McLeish keen to keep Nafti
Birmingham manager Alex Mcleish has held talks with Medhi Nafti over his future - and confirmed the midfielder will return to the side for Saturday’s Barclays Premier League clash with Everton.
The Blues boss played down speculation linking the Tunisia international with a move away from St Andrews.
Nafti’s current deal expires in the summer although the club have a one-year option which could be taken up on the former Racing Santander player.
McLeish said: “It’s the silly season for those type of comments (over Nafti’s future). Maybe some people are trying to unsettle others but we have an option on Mehdi.
“I’ve had pretty positive talks with Mehdi, so that kind of talk in the media doesn’t bother me.”
Nafti is set to play against David Moyes’ side, with captain Damien Johnson starting a three-game ban for his red card at Wigan last weekend.
McLeish has opted for the Johnson-Fabrice Muamba combination in the middle of the park recently but is full of praise for the attitude of Nafti.
McLeish said: “We don’t have an awful lot of options in central midfield. We are very short in that department. I tried to do something in January but to no avail.
“As a result, we’ve had three central midfielders vying for the two slots and Mehdi will come straight back in.
“We’ve had decent consistency from Jonty (Johnson) and Fabrice Muamba in terms of the job they’ve done for us but Mehdi is a model professional.
“He’s never battered down my door and said, ’why am I not playing?”’
