New Blues bid for Nathaniel Clyne

Birmingham have had a second bid for teenage ace Nathaniel Clyne rejected by Crystal Palace.

Blues have reportedly had an improved offer of £1.25million turned down for the defender, who rejected a move to Wolves in January.

The club leave for their pre-season tour of Hong Kong and China on Wednesday and manager Alex McLeish wants to sign more players for the trip.

But Palace are playing hardball despite their desperate financial state, having already rejected Blues' first offer of £750,000.

McLeish has vowed not to be held to ransom by clubs who know he has cash to spend having shelled out £12million on Nikola Zigic and Ben Foster, but pulling out of a move for Wigan winger Charles N'Zogbia because he believed the asking price is too high.

The manager, who has also brought in Enric Valles on a free from NAC Breda, believes he can get better bargains abroad but risks gambling on players.

He said: "There are undoubtedly good players abroad but some can be real unknown quantities and I was hoping I could stick to players I knew.

"The problem with that is in the Premier League the prices are very high. We have done Foster and Zigic and we hope we can do another couple as well.

"We are striving to improve the squad and at the same time not waste the club's money."

McLeish is doing his utmost to boost his numbers before they depart for the Far East.

He said: "We're not done yet, we're still looking to enhance the squad, which is vitally important.

"We want to bring in another couple of bodies at least.

"I've gone into training a little light as it is."