Brum after Balde

Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish is believed to be keen on Celtic defender Bobo Balde who has been out of favour at Celtic Park.

The 32-year-old centre back has been in and out of the Celtic side for the past 18 months and is widely rumoured to be on his way out of Gordon Strachan's side this summer.

Strachan is believed to be looking to cut his wage bill with Balde earning £30,000-a-week and this has alerted McLeish to the possiblity of signing the French centre-back.

The Birmingham manager has said he believes he needs a squad of at least 23 players to achieve promotion after losing Mikael Forssell, Mauro Zarate, Rafael Schmitz and Richard Kingston.

"At the moment we've got 20 senior players, so we want to add two or three more to take it up to 23," said McLeish.