Birmingham City are set to approach the Scottish FA for permission to open talks with manager Alex McLeish.

And sources close to City are optimistic McLeish could take over at St Andrews within the next 48 hours and certainly before Sunday's Premier League clash at Tottenham.

City will have to pay around £1million in compensation to acquire the services of McLeish, who saw Scotland fall at the final hurdle in their bid to reach the Euro 2008 finals by losing at home to Italy.

But that would not be a major hurdle as they received £3million compensation from Wigan after agreeing to allow Bruce to leave with 19 months of his contract remaining.

And it is understood McLeish would more than double his current basic annual salary of around £350,000 if the move to Birmingham goes through.