Alex McLeish warns of Blues' axe

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish has warned Blues' stars they face the axe in his bid to turn the team into European contenders.

The St Andrew's boss has already splashed out £12million on striker Nikola Zigic and goalkeeper Ben Foster, backed by owner Carson Yeung's bankroll.

McLeish is expected to add to the squad, despite out of a move for Wigan's Charles N'Zogbia yesterday, with Fulham striker Bobby Zamora still rumoured to be on his wish-list.

But the manager has already released Chucho and will be ruthless with his men if they fail to impress next season.

He said: "I'm not here to be Mr Popular but we've got a good ambience at the club, a good respect for each other.

"The bottom line is I have to get results."

Competition at St Andrew's next season will be fierce, as the club try to build on finishing ninth in the Premier League.

But they won just one of their final 10 games - a slump McLeish is eager to avoid next season.

He said: "Teams can come with a strong second half - Everton for example - but you only have to look at the guys who had a great first half of the season, they do have a dip.

"Now why is that? Because people think there should be an easy solution to it but there isn't.

"It's something we will look at for the future but we also had a very tough set of fixtures in the second part of the season."