Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish remains determined to boost his attack in the January market.

The Mirror says a planned £4million move for Standard Liege's Milan Jovanovic has been aborted because the Serbian striker wants to run his contract out next summer.

Brum remain interested in giant forward Nikola Zigic from Valencia and Schalke hitman Kevin Kuranyi.

But McLeish said: "If we go and spend huge wages on a player or a huge transfer fee, that will only be accepted if the player takes us to another level.

"That is the difficult part, to find that player out there. I think if Lionel Messi was coming, the players might just accept that one.

"The exorbitant prices they're asking for, in terms of transfers and wages, I'm not sure I want to be accountable for that.

"We want to maintain the spirit in the dressing room, I want to enhance the quality in case we have players injured or suspended."