Tony Mowbray has warned Birmingham City off making a bid for Aiden McGeady. Blues boss Alex McLeish is believed to be preparing an £8 million offer for the Celtic winger to take him to the English Premier League, but the Hoops boss has warned the ex-Rangers boss that he would be “wasting his time”.

McGeady, 23, has been on the radar of the Midlands club for some time and they made an initial enquiry over Celtic’s valuation of the player last week. They were told then by the board that their prized asset wasn’t up for transfer and Mowbray has confirmed that stance, insisting that the Republic of Ireland international was not for sale.

With a £50 million transfer kitty to use on reinforcements, McLeish has identified a number of targets to strengthen his threadbare squad and also had a £9 million for Liverpool’s Dutch forward Ryan Babel rejected last week.

The Blues are defying expectations that they would struggle this campaign and have now gone 12 games without defeat, extending that run with an impressive showing against Manchester United in a 1-1 draw at St Andrews last weekend.

McLeish has played down supporters’ ambitions of earning a place in next season’s Europa League, saying that his team are concentrating on games on an individual basis.

Birmingham are eighth in the Premier League table – level on points with Liverpool – but need to add depth to their squad to counter the inevitable spate of injuries and suspensions that will come their way in the second half of the season.

Celtic boss Tony Mowbray remarked in December that he had no interest in selling off his best players, but admitted that a big transfer bid would potentially turn the club’s head.

He said at the time: "No one will go who we don't want to go but that has always been the case. Why would you sell your best players if they are under contract and you want to keep them and you are trying to build something?

"People can speculate all they want and it's not all bad if people want your players. If no one wants your players then it would suggest that you don't have any good ones.

"Every player has a price and if someone wants to offer us Manchester City-type money for a footballer then we would listen."