Fulham an example for Blues boss
Birmingham manager Alex McLeish wants to tread the Fulham path to establishing the club in the Premier League as the two teams prepare to go head-to-head at St Andrew's.
The Cottagers come into the game as an established top-flight outfit taking in their eighth season in the league having scaled to their highest sights yet last term, finishing seventh and qualifying for the Europa League.
Blues have been promoted and relegated in equal measure over that period, having gone up and down twice apiece since Steve Bruce led the club to mthe Premier League for the first time in 2002.
Now McLeish has the job of establishing the club at the top level, and believes Blues could do worse than take heed of the job his opposite number Roy Hodgson is doing at Craven Cottage.
The Blues boss said: "I think they're a good example of a team coming up from the Championship. They've not done it cheaply, but Roy Hodgson has organised them really well.
"We've not spent quite as much money as our competitors like Fulham but, if I can get the team to keep picking up points and then we spend some money on some new quality, perhaps we can get to the level that Fulham are."
