McLeish abandons Samaras bid

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish has abandoned plans to sign Manchester City striker Georgios Samaras.

Blues had agreed a £2.5m fee with City for the Greek international who has had only limited opportunities under Sven-Goran Eriksson.

However, McLeish has decided to concentrate on trying to strengthen other areas of his team after signing James McFadden from Everton and Mauro Zarate on loan from Al Sadd.

He remains interested in signing Aston Villa centre-back Gary Cahill although an initial bid was rejected by Villa manager Martin O’Neill.