Vignal's regret at leaving Liverpool
Former Liverpool defender Gregory Vignal has admitted his regret at leaving Anfield ahead of his old club's visit to face Birmingham at St Andrew's.
The Frenchman has been with Blues since the summer, on a one-season loan deal from Lens in his homeland.
Blues are the fifth club the now 28-year-old has played for since cutting his ties at Anfield in the summer of 2005, initially to join Portsmouth.
The full-back joined Lens a year later but has only ever made 22 appearances for the club and was farmed out on loan to German club Kaiserslautern and Southampton during their doomed Championship campaign last season.
Vignal has led a nomadic career so far and believes his haste at leaving Liverpool could end up being a regret.
He said: "I should have stayed longer at Liverpool and been patient but, when you are young sometimes you don't realise things. I only played a few games there and when you are young, you want to play every game.
"I should have said 'Gregory, be patient, your time will come, you cannot play all the games.' When you get older, you realise that with extra experience because Liverpool are a massive club."
"Do I regret leaving? Yes. I should have never left Liverpool. After Rafael Benitez came in, I went on loan to Rangers but, when you play for a club like Liverpool, you realise how massive it is."
The former France under-21 international now appears to have found a home again at St Andrew's, having settled in enough to make three starts so far this term.
His move to Blues reunited him with manager Alex McLeish, who took the player on loan to Glasgow Rangers in 2004.
Vignal said: "I had played with the gaffer before at Rangers. He pushed me a lot. When you like and respect the manager, you want to give everything for him and he knows how to talk to me, how to push me. It's better for me because I know what he expects.
"He is very good psychologically with the players, very motivational, like he was at Rangers. People say the Scottish Premier League is easy because there are only two teams going for the title every season, but that is wrong.
"You must win every game because, if you lose one, then it can cost you the league and every other team are hard to play against, because they want to win against Celtic and Rangers.
"You have to find the motivation to get your players competitive every week in Scotland and that's what I like about the manager.
"He wants to be a winner every week and is so keen for Birmingham to do well."
