Martin Swain on McLeish's Blues exit

It could be Alex McLeish quit as manager of Birmingham to pursue the prospect of a job vacancy not a million miles from St Andrew's.

But behind the conspiracy theory of McLeish somehow emerging as Aston Villa's new gaffer are the signs of discontent that would have forced him out of Blues sooner rather than later.

McLeish, a proud football man, is tough enough, old enough and wise enough to deal with the new culture of owners represented by the Carson Yeung regime at Birmingham.

But you just knew that the humiliating public reaction by Yeung's main man at the club, Peter Pannu, to relegation would have strained to breaking point the Scot's sense of protocol.

Pannu said: "The board regrets relegation and feels that supporters, who have continued to back us magnificently, have been let down.

"Alex McLeish's job is safe but the board will expect him to lead the side back to the Premier League in the 2011-12 season."

Here was Pannu effectively leaving McLeish dangling on a string of one or two bad results in the Championship – and that seemed an unnecessarily humiliating display of power over a man who, despite relegation, had brought the club its first major honour a couple of months earlier.

That needled McLeish and, even as he set about re-shaping his squad for the second tier in the full knowledge that a looming firesale of some of his signings would bale out the owners from their financial predicament, ate away at his sense of pride and dignity.

This was a clash of cultures always destined to end in tears at the first downturn of events and ,whoever now steps into the post, will have to accept they work for owners who have no grounding in the traditional ways our domestic football conducts its business.

The nature of McLeish's resignation is certainly revealing. A cold e-mail instead of face-to-face, eye-to-eye contact is not the way this product of the Alex Ferguson school of football practice would normally do his business, it will be interpreted as a display of contempt for his employers.

Their treatment of his chief scout, Paul Montgomery, also enraged McLeish's sense of fairness.

The Geordie was blamed for some of the less successful signings of the relegation year – Alexander Hleb and Nikola Zigic chiefly among them – and fired, then later re-instated as a consultant when Montgomery challenged the decision.

But McLeish will have observed with a wry smile how these events were accompanied by a drip-feed from St Andrew's that Yeung himself had counselled against Zigic and Hleb, urging Blues to instead move for players who had later proved successful, led by one Peter Odemwingie.

This may be true, this may again be another display of ego by the owner.

But Yeung represents the new breed of owner sweeping into power in England's boardrooms and the clash that resulted at Birmingham will not be the last we see.

Roman Abramovich at Chelsea and Sheikh Mansour's crew at Manchester City foist signings and demands on their managers in the belief their opinion is as valid as the professionals. Yeung is no different.

Not that McLeish could avoid criticism. As much as he deserves some credit for toiling at Birmingham under two of the most interfering and difficult regimes it is possible to imagine, he will acknowledge that a relegation which could have been avoided has submerged Blues in difficulty.

That Carling Cup final triumph took its toll on the team's focus and, by the time they got it back, it was too late – McLeish must accept that.

Although the Yeung clan never delivered on the ridiculous promises they made on purchase about money for transfers, they still handed McLeish a bigger budget than his predecessor Steve Bruce enjoyed.

Figures from Deloitte confirmed Blues also paid out considerably more than Wolves and Albion.

At the moment, McLeish's actions appear to have enraged all corners of the Second City community.

It's what McLeish leaves behind that is of more significance to Blues fans.

A new team will have to be built, which may delay the return to the Premier League demanded by the owners. That they may not have the patience to recognise this could be a problem for his successor and at the heart of his resignation.

By Martin Swain