter Pannu.

Villa broke their silence by telling Blues they want to talk to McLeish about becoming their new boss and believe they have a right to do so as he resigned.

But Birmingham insist he is still contracted to them and are mulling over injunctions and an appeal to the Premier League.

They have complained of a “conspiracy” involving their bitter local rivals and McLeish, who still had more than two years left on his contract.

They will block any move by the former Rangers and ­Scotland manager unless they receive the £5m compensation to which they insist they are entitled according to the terms of his contract.

"I don't want McLeish back," said Pannu. "If he is going to go, I want the money.

"I just got an email from Aston Villa. As expected, their legal department said, 'Now that Alex McLeish is a free agent, having resigned, we are free to speak to him.'

"He thinks he can walk away because the £5.4m compensation is too much for Villa and he cannot let this opportunity pass.

"I will be getting an injunction preventing Villa from hiring him. Either Villa pick up his tab or I will be reporting it now to the Premier League."

Birmingham are braced for a volley of counter-claims from McLeish, who thinks he has a case for constructive dismissal over interference in transfers.

A legal row looks set to rumble on - unless Villa stump up the cash quickly.

But Villa owner Randy Lerner’s decision to go for McLeish may be ­influenced by the furious ­reaction from some of the claret-and-blue faithful over his potential appointment - there is a protest planned for tonight at Villa Park.

The last manager to swap clubs in the Second City was Ron Saunders in 1982, when he quit Villa and then took over as City boss.

But former Villa gaffer Graham Taylor believes the situation involving McLeish is potentially more explosive than that one.

“It would be a brave move by Alex going to Villa," said Taylor. "The difference is, Ron had a break - when he left Villa he didn’t go straight to Birmingham.

“I think Villa had got to the quarter-finals of the European Cup by then but Ron had a fall-out with the owners.

“Under Tony Barton, Villa went on to win the European Cup, so there wasn’t that animosity.

“Now, many Villa fans would not want a Birmingham man as their manager and many Birmingham supporters might see him as a traitor.”

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McLEISH TO VILLA - THE FANS' VIEW

Villa and Birmingham supporters flocked online to give their opinion on the possibility of McLeish taking over at Villa Park...

VILLA FANS

BEN GLASS: “Villa legend for sending them down again. We don’t want boring football like that though. Look what happened to them.”

VILLAN: “Things might be bad at the moment but this would be a new low. Taking a manager from that lot? Even if he was any good I wouldn’t want him, at any price, but I am not too worried because it’s not going to happen.”

JAMES BEBBINGTON: “Are you serious?! If he comes, then Villa best refund my season ticket for next season! And I will stop going to away games, too!”

LUKE BAILEY: “I do not want a manager who has consistently been in a relegation dogfight, ­especially for Birmingham City.”

DAN HALL: “Not welcome!”

BLAKE DEVONPORT: “McLeish is the opposite to [Roberto] Martinez, who does things right. I don’t want McLeish to pull on us what he did to Blues. Its a NO.”

BIRMINGHAM FANS

JAMIE HARPER: “Alex McLeish should have gone the day we went down. Boring football, negative tactics. Aston Villa are welcome to him. I know of four friends that are now planning on renewing season tickets and celebrated his departure last night.”

KEVIN PATERSON: “Same excuses each week, very poor signings, very poor tactics. He was scared to try the youth and had no adventure. His ideas were gutless.”

WILL GOULDEN: “Ginger Judas.”

AXS SALES: “Why should we feel betrayed? This is modern-day football.”

TONY SMITH: “It’s not just relegation, its two relegations in three-and-a-half years.”

JAMES CLARK: “We seem to forget that he got us into the Europa League. If he thinks he can find a better club than City, all I can say is good luck to him.”