Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish remains hopeful of keeping on-loan Al Sadd striker Mauro Zarate.

"I think that Mauro would benefit from serving another year with the Blues, on loan preferably, I'm sure the directors would love that if we didn't have to spend a few quid," said McLeish at a Banks's celebrity football forum.

"It would represent good business," McLeish quickly qualified. "If we could do deals like that, and be as shrewd as possible, then all the better."

McLeish continued: "As usual, there's always family involved and it's all his brothers who we are hoping can see it's the right thing for Mauro.

"I certainly think he has still got a lot to learn and I hope that he can maintain the consistency of the last couple of weeks and doesn't forget the other things he's been doing, the closing down and working hard."